“Because it’s—I’m not prepared. I don’t have a—I can’t be charming right now, I just woke up—”
“You don’t have to be charming.” He sets his own plate down and crosses the kitchen in three steps, stopping in front of me. He tucks my hair back from my face with one hand, and I let him. “You just have to be here.”
I look up at him. “I’m here.”
“I know.” His thumb brushes my cheekbone.
I laugh—a real one, surprised out of me—and he ducks his head like he’s embarrassed and pleased at the same time, and I grab the front of his t-shirt and pull him down and kiss him with morning breath and scrambled eggs and zero dignity, and I honestly do not care.
He pulls back after a minute, resting his forehead against mine.
“Your eggs are getting cold,” he says.
“Worth it.”
“Eat.”
“You’re bossy in the morning.”
“I’m bossy always.”
“Fair point.” I pick up my fork. He stays where he is, close enough that his hip is warm against my knee, and reaches past me to steal a piece of my toast.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Brotherhood
Banks
“Absolutely not.”
“It’s team bonding, Banks. You can’t say no to team bonding.” Logan grins at me.
“I can. I am. Watch me.” I turn to walk away, but Logan grabs my arm with surprising strength for someone who looks like an oversized golden retriever.
“Nope. You’re coming. Coach’s orders.”
“Coach ordered this?”
“Well…” Logan’s grin turns sheepish. “He suggested team bonding. Which is basically the same thing.”
I stare at the building in front of us. It’s a nail salon. A fancy one, with cursive lettering on the window and the faint smell of acetone wafting through the door every time someone enters or exits.
“Logan. Why are we at a nail salon?”
“Because we’re getting pedicures.”
“We’re doing what now?”
“Pedicures. You know, when they soak your feet and scrub off all the dead skin—”
“I know what a pedicure is.”
“Then why did you ask?”
I close my eyes and count to ten. It doesn’t help.
The rest of the team is already inside. I can see them through the window—a dozen massive hockey players crammed into massage chairs, their feet submerged in bubbling water, looking varying degrees of confused, horrified, and resigned.
