Page 13 of Unexpectedly Wanted
“Goodnight, boyfriend,” he said in a playful tone.
I snorted and shook my head, and this time the smile did slip free.
“Sleep well, boyfriend,” I said back. After another beat of silence, I couldn’t help but add the words he’d probably been waiting all day to hear. “Thank you.”
5
Remy
After a crap night’s sleep, I woke to an empty bed. I couldn’t decide if that was a good thing or not. I felt kinda bad knowing that Milo had gotten as little sleep as I had. After all, he’d been the reason I hadn’t gotten much. The guy was a wiggle worm. He never seemed to settle. And though we’d spent the night in silence after we’d said goodnight, I knew he had been awake until the wee hours of the morning. I’d only gotten about three hours myself, my body having decided that it was done with whatever the hell was going on beside me and shut the fuck down.
A huge yawn escaped me as I scrubbed my hands over my face. I wasn’t looking forward to getting out of bed, that was for sure. But I did, first rolling over and reaching for my crutches that I had stored under the bed. I made my way to the bathroom, noticing that there was still a trace of steam and humidity lingering in the air. He’d showered and I hadn’t even noticed. I must have slept hard those few hours I’d gotten. It was so unlike me not to wake up at every little sound, especially in an unfamiliar place.
With a sigh, I maneuvered myself into the tub. It looked as if Milo had moved my stool out to use the shower and then put it back in for me. I suppose I should have warned him, but no sense in dwelling on that now.
I thought back to the night before. How he’d almost seemed surprised when I’d gotten ready for bed. But he hadn’t been freaked out or disgusted. I felt this sense of hesitation coming from him, but I hadn’t been sure what it was about. I wish I’d just asked him, but everything was already so incredibly tense that I didn’t want to add more strain to the air between us. I wished we’d had time to talk a little bit more. I suppose I only had myself to blame, since it wasn’t like I prepared him for this.
Honestly, I was still a little shocked and confused about how I’d gotten here.
As I situated myself in the shower and got the water going, I thought back to the resigned tone of Milo’s voice when I’d heard him talking to his mother.
Yep, that was what had done it.
I couldn’t explain why I felt this need to step in. It wasn’t like I’d had a string of boyfriends that I’d been the big protector for. In fact, the few relationships that I’d had in my adult life had been with men that were what I would call on even ground, I guess. They hadn’t needed me, and I hadn’t needed them. At least not like I felt the way Milo had needed for someone to step in and shield him.
I snorted at the thought. Milo would attempt to kill me with a glare if he were inside my head right now.
With much hesitation, I rushed through my morning routine, making sure I was ready for the day, whatever that may have meant, before I headed downstairs. I assumed that Milo’s parents had some sort of idea about spending time with him… us. His mother had made it seem like she expected him to be at her beck and call while she was here.
Milo was sitting at the table in the breakfast nook of the kitchen, his parents taking up the seats on the other side. He looked miserable.
“You haven’t eaten yet, babe?” I asked, having noticed there wasn’t so much as a plate in front of him. His parents looked as if they’d helped themselves to the bagels I’d brought over, as well as the cream cheese.
At least they had made coffee.
I poured two cups, pausing for a moment when I realized that I had not one fucking clue how Milo took his coffee. And the more I thought about it, the harder it became to try to recall if I’d ever seen him with a cup. Come to think of it, I’d had to bring my coffee maker over here since I hadn’t found one in his kitchen. But given the fact that Milo actually had very little in his kitchen, I figured he just didn’t do a lot of eating or drinking at home.
He sucked down those energy drinks constantly. Those were usually full of sugar to drown out the horrible taste. I hated those things, and just the thought of them made me shudder. By that, I assumed Milo probably liked a lot of sugar. And probably some milk to cut through the bitter taste of the coffee. So that was what I did, mixing his until it was creamy and had enough sugar in it that I could probably let go of the spoon and it would remain standing straight up.
I brought the cups over to the table and took a seat beside Milo. Like yesterday at lunch, I leaned over and placed a kiss on his cheek, only now realizing that he hadn’t actually answered me on whether or not he’d eaten yet.
He swallowed hard as I leaned back after the kiss. I’d been smart enough to keep it super brief this time, not wanting to get caught up in his smell again. Which, now that I was thinking about it, seemed to waft into my nose and do things to me that had no place here.
God, how was it that I’d worked with this man for four years and never noticed how good he smelled?
Milo’s eyes bounced from his mother to his father. Then they dropped to the cup of coffee in front of him. He reached for it, closing his eyes rather tightly as he tilted the cup to his lips and nearly chugged it like it was one of those energy drinks.
“Want me to make you some breakfast?” I asked, reminding him that he’d completely ignored the question before.
“No,” he said shortly.
This wasn’t going to work if he was going to keep icing me out like this. We’d never make for a convincing couple.
His father eyed us, and I flashed the man a smile and a shrug, as if to say,“that’s just Milo.”
“I have to get to work,” Milo said, pushing away from the table. The legs of the chair scraped along the tile floor, causing me to wince.
“Heavens, Milo. Must you be so rude?” Lorna scolded with a shake of her head. “I thought we’d—”
