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His grin broadened, darn him.
Also, duh. Of course, she thought he was hot. Who didn’t?
“Well, I say let them talk,” Alex said, sliding a serving onto a plate. “You and I both know exactly what happened upstairs.”
“You mean, whatdidn’thappen.”
“Which was?”
He met her gaze, the innocent look in his eye taking the briefest pause as something darker and more animalistic lit his features.
“Anything,” she whispered. Clearly, she had wasted a prime opportunity to have a one-night fling with the gorgeous man who stood before her, cooking her a five-star breakfast, no less. If he did all this after zero sex, what might he have served if they’d burned the midnight oil? Lord, she was an idiot. “Not anything at all.”
“The day’s still young.” He winked, and suddenly Alex was back to his normal, chipper self.
Which almost made things worse.
Snap out of it! You did the right thing last night. He’s just getting in your head!
Yes, of course that was it. Easy enough to do, when she had gone from regular—albeit mediocre—sex with Greg to absolutely nothing these past three years. All the more reason for Mia to get rid of Alex and this temptation and fast, before her hormones overrode all rational thinking. As he turned back to add more food to the plate, Mia made a beeline for her cell phone. Time to do some web searching to find out when the nearest rental place opened so she could wash her hands of him for good.
“Aren’t you hungry?” he called after her.
“More than you know,” she muttered under her breath before responding, “Be right back!”
Mia swiped her phone from the nightstand. Only five texts so far, four of which were from Margaret and the last from Robyn.
What is this I’m hearing that Alex stayed at your place last night? And you DIDN’T THINK TO TELL ME?!?!?!
Yep, word had gotten out. She texted back that nothing happened between them, and she’d fill Robyn in at church. Then Mia started back toward the kitchen, pausing at Brooklyn’s door. Hopefully, the town gossips would only harass her and leave her daughter out of all this. On a sigh, she gave the wood a gentle rap.
“Breakfast time. If you want some bacon before it’s gone, I’d—”
The door cracked open, and a wary Brooklyn peered out, her hair its usual morning rat’s nest. “Did you say…bacon?”
“Yep. Alex has all sorts of things cooking. You going to join us?”
“Maybe.” Her gaze slid toward the kitchen. “Fine. I’ll be out in two.”
Mia continued toward the kitchen, a smug grin on her face. Surely, she could handle being alone with Alex for another two minutes. After all, most of that would be spent coordinating drop off times at the rental place. She could hardly wait.
“Everything okay?” he asked as she settled back into her seat at the island.
“Yep, just had to make sure Brooklyn wasn’t going to sleep too late and miss your wonderful breakfast before church.”
“Great, because I might have gone a little overboard.” He turned around with yet another plate of food in his hands and grimaced. “I’m not used to cooking for three.”
“You made French toast, too?”
“I remembered you saying how much you loved it, back in our IHOP days.”
He remembered what she liked to eat? Not even her ex could remember that, and they’d been married for thirteen years. Maybe she shouldn’t be in such a hurry to get rid of Alex.
“Why do you have that weird look on your face?”
Mia turned in her seat to find Brooklyn entering the kitchen, eyeing her like she’d shaved her eyebrows or something. That’s when she realized she probably was making some sappy face over Alex’s admission. She smoothed her features and sat up a little straighter. “We were just reminiscing is all.”
“Oh good. For a second, I was worried something had gone wrong with breakfast.”
