Page 34 of Coiled Tight
Points for me for not saying snacks. And for redirecting the conversation before I could think about how that was such a Little thing to do and say.
I already had a soft spot for the guy; that didn’t mean I should make it any softer on purpose.
“Um. I’m good. I baked brownies. They’re in the cooler thingy in the back.”
The fuck?
“I thought that fridge was for drinks.”
I knew I had tasked him with it and told him to fill it with bottles of water. I hadn’t even considered he’d try to sneak anything else.
“There’s water too!” he protested. “But, did you want melted brownies? Or salmonella? I’m pretty sure you can’t get salmonella after they’ve been in the oven, but still. I’m not apologizing because I didn’t want brownies that I put a lot of thought into baking go bad.”
Of course he wasn’t.
“When did you even have time to make them?”
“Last night. I couldn’t sleep.”
I blinked at the matter-of-fact tone. And the fact that he apparently hadn’t slept, but he hadn’t stopped talking for longer than two minutes since I’d found him prepping breakfast in the kitchen. Back then, I’d only thought that it was a lost cause and he’d just taken over the kitchen fully. I hadn’t stopped to wonder how come he was not only awake before me, but ready to go and looking as perky as could be.
“Okay.”
The fuck else was I supposed to say?
Maybe I hadn’t gotten as much rest as I should have, either. I was clearly not acting myself.
“Cam?”
Fuck.
It had taken the guy hours before he’d fallen asleep. We were supposed to take turns, but I braced for the part of the journey that was supposed to have him behind the wheel because that apparent lack of sleep turned me into a damn fool who couldn’t bear the thought of waking him up when he looked so damned relaxed andsoft.
I couldn’t not wake him up now, though, when I’d already parked the truck in front of one of the motels we were spending the night in. I considered heading to the reception desk to grab the key for one of the rooms with twin beds I always got when driving with someone else, but discarded the idea soon after. I could only imagine Cam’s very clear anxiety if he woke up suddenly, not knowing where he was, in an empty truck.
There was no way out of it. Waking him, that was.
I had to call his name twice more before he twitched a muscle, shuffling for a few seconds before he started to force his eyes open.
“Shit.” He rubbed the sleep off his eyes, cheeks reddening as he took in his surroundings. “Where?—”
“Motel for the night,” I answered before he had to figure out how to formulate the question. “Come on, I could use a shower.”
“Um.” Cameron’s eyes looked extra weary under the neon lights of the motel signs. “Sure. Wasn’t I supposed to drive here?”
“You can do it tomorrow.”
My back would probably thank me if I could lean the passenger seat down and get a bit of rest.
Just thinking about it had me itching to crack my neck. The last time I’d done it in front of Cam, though, he’d freaked the fuck out.
“Okay.” Cam yawned as he stretched, his shirt riding upbecause my life was soon becoming some weird porn video with all the tropes it could manage to fit in it. “You shower first, I call dibs on the bed closest to a window.”
I wasan omen of bad luck, wasn’t I? At the very least, I had developed some kind of mental powers I didn’t possess before.
“It’s okay!” Cam shrieked as he did when his anxiety started getting the better of him, but he tried to act all sunshine instead of leaving everyone to see his inside mess. It didn’t quite work, but it was easy to see the patterns. “We’re adults. We can share. And the double bed is big, right? And if there are extra pillows, I can build a?—”
“We’ll figure it out, thanks,” I raised my voice over Cam’s because I couldn’t see a scenario where he hadn’t been about to slip up and say he could build a pillow fort, and there was no way he’d survive the shock once the old woman behind the reception desk asked follow-up questions. “Breakfast is included, right?”
