Page 61 of Home Is Where You Are

“It’s too early,” she grumbled.

“I have a surprise for you,” I said, trying to coax her.

“Does this surprise involve me getting out of bed?”

“All you need to do is roll over and sit up,” I said with a laugh.

“Do I smell coffee?”

“You’ll have to roll over to find out.”

I grabbed the plate from the bed so she didn’t make a mess of it.

With a groan, she rolled over, her blonde hair spilling in front of her face.

She pushed it out of her face with a huff and stared over at me, patting the covers in her lap.

Ainsleigh Courtright would probably never be a morning person, but I couldn’t resist doing this for her. Having her all to myself for just a little while before she set out to do whatever she had planned for the day with Dylan and Aspen.

“What’s all this?” she asked, her voice raspy from just waking up.

“I wanted to do something nice for you. Thought maybe I could make you breakfast in bed and we could finish the conversation we started last night,” I confessed, hoping to hide the hopefulness in my voice.

I handed over the plate of food and leaned over to the nightstand then handed her the cup of coffee.

She placed the plate in her lap on top of the covers, then took the cup in both hands and took a long sip of coffee. She moaned at the taste, and I diverted my thoughts at the sound.

She took another long sip before handing the cup over to me.

I placed it on the nightstand next to mine.

“This is sweet of you,” she said as she took a bite of the eggs.

“It’s nothin’. Just thought we could enjoy each other’s company instead of hidin’ from each other today,” I confessed, taking a bite from my plate.

“What did you want to talk about?” she asked as she took another bite.

“How’s your eggs? I didn’t know if you’d want scrambled or fried so I took a gamble and scrambled them with cheese.”

I wouldn’t tell her that I basically did rock, paper, scissors to determine which I should make. She didn’t need to know that embarrassing detail.

“They’re perfect. But I doubt you wanted to talk about how the eggs taste.” She smirked as she sat the fork on her plate, waiting for me to talk about what I really wanted to.

“You’re right. I just thought I could bring up somethin’ easy first before I dove into the heavy conversation.”

“You know I’d rather you just come out with it, right?”

I did know, but I didn’t want to spook her. Not when we seemed to be getting along.

“Yeah, I know. What are your plans, Ainsleigh?”

“What do you mean?”

“Do you plan on staying? Are you leaving again? What do you want for your future?”

I took a bite of my food so I wouldn’t throw more questions at her before she could even blink. I also needed the distraction to calm my racing mind.

She pointed to her coffee cup, and I grabbed hers as well as my own. I needed something in my hands to distract me from pulling her into my arms while we had this conversation.