I went downstairs, itching for a mug of tea and something to eat.
Cook stood in the kitchen and turned around when he heard me. “Hey, you’re up.”
“Barely,” I grumped and went to the coffee maker which blessedly also made tea and cocoa.
Chuckling, he pushed aside the thing he’d been using to slice and dice veggies for something. “What do you want to eat?”
“Whatever’s easy to make?”
“None of that now. You made sure my feet were clean and I made it to bed last night. The least I can do is make you something you really like.”
I blushed, remembering the position I’d been in the shower. “Uh…pancakes?”
“Blueberry okay?” he asked, already grabbing a bowl from a cabinet.
“Yeah, and…if you could put a bit of lemon in the batter?” So maybe I’d gotten hooked on the combination after baking one blueberry and lemon cake for River when he got his dream job.
“Sure. Never done that before, but I know the combination works.”
“Thank you.” I wandered onto the couch on the other side of the mostly open downstairs and sat down with my mug clutched in my hands.
I heard faint typing from Lake’s office, and wondered how he was faring alone without his editor and River’s maybe-boyfriend Ben. It still felt like kismet that those two had been reunited. I didn’t know where things were between them right now, because Ben had had to leave to do another editing job elsewhere, but I felt confident they’d get there eventually. River must’ve been at work and Theo was doing his job outside.
That reminded me. “Hey, did the foal survive?”
Cook glanced at me while he mixed the pancake batter. “Yeah, so far so good. Seb said it’s touch and go for a while, but for now, she’s okay.”
“It’s a girl?”
“Yeah. Lake said if she survives, she should be called Delilah the Second.” I could see the corner of his mouth turn up as he turned back to cooking.
I chuckled. Delilah had been the mare that started this all, and I felt like giving that name to the foal that was here in the beginning of Lake’s ownership was fitting.
“Jack?”
He turned his head so fast it was almost comical. “What?”
“You’re not in trouble,” I teased. He snorted. “Would you come with me outside today? I want to try and see how far I can go from the back door.”
“Of course. Once I’ve fed you and finished all the lunch things I’m making, absolutely.”
“Okay, good.”
I turned my gaze back to the large windows. Maybe I could do this, maybe not.
There was just something about Jack that made me feel safe. Whether that extended to this issue, I couldn’t know unless I tried.
Chapter 8
Cook
I woke up with two kittens nestled against my neck and one sprawled on top of me. For a moment, I was confused, and then the events of the previous night flooded back in.
The foal, the way I was swaying by the time I got back to the house. I remembered Rey and the kittens, and then suddenly the image of Rey on his knees in front of me, washing my feet came back and I groaned.
Okay, that…that had been a lot. And not even in a sexy way, even though of course my brain had gone there in that moment and still did now. What guy wouldn’t? But what had been even more memorable was the way he’d taken care of me.
Without Rey, I would’ve gone to bed with dirty feet and woken up and hated myself a little for having to change my sheets after one night home.
