It makes me feel all dramatically warm and happy inside to know that I get a piece of him that no one else does.
“What am I going to do with all this food?” Caulder asks, sighing.
“Your fridge full?”
He crosses the kitchen to open the fridge. It’s not full, but it’s certainly not empty. “There’s no way I’m even going to eat it all before it goes bad.”
“How about your freezer?”
Caulder closes the fridge and opens the freezer. “Yeah. I guess I can do that.”
“They’re just looking out for you,” I remind him, getting to my feet and joining him in the kitchen.
A smile touches his lips. “I know. I’m going to grumble about it, but it secretly means a lot to me.”
I kiss the side of his head and start arranging dishes. Caulder pokes around his cabinets until he’s assembled enough single-serving sized storage containers to transfer food into. While he handles putting the food away, I begin rinsing off the dishes and putting them in the dishwasher.
“How does it feel to know you’renothaving a kid?” I ask.
Caulder snorts. With a grin, I glance at him. There’s no tension in his shoulders now. His relief is almost visible, almost tangible in the air. We knew without a doubt that her unborn baby didn’t belong to Caulder. But the world turning on him for this bullshit weighed on his shoulders like a boulder.
“I’ve never been so relieved to be a virgin in my life,” Caulder says.
I laugh. Caulder flashes me a teasing smile before concentrating on the food again.
Listening to one side of the conversation when he took Rigo’s call had been unsettling. There was a moment of relief, yes, but it wasn’t long enough to give me any indication about whether the call was good or bad. Especially when he ended the call and just stood there, staring off into space.
I was ready to lose my shit if something else came out of the blue.
Thankfully, he was just overwhelmed with relief. Not in shock about something else.
When we’re finished, Caulder rubs his face and yawns. I fit the rest of the dishes into the dishwasher, then close and start it. Thankfully, it was mostly empty, so all the big pieces fit with some master Tetris skills. I’m even confident they’ll all get clean.
After wiping my hands on a dish towel, I pull him against me. His arms wrap around my back, and he rests his head against mine.
“I hate that I can almost hear the clock ticking down,” he mutters.
“So do I,” I say, pressing a kiss to his cheek. “But even when it reaches the end, it’ll start counting down the seconds until we’re together again. I think we can squeeze in another couple short visits before the end of the season.”
“I’m going to need to invest in a plane. There’s no cheap option when flying from Buffalo to Phoenix.”
“No, there’s not,” I agree. “We’ll deal with it for the rest of the season and come up with a better plan for next season.” I kiss his cheek again. “I’ll finish in the kitchen. Go take a shower and wake up. We have a day of cuddling on the couch to get through and I’m going to need your full attention.”
Caulder chuckles. “Fine. Don’t be surprised if I fall asleep on you, though. I feel like I’ve been awake for days.”
“That’s fine. Go.”
He leaves the kitchen. I watch him go for a minute before turning to clean the counters and wash the few smaller dishes in the sink. I stall for a while to give him some time. If I join him, I’m going to be groping his fine ass. It’s hard enough keeping my hands off him when we’re together. But a naked, wet Caulder? Yeah…
Eventually, I think enough time’s passed and I follow down the hall. Caulder’s in his closet, wearing just shorts again. They ride low on his hips, which is why I know he’s not wearing anything under them.
Be still my throbbing dick.
He’s got such a nice ass. Round and hard.
Unable to help myself, I step behind him and wrap my arms around his torso. Caulder sighs and immediately leans back into me, letting his head fall back onto my shoulder. “You forget what you were doing in here?” I ask.
He huffs quiet laughter. “I was debating on whether I wanted to put a shirt on.”
