Page 14 of Breaking the Rules
He shot her a look. “You’ve lost weight, and you’ve exhausted yourself. You can eat some goddamn eggs.”
She paused, debated, and then pulled eggs out of the fridge. She added the package of bacon and loaf of bread to the pile.
The coffeemaker burbled to life, and Xavier moved around her to get to the stove. Waverly dug the toaster out from its cupboard.
“Remember the last time we made breakfast together?” he asked, setting a skillet on a warm burner.
“Don’t.” Waverly put the bread down. “You don’t get to reminisce about the good old days because they stopped being good to me.”
He pulled the skillet off the burner and set it aside. Xavier cornered her against the counter and rested his hands on her hips. “Waverly, I’m sorry.”
“Is sorry supposed to make it all right?”
“No, but it’s a start. Or it will be if you stop being so stubborn and just deal with the fact that I’m back.”
“Deal with… you show up here five years after walking out and blackmail me into letting you stay!” She was good and pissed, and damn if it didn’t feel good to feel something.
He grinned down at her.
“What? What the hell is so amusing?”
“Nice to see you again, Angel.”
“Ugh,” she groaned and pushed him away. “Look I’m rusty. I haven’t had too many assholes to fight with since you left, and my verbal sparring sucks before coffee. And I can’t form a coherent argument with you shirtless.”
“I purposely didn’t put a shirt on.”
“Go back to your eggs,” she said with a roll of her eyes.
“I think you meanoureggs,” he teased. But he obliged by putting the pan over the flame.
“When did you get to be so chipper in the mornings?” she asked, slamming slices of bread into the toaster.
“When your face is the first one I see.”
Waverly made a gagging noise over the toaster, and Xavier laughed.
“Are you going to get pissed off if I tell you again how much I missed you?” he wanted to know.
She poured herself a cup of coffee and then grudgingly grabbed another one for him. “Just a head’s up here, but I’m going to be pissed off at anything you say unless it’s ‘see ya.’”
“Smart ass.”
They took their plates outside to eat on the deck. Waverly chose the seat farthest away from Xavier, which put her back to the ocean. But it wasn’t a hardship, considering Xavier was still shirtless.
“You seem to be moving better today,” he commented as she bit into a crispy slice of bacon.
She was, she frowned. Her side hurt less, and her head felt clearer. Waverly glanced down at her plate and realized she’d already cleared half of it.
“Do I?” she asked with feigned disinterest.
“Those are some good cuts and bruises on your legs.”
Waverly fought the urge to look down. She knew her legs were a mess. You didn’t drag yourself up a mountainside in the dark with a gunshot wound without earning a few souvenirs.
“Mmm,” she said, focusing on her toast.
“Okay,” he said, wiping his hands on a napkin. “You don’t want to answer any questions. How about you ask some?”
