Page 12 of Only Temporary

Wow. Kill me now.

He’s still watching me carefully, his cologne invading my nostrils and doing nothing to help the stupid words coming from my mouth because God, he smells good.

“Okay,” he says simply, and I make my escape from the room, trying to get my mouth not to open and say more things like that.

“There’s only one bathroom,” he says like I’m going to deduct points for that.

He points to the room across the hall with the door open. I walk into the empty bathroom, just to take a quick look. “That’s fine. You might need to make a shower schedule. Mornings can get hectic.”

He nods, his handsome face looking far too grim.

“It’s going to be okay,” I try to reassure him.

“Sure,” he says and then walks down the hall, where I follow him into the bare living room. Well not totally bare. There’s a sofa and a small television mounted to the wall. All four kids are on the sofa, looking pretty wary.

“Not too shabby, huh?” I try, walking further into the room to stand before them.

Four sets of eyes lock on me, not a single smile. All just as grim as their brother. “Do you even have Wi-Fi?” Raegan asks her brother, who’s moved to stand next to me.

“I’ll... uh... I’ll get it,” he stutters and another eye roll for him.

“There are plenty of ways to entertain yourselves, I’m sure,” I try to help, but all the kids look bored out of their minds.

“I’ll figure it out, guys, okay?” Kellan offers.

“Whatever. Not like this will last very long anyway.” Cason gets up from the couch. “No way you don’t screw this up within a week.”

He leaves, and Braylen looks up at Kellan from the couch. “Do you at least have something to eat?”

He looks pale again as his eyes dart to the kitchen and then back at me. “I’ll go shopping. Okay? I promise. Uh...” He looks panicked. “I didn’t have a chance to do that this morning.”

“It’s okay,” I say for what feels like the hundredth time. “I know that.”

He nods, but he hasn’t relaxed. “I’ll order pizza. How about that?”

Braylen just shrugs his little arms, looking out the glass door that I’m assuming goes to the backyard. “Okay. Can I go outside?”

Kellan nods. “Yeah, just, um, stay in the backyard.”

Kieran snorts, like it’s a ridiculous rule, and I’m sure these kids aren’t really used to those. He follows Braylen into the backyard, and Kellan looks to Raegan.

“What kind of pizza do you like?”

“Gross.” She scrunches her nose up with all the attitude. “Do you know how many calories are in one slice of pizza?”

Kellan looks at her, his brow furrowed. “You’re stick thin. I think you can have a piece of pizza.”

Whoops. Wrong thing to say.She jumps up, one hand on her hip. “What the hell does that mean?”

“What?” Poor guy looks totally lost.

“Are you saying I have a boy body or something? I’m too skinny? Who says that?” Her voice has gone shrill, and Kellan looks horrified.

“I didn’t mean it like that... I just meant you can stand to gain some pounds.”

I wince again, even before the teenage girl turns into a demon and screeches loudly, shredding my ear drums before she hauls ass out of the living room. Kellan’s eyes meet mine, and the poor guy really has no idea what just happened.

I’m not going to be the one to tell him that he’ll likely experience a lot of that. “What. The. Fuck?”

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