Page 54 of Exposed

“No. I’m not upset. I’m…overwhelmed. I was worried about my Henrys.”

Matt smiled at me.

“And all the roses?”

“Hear me out…”

Jacob tugged on the leg of his jeans. “Coach, I want another.”

“Can do, kiddo.” Matt grabbed a doughnut out of the box on the counter and handed it down to him. The two of them were acting like they’d known each other forever.

If my heart wasn’t already so full, that would have filled it.

Matt turned back to me. “Let’s be honest…I was going to send you a bouquet every day for as many days as it took for you to agree to walk down the aisle to me. So I figured I’d skip some time. There’s three dozen bouquets here. So…we’re more than three weeks into this thing as far as I’m concerned. We’re dangerously close to a month then, don’t you think? You’re not going to make me wait a whole month, are you? Oh, wait. Here.” He grabbed me a doughnut too.

I was smiling so hard it hurt. “You’re very hyper this morning. Have you already had a few of these?”

“Yes,” he said. “But I also stopped by Tanner’s to shower and change and Nigel was brewing some special coffee…” He stopped talking and made a grossed out face.

“Who’s Nigel?”

“Tanner’s assistant. Kind of. And I probably shouldn’t have drunk that coffee. Don’t ever drink anything Nigel serves you. He’s very suspicious with beverages. He made the doughnuts too. I think he overdid it with the sugar a bit. Wait, there’s something else I need to show you.” He grabbed a remote off the island and tapped a button.

Music flooded the kitchen. Just as loud as it used to be back at the lake house. He must have installed several speakers.

“And one more thing.” He grabbed my hand and pulled me to the back door. He opened it and pointed up.

“You strung up the lights?” I didn’t even realize he’d noticed them in a heap the other day.

“Yeah, this was a pretty terrible reveal. I should have waited until it was dark. Are you hot? I’m really hot.” He started pulling on the collar of his t-shirt even though it couldn’t be more than 50 degrees out here.

“You need water.” I grabbed his hand and pulled him inside. I made him sit down as I poured him a glass. “Drink that.”

He downed the whole thing in one gulp.

“Is Nigel a fan of triple shot espressos or something?”

“Maybe,” Matt said and downed another glass. “It’s so hot in here.” He kept pulling on his collar.

“Then take your shirt off.”

“Thank God.” He pulled it off over his head.

There were a lot of things about Matt that seemed the same. But he was more ripped than I remembered. When he wasn’t high on over-caffeinated coffee and over-sugared doughnuts, he was probably working out.

“Me too,” Jacob said and pulled his shirt off.

I laughed. Honestly I was surprised he was even wearing a shirt this morning.

“I need another,” Jacob said and reached up for a third doughnut.

“I think that’s enough doughnuts for both of you.” They were going to go into sugar comas. “We should probably go for a walk or something. Go get your shoes,” I said and lightly nudged Jacob to the door. He needed the nudge or he’d never willingly put on clothes.

Jacob picked up his shoes for just a second before abandoning them to play with his trucks. He zoomed them across the floor making revving noises.

“So you liked it?” Matt asked. “I wanted to bring more of your lake house here. So it would feel like home.” He opened up the fridge to grab more water. He looked so comfortable. Probably because it was his home first.

“I didn’t like it,” I said. I glanced at Jacob to make sure he was still out of earshot.

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