Page 117 of Breaking Free

He shrugged that off. “I was up. Are you okay?”

“Yeah, but this guy is still exploring and he’s exceptionally good at getting into trouble.”

She scratched the cat behind the ear. He loved it, closing his eyes and purring, and Tristan could understand why. He liked it when Piper scratched his beard and petted him, too.

“He broke the handle off a coffee cup,” she said, explaining the crash. “It was the one with the dinosaur. I’ll replace it, though it might take a while to find one just like it.”

He located it on the counter. It had a bright-green cartoon dinosaur and read,Unclesaurus - like a regular uncle but more rawrsome.AJ had given it to him a few years back during his T-Rex everything phase.

He waved it off, although he’d kept it because he kept everything AJ gave him. “Don’t worry about it. I’ve got more mugs than I need.”

“Oh, but this one had to be special. It’s signed and dated on the bottom. Who’s AJ?”

“An old friend’s son,” he said haltingly.

“You must be close for him to call you Unclesaurus,” she teased.

Looking to change the subject fast, he came up behind her and slid his arms around her waist. Jaxx issued an abrupt meow of annoyance at his snuggle time being interrupted and jumped down. Tristan was happy to take his place and nuzzled his own furry face against her neck.

“Couldn’t sleep?” he asked, lips brushing her fragrant skin.

She squirmed as though it tickled but didn’t pull away. “Actually, I slept like a baby. After not feeling like eating yesterday, my empty, growling stomach woke me, and all I could think about was a big stack of pancakes. They’ll be done in a jiff.”

“I have pancake mix?” he said, completely shocked.

She turned, flashing him a smile. “No, you had the ingredients for me to make them. I even found blueberry syrup.”

“Thank my housekeeper. I had no clue.”

“Full or half stack?” she asked.

“Load me up, and I need coffee.”

“That’s ready too,” she said, turning back to the stove, appearing charmingly domestic with a kitchen towel thrown over her shoulder. Another nod to his housekeeper. He didn’t know he owned kitchen towels. Moments later, she carried two plates to the already set table, one heaped with at least six pancakes, the other with a third of that.

He could get used to this. With his nightmare still fresh in his mind, the question was, should he? He needed to talk to someone who knew how he felt, but he hated to leave her. Except, she wasn’t subdued like yesterday and more like her usual sunny self.

While she slathered butter and syrup on her pancakes, she asked, “How long before the police are done at my condo, do you think?”

“It’s hard to say. I’ll call and ask.”

“While you’re at work, Josie is coming over. She has a spa basket and is going to pamper me. I’d go over there, but I’m not up to running into Hunter and talking about it.” Her gaze rose to his. “Is that okay? If she comes over, I mean.”

“It’s fine. I want you to make yourself at home here and do what you have to do to recover.”

“Recover,” she repeated with a little laugh. “I don’t know if that’s possible after such a thing. It might be easier if you asked me to lasso a tornado.”

Maybe not so sunny. He leaned across the table and grabbed her hand. “Do you need to talk to someone?”

“You mean a professional?” She shook her head when he nodded. “Probably someday, but not yet. The thing that helped the most was you holding me and reassuring me I was safe when thoughts of you-know-who crept in.”

“After we found Axyl knocked out, and I knew you were unprotected... Well, let’s just say it helped me to hold you, too.”

“How do you deal with this kind of thing all the time?” She peered at him closely. “Doyouneed to talk to someone?”

“Probably.” He left off the someday because once Josie arrived, he planned to make that happen today.

Just then, a knock sounded.

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