I wasn’t used to anyone being so direct. Most people got bored and wandered off, or assumed I had nothing to say.
Cam was patient when he had the time.
Ragey as hell when he didn’t.
Alexei’s easy acceptance unnerved me. I waited for cold-hot embarrassment to flood me, but nothing happened. Alexei waited as if it was the most normal thing in the world to text him when he was right in front of me.
I opened my phone, tapped the screen, then held it up to show him.
Saint:why?
“Why do you puzzle me?”
I nodded.
Alexei pointed at the stove. I followed his direction and joined him there. “You are hard to read. Not about Cam, but with everything else.”
Saint:the club?
“No.”
Everything else.He meant him. And Cam. And me.
The three of us.
Saint:I can’t read me either, but you can’t talk about being cryptic AF
Alexei smiled and opened a cabinet. He found a frying pan and held it up to me.
I nodded and he placed it on the stove with undue care.
Then he hoisted himself onto the counter.
Apparently, I was cooking alone.
I didn’t mind. Keeping my hands busy made my speech work better, and I was pretty good at breakfast. Which was lucky, cos I sure as shit couldn’t cook anything else.
Alexei watched me slice mushrooms and hack up spinach. Actually, he watched the knife and I wondered if he was nervous of me. Most people were, but he wasn’t most people. Rumour had it that he’d snapped Frank Crow’s neck, that cunt Drummer too, and neither man was fucking small.
I found a bowl and a fork and pointed at the eggs.
Alexei cracked and whisked them, then passed the bowl to me with a strange expression on his face. “I’ve never done this before.”
“Cook?”
“With someone. I am alone a lot.”
“Do you like it?”
“I’ve never thought about it.”
“Why not?”
He slid from the countertop and washed his hands. Twice. “Why would I think about it? It would not change anything.”
I wanted to know if being alone was something he chose, but the words didn’t come and my hands were occupied. I made myself focus on making Cam something edible to wake up to, and then Alexei too, though I had the weirdest feeling that he wouldn’t eat it.
“Foryourself, wingman.”
