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Not long after, Mack announced that it was time for Lucas to have a bath before bed. Lucas moaned and groaned all the way up the stairs. Mack promised him that Thomas would be there in the morning and it was all he needed to hear. After that, Lucas practically flew to the bathroom.
Chapter 2
“Auntie Mack, Auntie Mack, it’s time to get up!” Lucas shouted as he ran into Mack’s bedroom and dived onto the bed. “Come on, Auntie. You have to wake up. The birds told me it’s time for breakfast.” He paused for breath. “They want pancakes and ketchup!”
Mack slowly opened her eyes and moved the duvet away from her face. She took one look at her very excited nephew and slowly registered hearing pancakes and ketchup in the same sentence.
“Lucas, you don’t eat pancakes and ketchup together. That’s just, well, not done.” She glanced toward the clock on the side table and rubbed her eyes. She really needed glasses because she was sure the clock read not much past five. She rubbed her eyes again. “Oh my God, Lucas, it’s only ten past five in the morning! Nobody gets up at this time.” She dropped her head back down on the pillow, took hold of Lucas, and helped get him under the covers with her. “Now, go back to sleep . . . please?”
“What time can I get up?” Lucas asked, already half-asleep.
“I’ll wake you up in a couple of hours.” She turned her head to look at him, only to find that he was already fast asleep.
Mack finally woke up at eight in the morning to the sun streaming through the curtains. Lucas was still asleep, curled into her side. She just lay there, listening to the peace and quiet that would only last as long as Lucas slept.
Sliding gently out of bed, so as not to wake him, she collected her clothes on the way to the bathroom. She placed them on the chair in the corner while she showered. Once finished, she headed back into the bedroom just in time to watch Lucas wake up.
“Is it time to get up now?”
“Yes, it is. Come on, let’s get you washed and dressed, then I’ll make you pancakes with syrup.” Mack grinned, as she caught a leaping Lucas in her arms. She swung him around before carrying him through to his room and the bathroom.
“Are you really, really sure I can’t have ketchup with my pancakes?” Lucas had a rather angelic look on his face.
“Lucas, you do not put ketchup on pancakes. It was made to go on fries, which is why they made syrup to go on pancakes.”
While she had a glaring match with him, Mack placed the syrup to the side of his plate, along with a glass of chocolate milk.
“Wow, chocolate milk! Okay, syrup is good.”
She had to turn away so Lucas wouldn’t see her smiling.
Finally, taking her own seat, she found herself waking up as she drank her first, delicious coffee of the day.
After breakfast, she followed Lucas into the living room and switched the Wii on for him to play for a while. She glanced at the books that were on the cottage’s stocked bookshelves. While there were quite a few gems on the shelf, she didn’t see any of her usual books. A blush warmed her cheeks as she thought about the sort of books that she enjoyed reading. Mack wasn’t sure what Daniel had been thinking when he mentioned it to her sister, unless he’d spotted one of the erotic novels she’d just bought. It had been sticking out of her purse a few weeks before when she was visiting.
Mack heard a brief knock on the door and was just about to answer it when Thomas walked in. “Morning, Miss Mackenzie. Hope you had a good night’s rest.”
“I did, thank you.” She’d just finished speaking when Lucas ran in from the living room, straight to Thomas, who bent down and gave him a big hug.
“I was wondering if I could take the kid for a couple of hours?” Thomas asked and pulled a chair out at the table before sitting down.
“Would you like coffee?” she asked.
He nodded, removing his cap.
Mack poured a cup of coffee for them both and joined him at the table. “What do you have planned today?”
“I was thinking that I have a lot of those comics, like we were reading yesterday, in a box in the garage. I thought maybe Lucas could help bring them into the house so we can have a look through them together.”
“What a lovely idea. Thank you for asking him, Thomas. By the look of things, Lucas would love that.” She burst out laughing due to Lucas’s rather exuberant reaction.
“I’ll just go wash up again. Be back in a minute.” Lucas bounded upstairs to the bathroom.
After watching Lucas’s retreat, she turned back toward Thomas. “Thank you for telling me about your family last night. I really enjoyed listening. I just hope you didn’t think I was being nosy.”
“It’s okay. I haven’t really spoken about them before, to be honest, and I quite enjoyed sitting here and drinking coffee while I talked about them with you.”
“I’m glad. I was slightly worried after you left, in case talking about them had upset you.”
