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I woke up the next morning and I wasn’t alone in bed. For a moment, I lay there in half-awake shock and then I remembered everything from the night before. Natalie. Me. Natalie and me.
I opened my eyes and there she was, curled up beside me.
So beautiful.
I couldn’t help but watch her for a few moments. Her eyes opened and she caught me, though.
“Good morning,” she said, her voice rough.
“Good morning,” I said. “We shared a bed again.”
“We did. And this time I didn’t stop myself from touching you.”
“No, you didn’t.”
She reached for me and I kissed her, dizzy from the feel of her lips.
“Do you want some breakfast?” I asked.
“That would be great. I do have to get to work in a little bit.”
So did I.
Reluctantly, we got up and Natalie got dressed in the same clothes from the night before.
“My parents are already at work, so I won’t have to do a walk of shame,” she said. “I should probably leave some stuff here, though.” She said it so casually.
“Yes,” I said. “You should leave stuff here.” That meant that she was going to be coming over again. Things could look very different in the light of day than they did at night. Part of me had been scared she would wake up this morning and want to take it all back.
So far, so good.
I made some eggs and toast and coffee, and we ate fast so I wasn’t late dropping her off. I knew her job was important to her, so I wasn’t upset that she had to dine and dash.
“I’ll talk to you later? If Preston is doing okay, I’ll stop by and bring him,” she said, leaning down to give me a kiss. She tasted like coffee and sugar.
“Okay,” I said. I wished we had more time to talk about last night and what the hell we were doing going forward, but there wasn’t time.
She left with a wave over her shoulder and a smile that made me feel like my heart was going to explode in my chest.
* * *
If I’d thought work was hard before, that was nothing compared to now. Everything in my mind was Natalie, Natalie, Natalie.
I was so distracted, people asked me if I was okay. Even Todd, who was constantly busy upstairs, called me into his office to check on me.
“I’m fine. Just under the weather,” I said. That made everyone concerned and they told me I should go home and rest, but honestly, if I went home, I’d still be thinking about Natalie, so it was better to try and get something done at work.
She sent me a message that she couldn’t make it. Preston had a cold, so she was nursing him with his mom.
I still had yet to meet Preston’s mom, Piper, but I was very intrigued by her. Natalie gushed about how smart she was. If I had been the jealous type, and I’d known the woman was queer, I might have been more concerned. I’d looked her up online, and of course, she was stunning. Like, could be a model, stunning. You didn’t get those kinds of people in Castleton.
I had lunch with Wendy, and she told me all about the work at the Honeysuckle Inn. Her husband was a contractor, and his company had been hired to do some of the work, so she knew all the interesting details.
“So, they’re going to keep the charm, but update it. Keep it very Castleton.”
That was a relief.
“It’s going to take almost a year to do the work. It’s an absolute mess in there. They had to call animal control to deal with the raccoons.”
