I blinked. Then I looked at my hand and gave myself a high-five with the other one before climbing up the steps and going inside too. I’d walked right into that.
Dealing with this man was going to be my good deed of the year. Maybe the century. It would be a thankless job, but somebody had to do it, and that person was me.
Because of all the millions of yards he could have landed in, it had been mine.
What were the fucking chances?
CHAPTERSEVEN
I was sittingon the edge of the couch, tugging my socks back on—I’d kicked them off in the middle of the night—when I heard sounds from down the hall.
Yawning, I got up and made my way toward my room, wondering what was going on. When I’d fallen asleep last night, he had still been up, watching the final season ofStranger Thingson my tablet. Had he not been able to sleep?
I peeked into the room and blinked.
He was awake.
What shocked me the most was the fact he was wearing a hoodie that I knew without a doubt I’d left in the dryer last night, and beside him on the bed was an empty bag of Cheetos and the box of cookies I was carefully portioning out, and a bottle of my favorite beer was on the nightstand.
But Cheetos? Really?
And he liked peach beer?
After we’d gone back inside, he’d headed straight to the bedroom, making me think he’d overextended himself. Big surprise. I brought dinner over and fed him and gulped down my own portion afterward. Then I’d cleaned the kitchen, finished my last two lessons, and when it looked like he wasn’t going to sleep any time soon, I took the couch like usual and passed out there.
I didn’t sleep that great, tossing and turning and having one crappy dream after another that I couldn’t recall anymore. So when I’d woken up with a funny stomach, I didn’t let myself think too much about it. Yesterday had been pretty weird after all, and I’d decided that today was going to be the day I finally picked a place to move.
I yawned, pushing that nagging worry in the pit of my stomach aside before fully stepping into the doorway. “Good morning.”
Those purple eyes flicked over to me for a moment before going back to my tablet, which he’d plugged in at some point.
Good morning to me too.
I squeezed my eyes closed so that I wouldn’t roll them and tried again. “What time did you wake up?” I asked, too tired to remember it was a waste of time asking him anything.
He didn’t even bother glancing my way as he answered, his voice flat and either bored or irritated, probably both. “I haven’t slept.”
I eyed him. He’d stayed up all night? I glanced at the screen, and it took me a second to recognize that I’d watched the movie he had on.
Except I’d watched it with subtitles, and there wasn’t any captioning now.
“Do you speak Japanese?” I blurted out in surprise.
“I speak… several languages,” he replied, shocking me with just that. “I’m ready for breakfast.”
He spokeseverallanguages, excuse me. I spoke three fluently, another really well—well enough to teach students who spoke it; it just didn’t come to me as naturally yet—and two others were a work in progress. Some people took dance classes; I had taken language classes. Whatever was offered, wherever we were, I’d taken with my grandpa.For fun.At one point, my grandpa had done nothing but speak to me in Portuguese for almost a year.Just in case we ever went to Brazil.After college, he’d spent a few years there before moving back to Costa Rica, where he’d met my grandma.
But I kept my mouth shut on that.
Because I was too focused on the fact that he thought I looked like a maid. Could he use the word “please” every once in a while? I tried to keep my nose from scrunching up and forced myself to clench my teeth so that I wouldn’t open my mouth and say something I regretted.
He’s a member of the Trinity, Gracie.
R-e-s-p-e-c-t and all that.
I could feed him. He already seemed to be doing a little better, which meant hopefully he’d be out of here soon. I could survive him and his fucking attitude a little while longer.
I kept on telling myself that as I walked out and headed toward the kitchen. I was only a little down the hall when I heard him get up and follow, shuffling and letting out these tiny groans that didn’t sound much better than they had days ago. He took a seat at the table while I ducked into the refrigerator to see what I could make. I usually fasted a few more hours, but I could eat now so that I wouldn’t have to waste more time later cooking again.
