Page 24 of Holiday on the Rocks
“I’m just worried about you being all alone.”
“Evan has a cousin who got here the same day I did.” I smiled at the memory of sleeping Levi with his messy hair and those pillow lips that did a little cha-cha through my frontal lobe. Yes, as much as I’d fought it, those lips were burned into my brain like a tattoo.
“And he’s been nice? What’s his name?”
A little horn blew in my mind.
“Shoot, my phone’s going to die. When do you think you’ll get here?”
“I’m hopeful in the next day or so.”
“Love you. And Emily says to get your butt to the church to decorate this morning.”
“I will.”
“Bye-bye, babe.”
I applied the ointment I was given at the ER to my stitches and popped two more pain reliever tablets before hopping in the shower with Levi on my mind.
I pulled on my favorite jeans that make my bum look nice, white tee, and topped it off with the Nike black zippy jacket I found thrifting. Score for me.
I put some gel in my hair to tame my curls and then spent thirty minutes getting the natural look with my make-up.
I bopped down the stairs and let my eyes take in the beautiful Christmas tree in front of the window while I’m dreaming of a White Christmas softly filled the room from some invisible speaker somewhere.
As I entered the kitchen the aroma of bacon gave me a hug, and the sight of Levi made me want to hurdle the center island and give him a hug. Stop!
“Hey.” His hair was damp from a shower. A shower where his muscular chest that was holding up his shirt would have had hot, steamy water running over it.
He wore black joggers and an Adidas Blue sweatshirt that made his eyes pop. “You still only like boring scrambled eggs with zero cheese or veggies?”
He remembered. “Yup.”
“You picky eaters.”
“I don’t want to be picky; it’s just the way I’m wired.” I gave a nod. “Proud to say I still eat from the kids menu.”
“Really? The kids menu?” He slid a plate to me.
“First of all, it’s an economically sound choice and most people don’t think I’m too weird. Nothing makes me happier than a simple grilled cheese and fries.”
“Kind of comforting to know some things never change.”
The words hung in the air, and I forced out a weird fake cough.
“Uh, I have to go do church decorating for Emily. It figures all the work will fall on me today. Do you think I could borrow your SUV?” My entire being felt all twirly. I didn’t know how to not hate Levi. It’d been a solid seven years, and now we were kind of people who talked to one another?
“I can help.” He used the spatula to push some eggs onto my plate.
“It’s okay, you just stay here.” I needed to not have him close to me, bad idea. Why are the bad ideas always the fun ones to think about?
“I’ve got nothing but time, and we both know I have killer holiday decorating skills.”
“Really, I’m fine doing this myself.” My eyes dropped to my plate. “Yes, I’ll do it.”
I took a bite of the fluffy scrambled eggs and OMG; flipping fantastic. They didn’t even need salt, they were perfectly perfect. I took another bite as a few pieces of bacon were dropped on my plate. I took a taste and wondered how in hell he had perfected bacon; crispy but not too crispy. Was it just this slice? I ate another and another to find out all the slices were perfect; yummy to the core. Had he taken a class? Become a chef? I had no flippin’ clue, but wow.
I looked up mid-chew to find Levi leaning on the counter thoroughly amused as I had shoved his delectable breakfast into my mouth at record speed. My cheeks were hot as I swallowed and flashed a weak smile.
