Page 39 of Forever Fickle

Sighing with contentment, he smiled in the darkness… and his eyes shot open at the sound of the front door opening in the distance.

Jace listened, stunned as he heard the jingle of keys and a few footsteps, reaching for a baseball bat near the doorway. Hefting it up over his shoulder, Jace padded barefoot down the hallway in the dark in near silence… seeing a figure by the door, touching the switches.

“Dang it…”

Jace stood up straight, stunned.

“Karen?”

“The stupid entryway light is burnt out again. Cheap lightbulbs don’t last at all…” she muttered, and he saw her wince as he flipped on the hallway light beside him – before immediately covering her eyes.

Jace looked down to see he was wearing running shorts and nothing else. Glancing at the clock on the wall of the entryway, he started.

“What are you doing here? It’s barely six in the morning. We don’t open for another two hours.”

“Let’s not analyze this, okay?” she snapped hotly. “I couldn’t sleep and there is a breakfast place about ten minutes from here that makes incredible pancakes… so if you could please throw some clothes on? I’m seriously starving and need caffeine immediately.”

“You want to go for… breakfast?” Jace said in disbelief. “With me?”

“You’re analyzing this, Sorensen…” she hissed and peeked around her hand for a split second, before hiding her eyes again.

Jace couldn’t help the laugh that escaped him.

“Give me two minutes to throw on something.”

“I’m timing you,” she warned… but there was something in her voice that betrayed her mock irritation. “We’ve got to be back by seven-forty-five or we’ll never hear the end of it.”

“Yep…” he hollered from the room, not bothering to shut the door because he was already decent in his opinion wearing running shorts. He also knew Karen would not even attempt to enter if she knew he was changing.

Throwing on jeans quickly, Jace yanked a T-shirt over his head before emerging, pulling on his sneakers – sans socks – because he wasn’t passing up this moment for the world.

“We wouldn’t want to give anyone a reason to gossip,” he teased.

“Let’s just go before I change my mind,” she quipped.

Jace was already out the front door.

CHAPTER13

KAREN

Karen knew this was craziness…but she was also willing to take a chance on Jace being the morning person she suspected him of being. His call sign was Hot Cakes, and she couldn’t sleep – so she was tempted to take him out to Mimi’s Pancake House for breakfast.

It was a hole-in-the-wall little place that was only open until eleven in the morning… and served mouthwatering buttermilk pancakes with warm syrup, fresh homemade jam bought locally, and whatever ‘sides’ she picked.

There wasn’t a menu.

It was just pancakes – and fruit.

Sometimes it was pancakes… and bacon.

One time it was pancakes and hashbrowns. Another time it was fried eggs… andeveryonegot fried eggs. No scrambled, no omelets, no egg-whites only… you got whatever was served that day.

Nope – everyone got ‘the special’.

Karen had such a wonderful time talking with Jace over dinner, thinking about the way his eyes danced when he laughed, and that smile that seemed almost too wide for his face… only to realize that she didn’t want another moment to pass without having a chance to be around him.

While it should have bothered her or made her feel alarmed – she instead found herself wondering what it would be like to be more than friends… and not even that strange thought set her off in a panic.

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