Amazing.
He turned to me, “Tab, honey, you want breakfast?”
I came to with a start and looked up at him. “Breakfast?’
“Yeah, breakfast. You’re feelin’ better, I’ll make you some.”
“I don’t have any food in the house,” I told him, and his brows went up.
“You don’t have any food in the house?”
“Well,” I did a quick mental inventory, figured he wouldn’t want tuna or ranch-style beans for breakfast then suggested, “We could have Pop-Tarts.”
His lips twitched and he shook his head. “Not sure Pop-Tarts are good sittin’ on mountain of Christmas candy. I’ll take you out.”
My belly flipped again.
He’d take me out?
For breakfast?
“Pardon?” I asked.
He tossed the ball of foil on my coffee table, it bounced off the other side, went rolling across the floor, and stopped a few feet in front of the TV.
“I’ll take you out for breakfast,” he mostly repeated.
My eyes left the ball of foil and shot to him.
“Uh…” I started then found, for once, my mouth couldn’t go on.
“Tab, babe.” He came at me. “Get a move on. Once you get dressed, we’ll go.” He made it to me, grabbed my hand, and pulled me to the mouth of the hall.
He stopped us there and I looked up at him, still frozen.
“Get,” he ordered softly. “Breakfast.”
Then he put a hand in the small of my back and gave me a gentle push.
Seeing as he pushed me, however gently, and my body’s momentum was taking me down the hall, I “got” and scurried to my bedroom wondering if I could have breakfast with Shy or even if I should.
But the fact of the matter was, he’d shown at my house after I hadn’t talked to him in six weeks, and he wasn’t pissed or in my face. He was concerned and wanted to take me out for breakfast.
So I hit the shower thinking I not only could do this, I should.
He’d faced our history straight on, guided us around it, and obviously, with the way he was being now, he intended to keep us firmly on that path.
And Tyra was right. He was Chaos, a brother, family. He’d done what any of the brothers would do that night, looking out for me.
Yeah, I definitely should do this.
Forty-five minutes later, I decided not only that I shouldn’t but I couldn’t.
This was because, even though I gave my legs a close shave last night while getting ready for the hog roast, I did it again.
I also couldn’t because I pulled out my favorite Harley tee. One that was buried in a drawer. One that I hadn’t worn in years. One that fit great and since it was tight at my br**sts that made it even better.
And further because I had on faded jeans, a fabulous riveted belt, and high-heeled boots, and I’d fluffed my hair out and spritzed it with that stuff that made it look all beachy and cool. I’d also put on makeup even though I didn’t intend to. I had put on a hint of makeup, just blush and mascara, but I decided on liner. Then decided liner looked stupid without eye shadow, so I put on eye shadow. After all this, I decided makeup didn’t look good without appropriate accessories, so I layered on the silver and now I was totally made up, done up and (mostly) tricked out.
Which was stupid (again).
And wrong.
And it meant I should not, could not, go to breakfast with Shy.
The problem was, he’d been waiting for forty-five minutes, and I knew from a lifetime of experience that bikers weren’t all that patient. To fix the damage, I’d need a new outfit and a face rubdown, and I didn’t have time to select a new outfit. That could take twenty minutes alone.
For that reason, I knew I had to do this.
He was being cool and sweet.
It was just breakfast.
So I walked out of my bedroom in order to do it.
I turned the corner at the end of the hall and saw Shy leaning into his arm at the bar, head bowed, hand scratching on a piece of paper.
My first thought was he was left-handed.
My second thought was that I found that extremely interesting.
My third thought was that Shy looked perfectly at ease in my kitchen, like he’d been there dozens of times before. Like he was comfortable there. Like he belonged there.
Crap.
My apartment was in a decent complex that was well taken care of. However, it was old, though not that old. It was also worn but not that worn. And the appliances weren’t great but they weren’t that bad.
It was as good a place as any to wait it out until my new life started. I wasn’t going to be there long (or so I thought), the rent was superaffordable, so why not?
That said, I moved in and made it mine with funky stuff I liked, and I had to admit I was comfortable there. It was small, cozy, took very little time to clean, and was close to the hospital and Chaos.
Jason lived in a three-bedroom town house that he bought for us to move in together when our lives started. The town house was not worn or old, and the appliances were awesome.
Jason had grown up in a suburb of Denver, and his parents and one of his sisters still lived there. He’d never had worn or old. Anytime something got too old or broke down, his father replaced it.
Jason hated my apartment. Not frequently but often enough to make his point, when we were cuddling on the couch watching TV or he was sitting on a stool at the bar watching me ruin dinner, he’d say something like, “Can’t wait until we can get you out of this pit.”
It wasn’t a pit. It was old and worn, but it wasn’t a pit.
Jason thought it was a pit.
Looking at Shy leaning into the counter, he didn’t look like he thought my place was a pit. He didn’t look like he thought anything except whatever he was scratching on the paper.
“We’ll go to Racine’s on my bike,” he muttered, not looking up. “Tug’s bringing your ride back later. When we get back, we’ll take it and get you to the store. I did an inventory and seriously, Tab, you need to stock up.”
That was when he lifted his head and looked at me. Two beats after his eyes hit my face, they moved over my hair before they went down then they went back up. They did this slowly with a certain look in them that made my belly flip again.
On the way back up, I saw a muscle jump in his jaw.
Okay, maybe I shouldn’t do this.
His eyes were on another downward run, caught around the area of my br**sts when I forced out: “Racine’s?”
His eyes changed direction and came to mine. He pushed away from the counter, pulled the top paper off the pad and, shoving it in his back pocket, he said, “Yeah, Racine’s. Ready?”