Fire.
Shit. Shit. Shit.
I stumbled out of the shower, grabbed a towel without even wrapping it around myself, yanked the door open, and hurried toward the kitchen.
As I came down the hallway, the front door burst open, and Axel charged into the house.
“Are you all right?” he shouted as he ran toward the smoking oven.
He turned it off and found the oven mitts sitting on the counter. He pulled the burned cookies from the oven and yanked open the back door to the little patio before setting the pan outside. I was just standing there in shock, holding the towel in front of me as I dripped all over the floor, and he rushed back to me.
He put a hand on each side of my face. “Are you hurt?”
“What? No.” I shook my head. “I was in the shower. I must have forgotten to set the timer when I put the cookies in the oven. I wanted to bring something to Sunday dinner.” His gaze moved down, and he smirked.
“You don’t say?” he chuckled before reaching for the towel I was holding in front of me, reminding me that I hadn’t wrapped it around myself. He pulled it around me, then tucked the end into the terry fabric to keep it in place. “If you wanted me to seeyou naked, you didn’t need to burn the house down, Horse Girl. You could have just told me.”
I smacked him in the chest, horrified at the fact that I’d just set off the smoke alarm and run out here naked.
“Oh my gosh,” I groaned. “I just forgot about the cookies.”
He turned and grabbed the dish towel from the counter, waving it around to get the smoke to move outside. “You sure about that?”
“I’m not even justifying that with an answer.”
He dropped the towel on the counter as a wicked grin spread across his handsome face. “Maybe you just don’t know how to answer the question. See you in a little bit. Try not to burn the place down in the next fifteen minutes.”
I rolled my eyes and pointed at the door. “Go.”
He was still laughing when he pulled the door closed behind him.
And I groaned and made my way back to the bathroom.
Axel Chadwick was consuming my thoughts.
I’d nearly burned the place down while fantasizing about him in the shower.
I needed to pull myself together.
nine
. . .
Axel
Sunday dinnersat my aunt and uncle’s house were always entertaining. But the minute we walked in the door, my mother pulled Wren into the kitchen for a catch-up.
They’d always been close.
Wren had been part of the family since we were kids, and after the fallout with Emerson and Collin, and then Wren and me not speaking—there’d been this divide.
It didn’t help that Wren had left immediately after and hadn’t been back.
Until now.
And clearly no one held her brother’s offense against her.
They were welcoming her in just like they always had.
