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I made his coffee and started on breakfast. I decided on French toast. Why not give him some sugar to take with him? Start his morning off sweet…
He came in, dressed like an ordinary day, but he passed by me to unlock a large armoire in the corner of the living room. I hadn’t really noted it before, but as he flipped open the doors, I blinked in surprise.Wow, that’s a lot of guns.
“You’d be a good person to have around in a zombie apocalypse.”
He looked over his shoulder. “No, actually. Bullets run out. I don’t have the real survival stuff here, like machetes and things like that.”
I shrugged. “I maintain you’d still be great to have around in a zombie apocalypse. I, by contrast, would have a real problem. What do I know about survival skills?”
He tossed me a smile as he closed the armoire. “You know how to fire a gun, Bridge. You learned when you were eighteen. You can survive some things, and you already have survived more than most. I have no doubt you would figure out how to get around the zombies. In fact, you’d probably have a map pinpointing zombie locations and predicting their movements for the next year. The government would pay you.”
I kind of loved him playing silly hypotheticals with me. “Come, sit down and eat,” I ordered.
“Sure.” He came over, kissing me on the cheek before he sat. “You don’t have to make breakfast every morning. I can do it sometimes for you. Tomorrow, I’ll make something.”
I wrapped my arms around his midsection, avoiding his shoulder as best I could. “I like to make you breakfast. I didn’t think that I was the kind of girl who would ever want to do that for a man, but I like feeding you, okay? So let me make breakfast, and you just keep liking it.”
He leaned his head against my arm. “Okay.”
“I’ll clean up after the poker game, too, since that was my idea.” Before he could argue with me, I poured him coffee. The morning routine felt so normal. I’d hang onto normal until he returned.Then we can have more normal.That was what I wanted with Michael Li. Lots and lots of normal mornings.
He wanted to make plans. Would he want that with me?
Michael cupped my chin. “We’re going out on my motorcycle tonight.”
He has a motorcycle?“I’ve never done that. Seems a little bit scary.”
As he ate, he watched me sip my own coffee. “Sometimes scary can be fun, particularly when you’re with me, since you know I’ll never let anything happen to you. So, come out on my motorcycle.”
Could I do that? Just go out on his motorcycle. The doorbell rang and Michael jumped up to greet Stephen and Tito. Despite my nerves, which might have me scrubbing the floor next for something to do, I had to smile. Last night, I’d had such fun with these men. Plus, seeing them reminded me of how hot it had been to have Michael inside of me that whole time without anyone knowing it.
My cheeks heated up.
“Okay.” Michael walked toward me but stopped when he saw my expression. Did he know what I was remembering? Probably not. But he knew I was off in some daydream I hadn’t shared with the room because he tilted his head slightly like he wanted to make me out. Then he wrapped his arms around me, tightly. “I’ll be back in a few hours when this is over. Don’t give this any thought today. Work. These two will stay here with you, and they’ll probably annoy you out of working at some point. Before you know it, I’ll be back. The Russians will be done.”
I loved that idea. “Be safe.”
“Count on it.”
Had a door closing ever sounded as loud as when Michael closed the door to his garage? It sure seemed awfully glaring and final to me. I never investigated his garage, so I didn’t even know how many cars he owned, not to mention the fact he apparently kept a motorcycle somewhere in there.
I didn’t care enough to check it out right then. Instead, I looked at Stephen and Tito. “You two. I know you have a way to watch what is going on at his other house. There’s simply no way he would have left you without a feed, so you’d know if something went wrong and we had to run or something.”
They looked at one another and Tito rocked back on his heels. “And if we do?”
“Great. We’ll all watch that together.” I smiled at them. “Don’t argue. I’ll win, trust me on that. I’m going to work and when there is something to see, you’re going to let me know, end of story. Thanks.”
I walked past them into the bedroom I never used. I’d do busy work—take a look at the market, answer emails, and then I’d drink some more coffee or something.
But that was the plan.
Time did crawl sometimes. When Michael was in the hospital. When Layla was kidnapped. When Hope was shot. When Layla was giving birth. When Hope was giving birth. I spent a lot of time waiting for the people in my life to go through things.
The thought inspired me, so I curled up on the bed. My phone had erupted, with lots of new message notifications flashing. My very busy sisters didn’t like that I hadn’t been in touch in so long, apparently.
I chewed my lip. Which one of them would be better to tell the other one what was going on in my life? I decided on Layla because, truthfully, I was still mad at Hope for talking to Michael about me and never telling me.Shit. I needed to get over that. It was earlier where Layla was, but if she wanted to talk to me, she could wake up. Was I being not-nice right then? Sure, but I didn’t mind being a pest to my siblings. I opened up the app on my phone and clicked to start a video call with them at the sametime. Probably, they wouldn’t answer, and then they couldn’t say that I didn’t try to reach out.
I loved them like no other people in my life, always would, but boy was it complicated trying to be their sister. It was some small comfort knowing that if I found them confusing, they must find me absolutely nuts.
