Page 64 of Worth of Waste

Pushing the door open a little more, Dino found Karen had already stepped inside the shower and the curtain had been pulled closed, keeping her from view.

But the soft humming … low and sweet … made Dino smile.

Karen didn’t sing in the shower.

No, she hummed.

She had always called him strange, but to him, Karen was one of the most beautifully different creatures to have ever crossed his path. It was the little things—like her humming melodies in the shower—that he liked the most.

He didn’t have a particularly good reason why, he just did.

Dino pulled the door almost closed again, the same way Karen had left it, and went back to the kitchen. He wasn’t a particularly good cook, which was strange considering his Italian mother, but he did okay when he was left to his own devices.

And breakfast would always be his thing.

Maybe because it was his favorite meal of the day. Dino wasn’t sure, but he went to work, pulling items from the fridge and cupboards to whip up something quick enough to have it ready for when Karen was out of the shower.

He had just slid the omelets onto plates to let them cool when Karen peeked her head around the corner of the kitchen entryway. Her wet hair hung in rivulets around her shoulders, and she hadn’t dressed. Instead, her hand clung to a towel wrapped around her body, keeping it in place.

She smiled widely at the sight of him in her kitchen.

“I thought I heard something out here,” she said.

“I was here when you woke up.”

Karen’s head tipped to the side. “Why didn’t you come tell me?”

“You’re a bear in the morning.”

That was a lie.

She was as sweet as sugar in the mornings.

Karen gave him a mock glare. “I’ll remember that.”

Dino chuckled. “I’m kidding. I thought you might want an easy morning, since J will have you running and cleaning for the majority of the day.”

“Oh.”

Her soft exclamation made him shoot a smile over his shoulder. He quickly went back to pouring coffee into mugs. It was only when Karen’s hand stroked his shoulder did he turn around to face her again.

Sweetly, she leaned up on her tiptoes and kissed him.

“Morning,” Dino said against her lips.

“It’s a good morning if you’re here.”

“You did want me for Christmas.”

“I did,” she echoed, her smile sensual and true. “Are you staying all day?”

At that, Dino frowned, but then wiped it away as quickly as he could. “Not all day. I have a dinner to be at around four.”

He could see in her eyes that she wanted to ask him about the dinner, or maybe even why it was important. He was grateful when she didn’t, and instead, kissed him again. The second kiss was a little harder—hotter—when her tongue struck out against the seam of his mouth, her demand for him to open up and give her more. They stayed like that for minutes, his arms wrapped around her trim waist, keeping her close, as he explored the familiar heat and taste of her mouth.

The longer they stayed like that, the less Dino found he cared about the food he had made for them to eat before their son woke up. And when Karen’s teeth nipped into his bottom lip, and then a little harder on his jawline, Dino found he didn’t care to eat food at all right then.

It only took a little shift of his arm at her waist and a quick tug with his free hand, and he had pulled the towel from her grasp, letting the fluffy red material fall to the ground. Dino lifted Karen from the floor with ease, spun them both around, and sat her down on the edge of the counter.