She rolled her eyes. “Cooper Marks needs to chill the fuck out or I will end up committing murder before this baby arrives.”
I rubbed her slightly swollen belly, bending down to her height, whispering. “I’d stay in there for as long as you can, baby. It’s safer.”
“Yeah, yeah.” She walked around the counter and pulled out the griddle. “Can you grab the buttermilk and flour?”
“Yeah.”
I walked into the pantry, taking the flour off the shelf and buttermilk from the fridge, as well as juice and almond milk because I’d only have to make another trip when she remembered she wanted it. Since I’d moved in I kept this place well stocked, because Freddie was always hungry. Ordering grown workmen around built up quite the appetite.
I placed it all on the counter and she started mixing up the best pancakes in existence, a recipe from Cooper’s grandfather that had slowly been passed around our group.
I flipped the coffee machine on. “Are you having a coffee today?”
“Yes please, although you’d better make it a decaf or I won’t hear the end of it,” she grumbled, but only because she missed caffeine more than was normal for a person, and Cooper had rationed her.
“So, what’s going on outside?”
“They’re the trees which are going to line the top of the driveway, and then two giant bays for the front door.”
I wasn’t entirely sure what a giant bay was.
“Oh.”
“Don’t worry, it’ll look good.”
I believed her. Most of the time I just went along with whatever she said, trusting her to know what was best. I put the coffees on the counter, taking a seat on a stool to watch her cook. I’d learned at the beginning of this renovation process that it was pointless putting up a fight because she just did what she wanted, including breakfast.
She ladled the batter onto the griddle, which hissed as it hit. I watched them bubble up before she flipped them. “Anyway, how are you? Did you hear from Emerson?”
I’d forgotten no one knew I’d seen her again except Felix, and that was because he’d been with me at the club.
After seeing her the first time, I’d left the studio and walked into a wall of Rangers’ fans who’d been waiting outside. The boys were already signing autographs, and the requests for selfies kept us there for longer after I’d arrived. I’d done everything on autopilot – smile, sign, smile, sign – before the boys pulled me away. The rest of the day was spent in a manic swirl of anxiety, my heart barely able to take the pressure. One minute I was riding on the crest of the wave, high off seeing her, and the next I’d crashed into the depths of the ocean, my phone screen still blank.
For hours I teetered of the edge of puking.
No one told me this is what it would feel like to put your heart on the line.
After I’d checked my phone for the seventeen thousandth time, Felix had dragged me to a new club he’d been going on about since it opened at the beginning of the summer. It was the first time I’d properly been out in months.
I was about to go home, and then there she was.
And my heart fucking stopped.
She was walking up the stairs, like a heavenly mirage of golden legs, fiery hair, and eyes so blue I wanted to dive right in. She’d been wearing a dress that looked like it had been made forher body, hugging every mouth-watering inch of her. It left little to the imagination, accentuating every curve, and pushing up her tits in a way that caused my dick to pay immediate attention.
I’d been so desperate to see her I’d rubbed my eyes, convinced I was dreaming.
I froze on the spot, watching her, until that fucking frat boy thought he was worthy enough to be in her presence, which he wasn’t, and then I’d taken off quicker than Coop at the puck drop.
“Yeah, I saw her on Saturday night. I went out and she was in the club I was in.”
Her eyebrows shot up in surprise. “No way, seriously? She’s been here nine months, and then twice in one day?”
I took a deep breath. “Don’t. It still makes me rage. But I’m choosing to believe the universe is now ready for us to be together.”
I repeated back the words she’d drilled into me for the past year, the only thing that provided me with a shred of hope. And it looked like she was right.
She grinned at me in an‘I told you so’way, while opening the cupboard to remove plates, setting them on the counter. “So, what happened?”
