He turned to the coffeemaker and started a cup for her. “Bacon, eggs, and toast. How do you like your eggs?”
“Any way you make them, I’ll eat them,” she said. “I’ll set the table.”
She gathered the plates and put them on the island while he broke eggs and scrambled them in a bowl, then popped bread in the toaster.
When her coffee was done, she grabbed it and put in the two creamers he’d had on the counter.
“How did you sleep?”
“Wonderfully,” she said. “That bed is like floating on a cloud. This whole place is a dream vacation. I was lying in bed thinking it’d be a great vacation and place to be stuck. Then I saw the snow outside.”
“It’s coming down hard,” he said. “They are calling it blizzard conditions and it won’t stop until late tomorrow.”
“Seriously?” she asked. She should be nervous or disappointed. She was neither.
“You’re smiling,” he said, leaning against the counter, his hands behind his back, his ankles crossed in front of him.
“There are worse places to be during a storm. If it wasn’t for you, I’d be at an airport for days.”
Talk about shitty.
It didn’t bear thinking of.
“Good thing I saved a damsel in distress.”
“I’m still embarrassed by my reaction. That wasn’t like me at all.”
He reached for her, pulled her into his arms, and held her. Not sexually. More of a comforting one.
“Never feel that way when it comes to your health. You know what you need and you fight for it. The stress of having to stay in the airport could have compounded things more. I’m not someone to think of the bad in life, but I might have had a few horrible thoughts of you in the airport without your extra supplies.”
“I tried to not let them slip in because it hadn’t happened. I should thank you again.”
“You should,” he said. “With a kiss.”
She leaned up to look at him. His lips landed on hers hard and goofy.
The toast popped, so she wiggled away to prepare that while he finished with the bacon and eggs.
“How do you normally spend your Christmas mornings? It’s probably loud and full of an extraordinary amount of gifts under a fifteen foot tree.”
“Damn,” he said. “You’re good. Not the gift part, but the loudness and tree size now. West was the one with the money for years. He took care of things for my mother while she worked part time. By the time she could have gone to work full time there was no need, even though she wanted to.”
“I think that’s very noble of your brother to do that.”
Very few would take care of their family before themselves, but Rowan had given her some bits and pieces into how selfless West was in those early years.
Her grandmother was the only one that ever put her first.
“He’s a good guy even when he’s bossy.”
She laughed and dove into her eggs. “I think maybe being bossy comes naturally to him. How about you? You own a business. You have said little about it. I mean, do you have a lot of employees? Is it okay for you to be gone long?”
“I’m not bossy. I may be a chill dude, but I ensure everything is done correctly. It’s my name and reputation on the line along with my brother’s. He seeded the business for me like he did Elias. Or anyone else that wants to go on their own, but we had to have a solid business plan, and if it was lacking, he filled in any gaps to guarantee success.”
She wasn’t surprised there. “So if it was failing he’d just keep throwing money at it?”
Rowan laughed. “Never. He would find out what the issue was and go from there. But I’m doing well. I cater toward the middle-of-the-line surfers. My boards are custom designs if someone wants to pay for them, but also limited editions anyone can buy. Bold and colorful is what I’m going for. Something different.”
