I groan, “Did we not learn our lesson with the contractor?”
He holds his hands up. “You’re right, you can handle your business.”
He gets my plate and serves me a plate while I watch him. Weston doesn’t do anything half assed. If he’s going to care for you, you’re going to feel pampered. Which is exactly how I feel when he sets my food and coffee down in front of me.
“Please accept my ‘I’m sorry I was an idiot breakfast peace offering’,” he says as he sits across from me.
“I’ll accept it only because I know being an idiot comes so naturally to you,” I say with a wink. Weston is far from an idiot; he’s kindhearted and selfless. He was just a kid who made a dumb decision that blew our love into smithereens.
He feigns being hurt by my words and places a hand over his injured heart. “Did anyone tell you you’re kind of mean in the morning?”
“That’s because I haven’t had my coffee yet,” I say, blowing into the hot mug.
“You mean your creamer with a splash of coffee,” he challenges with a raised brow.
“Yes, I do,” I sass back with a smirk.
He shakes his head, laughs, and brings a bite of food to his mouth. This is nice. Starting my day with him. Teasing, laughing. My eyes linger on him, thinking about whether this is what I want.
“So, what have you got going on today?” he asks as he takes a sip of his own coffee.
“Well, I need to take pictures of progress to email to my boss becauseapparently my word is no longer good enough. Then I’m going to continue to work on the bookkeeping. And then I need to call your sister and see what she wants to do for interior decorating.”
“Why do you need to call Aspen? I can help you with that. “You’re good at man caves, but I think you might want to go for a little bit more of a homey feeling, and I think Aspen has the perfect eye for cozy rustic that will make this a success.” In reality, this is a really nice cabin, and it’s not as bachelor pad as I was expecting. The flowers up front are already sprucing it up. If I could talk him into matching furniture, we’d really be on a roll.
“Yeah, I’m gonna need you to drink that coffee faster before I need an ice pack for the burns that you are delivering to me.” His smile is devilish.
I chuckle and I hate myself for it. I love giving him a hard time. It used to be our favorite pastime. But mostly, I teased him. He never really gave it back to me; in fact, if you dare to ever insult me, even to this day, he comes running to my rescue, apparently.
“I’m sorry that was kind of mean. Your cabin is really, really nice, but I think your sister will be the perfect person to help make each cabin special for your future guests.”
“That she does. I guess I can hand the reins over to her when it comes to interior decorating. Will you show me what you come up with?” he asks, hope in his eyes.
“Sure, I can CC you on the email proposal I sent to my boss.” I angrily stab my pancake with my fork as I think about that.
“Yeah, or you can just show me when you get home?”
I take a moment to look at him, really look, and I can see he’s trying. He’s giving me full reign of the project, and I see the remorse that’s still in his eyes, and I decide to give him this win. “Okay,” I agree as I finish up with what’s left on my plate and go to take it to the sink.
“I can get that for you, don’t worry about it.” Weston stands, grabbing my plate and empty mug.
I sigh, “West, I know you’re sorry, but I promise I can clean up after myself.”
“Yeah, and I promise I don’t mind helping you out. I’m going to take my plate in a second anyway.”
“Okay, that’s sweet of you. Thanks.”
“Willow, are you going to be able to forgive me?” Weston asks, his voice low and his back turned to me.
The sudden shift in conversation throws me off.
“I do forgive you, but what does that mean for us? I don’t know yet.” The roaring voice inside my head wants me to run into his arms right now, but the smarter part of me wants to take a breath and think it through. I don’t want to hurt him, so I tack on, “You’re still the best guy I know, West.”
My feet carry me up the stairs, and my thoughts are going in circles, practically making me dizzy. What do I do when the only person I want is him?
Chapter 26
Weston
