Page 13 of Cole

Sometimes when their parents were away, Benji would come and stay with her instead of staying at the big house with Andrew. It wasn’t uncommon for their dad to not be around. His base of operations was in New York City, so he stayed there most of the time. Their mom—actually, her step-mom—usually spent every other week in a month in New York, then the rest of the time in Serenity.

This time around, however, their mom would be gone for a bit longer as she accompanied Annie’s dad on a trip through Europe and Asia.

Benji had spent the night with her, so she needed to get up and make some breakfast for them. The housekeeper would make them breakfast if they went to the main house, but Annie had let her know the previous night that she’d take care of Benji for breakfast.

With a sigh, she flipped the comforter off and sat up, swinging her legs over the edge of the bed. She was definitely not a morning person, and if Benji wasn’t around, she’d have lingered longer in her bed.

Once she was on her feet, she propelled herself into her spacious bathroom. She quickly did her morning routine, then pulled on a pair of leggings and a T-shirt. After gathering her hair up into her go-to messy bun, she grabbed her phone and headed down to the main floor.

“Morning, sis,” Benji said from where he sat on a bar stool at the island counter with a mug. “I made the coffee.”

“Thanks, sweetie.” Annie took a mug off the hooks where several were hanging next to the coffeepot. She went to the fridge and pulled out the jug of chocolate milk. After filling the mug almost halfway, she put it in the microwave to heat it up.

“Do you want pancakes or French toast for breakfast?” she asked as she waited for her chocolate milk to heat.

“French toast.”

“Sounds good.” She retrieved her mug from the microwave, then removed the carafe from the machine. Once she’d topped up the mug with coffee, she returned the carafe to its place. “Do you have any plans for today?”

Benji lifted his mug and took a sip of his coffee—no doubt loaded with flavored cream and sugar. Her preference was a mocha. Half chocolate and half coffee. It was her main indulgence for sweetness.

“I’m going to see if Andrew will drive me to the rink to watch Amelia practice,” he said.

“Is she training with Lexi?” Annie asked as she cracked a couple of eggs into a wide, flat bowl. She added a bit of cream, then sprinkled some cinnamon into the liquid and whisked it together.

“Yep. She has a competition coming up in a few weeks, so she’s practicing a lot.”

Annie removed several slices of bread from her breadbox. It was bread that their housekeeper had made, and it was delicious. “Will you being there be a distraction?”

She turned on the griddle portion of her stove to heat, glancing over at her brother when he didn’t reply right away.

“Is it wrong to say that I hope she’d be distracted by me being there?” Benji asked, his brows lifted over his light blue eyes.

Annie chuckled. “Yes. It’s wrong, but I understand what you’re saying. Did she ask you to come?”

“Yes. She told me what time she was going to be practicing.”

“Then I guess it’s okay for you to go,” Annie said as she put two pieces of batter-soaked bread onto the heated griddle.

“Do you want to drive me?” Benji asked. “Or should I ask Andrew?”

They had a brief discussion about the time and Annie’s schedule, then she agreed to take him. Maybe she’d even hang around and watch Amelia skate.

She’d always enjoyed watching skating competitions on television, but she hadn’t given much thought to the practicalities of being a skater, and the work that went into competing at higher levels. After Lexi had spoken to her about making an outfit for Amelia, Annie had thought more often about the sport.

“First, though,” she said as she slipped the two cooked French toast pieces onto a plate and slid it over to Benji. “Breakfast, and then I need to prepare orders for mailing out this morning.”

“I’ll let Andrew and Dawn know,” Benji said. “Hope Jude doesn’t tell me we can’t go.”

“He won’t,” Annie said confidently. “I talked to Dad about loosening the security just a little.”

“Really?” Benji asked as he lifted a forkful of French toast to his mouth. “Jude doesn’t strike me as a loose person when it comes to security issues.”

“You’re right, he’s not. But I feel like the security team has equipped us both with the skills to take care of ourselves, if necessary. So we don’t need to be so confined.”

“But we’ll still have babysitters.” Benji rolled his eyes. “It’s so ridiculous.”

“It could be worse,” Annie told him. “You could be kept under lock and key.”

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