AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I peeked into the living room to check on Cash. He was still sitting on the couch, engrossed in some cartoon that looked like a rainbow had shit all over it, like it was the best show ever created.
“You good, bud?”
He twisted his head to look at me over the arm of the couch, his little legs stretched all the way out in front of him. “Yeah, Daddy.” He patted his stomach then. “But I hungwy.”
“Yeah, buddy. You want some cereal?”
His face pinched, and I knew he’d gotten spoiled with Deva’s cooking. He shook his head, his bottom lip coming out as he demanded, “Fluffy cakes!”
“I don’t know how to make fluffy cakes, kid. That’s a Deva thing.”
He crossed his arms over his chest. “Want Deva.”
“You and me both, pal,” I grumbled under my breath, my focus once again returning to the hallway. What the hell was taking her so long? “How about some jelly toast?”
A culinary expert I was not, but I could pop a couple pieces of bread into a toaster and slather them in grape jelly, one of my son’s preferred foods.
He gave that some consideration before widening his eyes. “Yeah, yeah!”
“All right. I’ll get on that.”
And I did just that, making jelly toast for my son, all while keeping an eagle eye on the hallway for the woman that was consuming my every thought.
Deva
Oh my god.
My head felt like it was clamped in a vise and someone was slowly squeezing it. My body felt like it had been drained of all its water, and my mouth tasted likedeath.
I pushed up to sitting, letting out a groan.
Oh no, bad idea!
My mouth smelled even worse.
I tried to blink, but my eyelids felt crusted together. It took a moment, but I was finally able to pry them open, only to have the sunlight coming through the slats in my blinds pierce into my skull like an icepick.
Wait . . . the sunlight?
It shouldn’t have been that bright at this time of morning.
I twisted to look at the alarm clock on my bedside table, and nearly fell flat on my face as I tried to kick off the covers and lunge out of the bed. I hit the floor with a hard thud, coming down on my right hip, and let out a grunt of pain. The movement made my head spin and my stomach roil, but I couldn’t stop to think about that. I was late for a job in which my so-called office was less than thirty feet away! There wasn’t a possible excuse for that.
My cheeks heated with shame that I’d gotten drunk the night before and had forgotten to set my alarm. The hangover I was currently suffering from was my punishment for messing up.
“Oh no. Oh no, oh no, oh no.” I should have been awake more than a half hour ago. There was no time to shower or scrub thisterrible taste out of my mouth. Still dressed in my pajamas, I wrenched my bedroom door open and started down the hall.
“I’m coming!” I shouted, then stopped to wince at the spike that sent through my brain. “Oh god,” I groaned, leaning forward and holding my stomach.
“I’m coming,” I repeated once the wave of nausea had ebbed. “I’m coming. Sorry.” I hit the mouth of the hallway and saw Cash sitting on one of the stools, his little feet kicking back and forth as he munched on what looked like toast covered in far too much grape jelly.
Laeth was standing on the other side near the sink, coffee mug in hand, his trim hips resting against the counter and booted feet crossed at the ankles. His stance might have portrayed the picture of relaxation, but the thunderstorm brewing in those deep gray eyes and the hard set to his clenched jaw said he was anything but. I wasn’t sure I’d ever seen him look angrier.
“I’m so, so, sorry,” I stressed. “I forgot to set my alarm after I—”
“Came home drunk last night?” he cut in, his words sharpened to a razor’s edge.
“Um, I—how . . .”
