Page 42 of Knot Their Girl
I don’t remember why we didn’t go to bed last night, why we stayed out here and laid on the uncomfortable stone patio all night. Strangely enough, my body doesn’t feel too bad.
Though I’m the opposite of a morning person, falling back asleep is impossible, so I carefully get up, moving slowly so as to not wake Raeka. As I get to my feet, I keep the blanket wrapped tightly around my body, making sure to keep my arms beneath it and hug it around me like a cape. It’s hard to balance keeping the blanket so tight around me and grabbing and holding onto my tablet.
I don’t like showing my scars, for reasons that should be obvious.
Into the house I go, where I find my uncle in the kitchen, making himself some coffee. I freeze when I see him, knowing he already heard me. A few seconds later, he turns toward me, holding a cup of steaming coffee. He’s just as put-together as he always is, wearing black pants and a long-sleeved, button-down shirt neatly tucked into the waistband of said pants, a black leather belt completing the ensemble.
“I see you and Raeka got comfortable last night,” he remarks, eyeing up the blanket I currently hold around my shoulders, my arms tucked beneath it.
All I can do is nod. I really want to ask him about the blanket, but I need to throw on another hoodie. It’s a weird thing, to not be comfortable in your own skin, even weirder that you’re uncomfortable in your own skin simply because of things you did to it in the past.
“You want breakfast?” he asks me. “Usually you’re not awake this early, but I can cook up some eggs if you want.”
My first instinct is to shake my head no and race upstairs—the only place I truly feel at ease anymore. But, after last night, I find I’m oddly calm, and I’m giving my uncle a nod before I realize it.
As Gideon goes to do just that, I head upstairs to change. I don’t shower. I just throw on a different hoodie and abandon the blanket in my bedroom. I’m about to head back downstairs when I spot my tablet resting on the edge of my bed; I should get in the habit of keeping it with me now that Raeka’s in the house. I have a phone, but I don’t use it much. I prefer the keyboard on my tablet screen, with bigger buttons, when I have to type things out.
So, before I return to the kitchen, I make sure to grab the tablet.
When I make it back to the kitchen, I find my uncle already in the process of whisking up some eggs. He watches as I set the tablet down, eventually asking, “Did you have fun?” He must mean with Raeka last night, even if he’s not specific about it.
I’m not someone who enjoys telling my uncle he was right, but I can’t lie about it, either. I tell him,Yes. She’s… not what I expected.
He chuckles softly and nods once as he turns to the stovetop and pours the whisked eggs onto a pan. The now-empty bowl goes into the sink, and then he grabs a spatula. “There’s definitely nothing typical about that one, no.” The way he says it, the tone in his voice; I think I detect a hint of admiration—or maybe it’s something else.
I don’t say anything more until my uncle slides a plate of steaming hot scrambled eggs in front of me, complete with a fork. Before I go for the food, I sign,When did you come out last night? I didn’t hear you.
“You mean the blanket?” Gideon asks as he leans against the opposite side of the small island. “It wasn’t me.” He grabs his coffee and takes a long sip as the realization dawns on me.
If it wasn’t him, that must mean it was Pax.
I should feel something about that, shouldn’t I? After all, I don’t really know Pax. Heck, I should probably be more annoyed at what happened between him and Raeka downtown yesterday, but I’m not.
I haven’t really spoken to Pax that much, for obvious reasons, but he doesn’t strike me as the type of guy whose first instinct it is to take care of others. From what I understand he’s a lone wolf, and lone wolves are in it for nobody but themselves.
“When Raeka wakes up,” my uncle says, “I’m going to have a meeting with her and Pax—unless you’ve changed your mind and decided you want him gone?”
No. The choice should be hers.That’s something my uncle and I agree on when it comes to Pax. If she feels comfortable around him, who am I to tell him to get the hell out of here? Besides, it’s sort of nice to know there’s another alpha in the house who’ll look out for us, even if we are technically paying him.
The house feels safer. More secure. More… full. It’s not a bad thing.
It’s as if the alpha in question heard us talking about him, because he strolls into the kitchen at that exact moment, making a beeline for the coffee maker. My uncle is old-fashioned when it comes to coffee; that, or he just drinks too damn much of it, especially when he’s on a deadline. He doesn’t have one of those Keurig things. He still has the same coffee maker he’s had since I started living with him, one that can make multiple cups of coffee at once and keep it warm all day.
Pax grabs a mug for himself and pours himself a cup, and when he turns around, he finds both me and Gideon watching him. His green gaze flicks between us once, then twice, and then he takes a slow sip, not saying a single word. Both he and my uncle apparently like their coffee black. No sugar, no cream, nothing to make that bitter taste bearable.
I know, gross.
Tell him,I sign to my uncle,thank you.
“Colter wants to thank you for the blanket last night,” Gideon tells him, to which Pax only shrugs.
Can you give us the room?I ask my uncle. I know Gideon already spoke to Pax about what happened yesterday, but I think I want to talk to him about it, too, and I want to do it without my uncle playing interpreter.
Gideon nods once. With his coffee mug in hand, he leaves the kitchen, thereby leaving me alone with Pax for what might be the first time.
I set my fork down and go to unlock my tablet’s screen. It’s already on the note app from last night, so all I have to do is delete everything I typed out to Raeka and then I’m clear to write something to Pax:My uncle told me what happened between you and Raeka yesterday.I turn the tablet around so he can read the screen from where he stands.
After he reads it, he holds my stare with an intensity I’m not used to; I suppose my uncle really is a laid-back alpha. Pax is definitely more stereotypical all around. Bigger, more bulky, oozing a type of dominance I could never. “Things got out of hand. It shouldn’t have progressed like that. It won’t happen again.” He says pretty much the exact same thing Raeka did, and just like her, he sounds as if he genuinely believes he can stop himself from doing it again.
