“The sheriff of the county where he actually works called Jake and told him that he never turned up for work, and that he isn’t at home or answering his phone.”
“Do you think something happened to him?” That was terrible. He wasn’t a good cop and seemed a bit arrogant and rude. But she didn’t want something bad to happen.
“Not sure. They’re treating it as a missing person. We’ll see what happens.”
“All right.”
Eli cupped the back of her head. “Are you feeling all right? If you’re too tired you don’t have to do this.”
“No, I’m good. I promise. I really want to get back to work.”
He nodded. “Get to it, then. I’ll tell you when it’s time to stop.”
Arabella had worried that she might be embarrassed with someone watching on. But she quickly forgot Eli was in the room as he worked on his laptop. She soon zoned him out and it wasn’tlong until she had her cake baked and cooled and was starting to put the icing on.
Suddenly, she became aware of someone waving at her in her peripheral vision. Reaching over, she paused her video. Then she smiled as she saw Kellan.
“Hey, you’re home early.”
He frowned at her, crossing his arms over his chest. “Actually, I’m late. You just didn’t notice.”
“Oh, sorry.” She winced, realizing that she hadn’t seen him come in. That was so rude.
“You really do zone out when you work, don’t you?” Eli said.
“We’ll have to watch that,” Kellan said. “She could easily exhaust herself.”
“And forget to eat,” Eli added.
“Um, guys. I’m right here,” she said, waving her hand in the air.
“Yes, we know,” Kellan said.
“Do you need some help with cleaning up?” Eli asked. “We thought we’d go to Fet for dinner.”
Fet? Ooh, it looked really nice. She’d heard good things.
“I meant that you don’t need to talk about me when I’m right here. You can talk to me. And there’s not much to clean up.” She’d sort out the video footage for editing later and started cleaning. To her surprise, Kellan and Eli pitched in anyway.
She paused, staring at them.
“Something wrong?” Eli asked.
“I’m just not used to people helping me, I guess.”
“You’ll have to get used to it,” Kellan said.
“You didn’t kiss me hello,” she said to him suddenly.
He turned and she blushed. “I mean, um, if you want to, it would be nice if when I saw you, that you hugged or kissed me. I know I had the video going and stuff, I just thought I’d mention that.”
Eli had said to lay down the boundaries. But would Kellan want that? Was he annoyed at her?
She watched him carefully, but he just nodded and stepped forward, hugging her tight.
“Hello, Butterfly.” Leaning down, he kissed her lightly.
Since those orgasms, they hadn’t done much more than kiss. They had pushed the beds together and she slept in between them. Although Kellan didn’t sleep much, he was usually up and running before she woke.
