The smell of something baking drew him downstairs, but he sought out the spruce first. He picked his way around the children sprawled out in a mess of blankets all over the living room, pillows propping up the last defenses of their fort, but the tree remained. With no one awake, he covertly touched one of the boughs. It was chilly up against the massive, picture windows, the world outside dark under the early lights of winter’s morning, but the tree told him without words that it was still hale. He gave it a jolt of life, just in case, but it seemed rather pleased with its new predicament. In fact, it was…humming?
Kol peered across the living room to the main hall. Another silent maneuver took him to the kitchen where he found the humming’s actual source. The smell of simmering butter clung to the warmth in the air, the lights dimmed low and orange. Piper stood with her back to him, hips cocked to one side as she worked, but she’d finally forgone that awful sweater, and the tank top she wore clung to her as tightly as her leggings.
Kol had apparently overlooked quite a lot about Piper, not least of all the fullness of her thighs, but that had probably been for the best—he’d already been a complete dick to cover up his anxiety about sharing her bedroom and had he thought of her as anything more than mousy, he would have been even worse.
As if it could possibly matter, you absolute ass, he thought and cleared his throat as he strode into the kitchen, determined to ignore the roundness of her body. Piper gasped at his arrival, and the little jiggle all the best parts of her did with her surprised jolt was no help. “What are you making now? Breakfast lasagna?”
She clicked her tongue, eyes darting across the counter to where she’d draped her sweater over a chair. “Pancakes. It’s what we do the first morning.”
“We?” Piper was, of course, alone.
She reached across the island, bending herself over it as she stretched. It was far too early in the morning for that, and so Kol quickly rounded the counter himself to face her instead. She was quick to pull on her sweater, and when her head popped out of the neck hole, she was right back to scowling.
There was an empty bowl between them and a carton of eggs beside. Piper pursed her lips with another one of those expectant looks, and since cracking eggs was simple enough for his still-sleepy brain, Kol silently accepted the task.
Swathed in baggy clothes yet again, Piper poured a cup of coffee, and to his surprise, sat it in front of him. “Milk and sugar are over there.” She pointed to an impressive tray of every option anyone could want then returned to the stovetop where she buttered the griddle.
He sniffed the cup but couldn’t discern anything over the dark roast. Probably not poisoned, but there was certainly some game afoot, so he watched her even closer. She flitted about the kitchen, collecting utensils and plates with the same grace and quickness she had the night before. Sleepiness still plagued her, disheveled hair tied back and circles heavy under her eyes, but her timing wasn’t affected, flipping the pancakes when they were perfectly golden. She flicked a page in a notebook propped against the backsplash, and the corner of her mouth twitched upward with some thought. As she took a sip from her own mug, he suddenly wanted to ask about that thought, to know exactly what it was that made someone so intent on glowering all the time actually smile.
“What?” Her dark eyes were on him, and he didn’t even realize, his own gaze trained on her lips.
“Ah, why’s your coffee so…white?” It was a stupid question, but it was better than blurting out any of the other thoughts he was having about her mouth.
She held up a finger and dug deep into the refrigerator to produce a brightly-colored bottle. “I keep extra hazelnut creamer stashed back here.” Without asking, she poured way too much into his mug. “Don’t worry,” she said as if reading his mind, “you’ll like it.”
Piper returned to the griddle, stacking up pancakes and pouring more batter. One of her cousins—Kol couldn’t recall to whom the child belonged or what his name was—came tottering in, eyes half closed. He’d been especially shitty the night before, running with abandon in circles around the couch after he’d chugged someone’s soda and sticking out his tongue at anyone who tried to calm him down.
Kol glared at the maybe eight-year-old, but there was no screaming or flailing this morning, just a quiet saunter up to Piper.
“You want some pancakes, Noah?” Piper’s voice was lyrical then, her features softening.
The boy nodded and then put his arms around Piper’s waist and squeezed her. It took Kol until after Piper patted Noah’s head and handed him a plate to realize what had happened. That little brat—hehuggedher.
Noah lumbered away and took up a stool, absolutely dousing his plate in syrup, and Kol stared at him in disbelief until another plate was pushed in front of him. Piper left Kol a perfect stack of pancakes without a word but returned to cooking with an even wider grin.
Others funneled in and out of the kitchen, and Piper handed off plates to each one. Most were more subdued than the evening before, and in their sleepier state, more gracious too. When her father came in, he threw an arm around Piper’s shoulders and planted a kiss on her cheek. He was carrying the dog, and it managed to lick her elbow too before being released to chase after its stub of a tail on the floor.
Should have said thank you, Kol mused,but at least I kept that poisoning thought to myself. That lessened his regret, but he wondered if it were too late now, after his plate and mug were empty and she’d already fed everyone else in the house. Maybe he could slip in some gratitude as he cleaned up the plates, but was that sincere enough? Or did he need to hug her too? That would be nice of him. Just like it would be nice to wrap his arm around her middle and kiss her cheek and—Kol shook his head. Gods, he must have still been exceptionally tired.
“Yes, Doc, of course I’ll accompany you to the urology wing,” Piper was saying in a sing-songy voice as she bent at the waist to talk to the little dog as it pranced about on its back legs. When she caught Kol’s eye, she faltered. “That’s Doctor Dog code forgo outside.”
“Doctor Dog?” Kol didn’t think any amount of magic in the world could earn a terrier a medical degree.
“Mom liked to consult him when she got stumped with a diagnosis at work. She called him her colleague, so the name just stuck.” Piper’s mouth quirked into a half smile as she scratched under his chin. “But when doctors don’t have thumbs, they need someone to take them outside, don’t they? Regardless of if that someone has eaten breakfast yet.”
“I can do that.” Kol stood so abruptly that he knocked over his stool.
“Oh, it’s fine.” Piper sighed as she went for her jacket hanging by the kitchen’s sliding glass door, Doc trailing her heels. “He needs to go now, and—”
“No, you should sit and eat.” Perhaps more firmly than he meant, Kol dropped his hand onto Piper’s wrist before she could get her coat. Her dark eyes darted up to his, wider than if she’d had a third cup of coffee. “I have to go out too,” he said, releasing her and lowering his voice. “Not, uh, for the same reason, but to check on the fehszar and get the bag I left at the cabin. I might be gone for a while, but the dog can come with me.”
Piper surveyed him for a long moment until she finally nodded with a reluctance that said she had little faith in his dog-walking capabilities. He hurried then, not wanting to be under her unblinking stare any longer, and tromped out into the snow.
The dog took his sweet time, pissing on every other tree trunk and ignoring Kol’s suggestion that the action was rather rude.
Mine, he simply said with a series of grunts and yips and another tiny expulsion from his bladder.
Eventually, Kol found the fehszar hidden in the wood behind the house. She seemed perfectly pleased to be spending time in a new forest and had even fetched Kol’s bag from the cabin in the Everroot Grove which saved him a more considerable trek. Though she did stop munching on the nearest pine’s bark when she watched Doc mark another tree’s roots.
