Page 1 of Always Be My Baby

Girard

Marilee shifted in the bed; her shiny, chestnut hair spread out over her pillow, exposing her creamy bare shoulder as she continued to sleep. Even with the good insulation, I heard the wind whipping outside. It shook the house and rattled the window panes.

I didnotwant to get out of this big, comfortable bed, considering the woman who’d been warming it for the past month lay completely naked under the comforter. Everything she’d worried about when I’d told her I wanted to date simply never happened.

Yes, I’d been her executive chef at The Bell Jar Bistro for the last couple of years, but I managed the kitchen. Aside from our short pre-service meetings where we discussed menu specials and budgets, we simply didn’t see each other, other than in passing. She worried that working together and spending our free time together would get to be too much. That we’d start picking on each other. Taking each other’s ideas for granted. She worried that the staff wouldn’t respect her as the owner and general manager if they knew we were dating.

Not a one of our employees looked at her with anything less than respect. Not that I’d tell her this, but many of them got along better with her now. She seemed to be more personable, even though she’d been plenty personable before. Maybepersonablewasn’t the right word.Relatable, maybe?

We had about fifteen minutes before the alarm went off. She and I had kept a rather late night last night. I eased out from beneath the blankets in order to not wake her and slipped on my sleep pants and T-shirt. Floyd’s ears perked right up. He sprang to his feet and I had to shush the lumbering guy. Thankfully, Lee had gotten used to the noises a fully-grown chocolate lab made in the morning and was able to sleep through them. That was aside from the occasions when Floyd decided he wanted Lee taking him out, which hadn’t happened in a while. He and I had an agreement that he seemed to be sticking to.

Marilee Bell took care of everyone. From the time she’d turned ten years old. Now it was her turn to be taken care of—by me and Floyd. He got it.

Floyd followed me out to the living room, where I cracked open one of the french doors to allow him to run outside in the fenced-in backyard. The wind blew hard enough this morning to pick up the freshly fallen top layer of snow making it appear like we had a heavy fog, when in reality, it was snow not allowed to settle. To say I was damn happy for the invention of indoor plumbing on mornings like this—that was an understatement of epic proportions. My nubs would shrivel down to nothingness if I had to pee outside like Floyd. After several minutes, he ended his morning constitutional, bolting back inside with me.

First things first, I got the coffee going. Then I walked over to the pantry where I kept some of my pans and all of my bakeware on one shelving unit and dried or canned goods on the opposite. Planning out the breakfast I intended to make in my head, I neglected to see Floyd in the pantry with me eager to help and as I spun around, I tripped, completely face-planting like an idiot. The sheet pan clanked loudly against the floor.

It took me a second to push up from the ground because there was a highly remorseful boy shoving his cold, wet nose in my face, apologizing the only way he could. I scratched him behind the ears.

“C’mon, buddy. Let’s go make Lee Breakfast.”

He woofed his response, tail wagging. Before leaving the pantry, I gathered the other items I needed and walked out to see Lee standing at the entrance to the hallway in one of my tees. Just a classic white Hanes V-neck. But god, she took my breath away. She owned several pieces of sexy lingerie that became the start to some fantastic evenings. Lee’s body—whoa!Shakespeare would’ve written sonnets devoted to it, had he known her. Botticelli would’ve devoted several panel paintings to her beauty. Lee curved everywhere a man craved curves. But there was something so…primalabout seeing her standing there with mostly sleep-mussed hair, only mostly because I had a hand in helping the muss, and my shirt. It turned even the most logical “woke” man into a caveman. “You’re being loud. Something drop?” she asked.

“Yeah, me,” I answered.

Her eyes grew wide. “Oh honey, are you okay?”

“Am now. Floyd took care of me. It was a close call, but I think I’ll survive.”

She walked to join me in the kitchen, wrapping those comforting arms around me, pressing a kiss to my cheek first. Lee’s unique scent of vanilla, laundry detergent and even a lingering sex smell drove me out of my mind. I breathed her in, letting a lascivious smile spread over my face.

“Wrong spot,” I told her right before giving her a full-on ‘good morning’ kiss.

“Come back to bed,” she whispered after our kiss had ended. “You can show me everywhere it hurts and I’ll make you feel better.”

That was an offer I planned to take her up on, just not yet. “You go on back to bed, sweetheart. I’ll be there in a few. There’ll be a lot of pain for you to ease.”

“Okay,” she said through that sexy smirk of hers, then she kissed me one more time before turning to go back to bed. God, I loved that woman. Bone-deep loved her.

Once the stuffed, baked french toast was in the oven, I turned to the turkey bacon that Lee was so fond of and the fluffy scrambled eggs. As Floyd continued his sous chef duties this morning, he taste-tested the bacon and eggs for me, then once I pulled the pan from the oven, I put a tray together of coffee, the french toast, eggs, and meat to walk into the bedroom where Lee had fallen back asleep.

“Rise and shine, sweetheart,” I said.

One of her eyes cracked open until she spied the tray in my hand and both eyes opened wide as she pushed herself up in the bed, shoving the hair from her face. “You spoil me, Girard,” she said, taking the tray from me. As she eyed what I’d prepared, her whole face lit up, glowing with warmth and love. “Thank you.”

“Eat,” I ordered. “I’ll be back in a second.” Then I ran to the kitchen to get my tray. Floyd, continuing his job as the dutiful helper, jogged along with me. He’d received his quota of human food for the day; however, I stuck my hand in the jar filled with his treats and tossed him a couple before getting my breakfast.

Lee threw back the covers on the bed, allowing me to crawl in next to her. She flipped them back while I held my tray up, then we both settled into eating. “Not that I mind being the luckiest girl in the state of Michigan,” she started before pausing to take a sip of her coffee. “But what’s got you excited enough to make breakfast in bed?”

That was a good question. She’d started spending her nights here since the night some asshat creep who currently sat in jail, unable to make bond, while he waited for his court date, attacked her. That night could’ve ended so much worse than it did. But since that next morning, we’d always made breakfast together.

I had a good reason to go off course. Part of spoiling Lee meant getting the woman who’d refused to take a vacation since opening the restaurant away for a weekend. I wasn’t naïve enough to believe I could get her away for a week or two, not just yet. I’d have to work up to it. She needed to see that The Bell Jar wouldn’t implode and be run out of business if she let someone else take the reins for short periods of time.

“Today is training day,” I said, shoving a bite of delicious french toast in my mouth. Today we brought up a few employees, training them to take on additional responsibilities. These were the people who’d allow me to eventually whisk Lee away for a reprieve from our day to day responsibilities. A romantic reprieve.

“You’re excited for me… forthat?” She tilted her head to stare assessingly at me through narrowed eyes, as if she didn’t quite believe me. I saw it in her eyes, the moment she decided that no, she didn’t believe. Lee pursed her lips giving off that ‘bitch, please’ vibe. She could ‘bitch please’ me all she wanted, but I wasn’t lying. I didn’t lie as a general rule, but especially not to Lee. I simply shrugged. She shook her head, waving away my apparent stupidity. “You know I don’t do happy this early,” she said, letting whatever her earlier conclusions were go. “I haven’t had near enough coffee.”

“Then drink up. There’s plenty more where that came from.”

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