Her mouth was hanging open.
“And then I’ll be ready for lunch in a few hours.”
“That’s- You have a big appetite,” she said with an incredulous laugh. “I can make you more-”
I reached out, putting my hand on her arm as she started to rise and stopping her. “Please. Eat your breakfast. I can make it, if you don’t mind that I use your kitchen?”
“Of course not,” she said.
She watched as I walked over to the fridge and pulled out a carton of eggs. She had about five cartons in there and now I knew it was for Penny because she had only taken one for her own breakfast.
“I’ll pick you up some groceries later today,” I told her.
“Oh, you don’t have to do that.”
Grinning at her over my shoulder, I said, “Yeah, I do. If I stay very long, then you’ll be searching your pantry for leftover crumbs.”
She searched my eyes, her own smile forming. “And are you planning to? Stay very long?”
“If you don’t kick my ass out, yeah.”
She picked up her fork and began to slowly eat instead of answering.
She didn’t seem to be in a hurry to get rid of me, which made me damn happy. A furry body brushed against my pant leg. Glancing down, I squatted and stroked a hand over Penny’s fur. It was softer than I would have expected.
“Oh, that’s wonderful.” I glanced up at Rae. “She doesn’t normally warm up to people so quickly. She must like your energy.”
I shrugged, gave Penny a scratch under the chin, then stood and washed my hands. “Animals are easier to understand than humans. It’s all body language.”
“You don’t seem to struggle to get along with people,” she pointed out.
“I have my moments. There’s a lot of time where I’d rather be alone than with other people.”
“I understand that completely. A lot of people think my job would be lonely. And…maybe it would be for most, but I don’t mind my own company.”
I cracked eggs into a skillet. “We tend to drift into jobs like that.”
She arched a brow at me in question.
“Introverts.”
She shook her head. “I’ve seen you with your brothers. With your family. The day of Brandon’s funeral, you were a rock for your cousin and his wife. I wouldn’t say you’re introverted.”
“I can be outgoing. Joke around. I get along with my brothers so much because they let me just be me. We all understand that each of us has some kind of…strange thing…we’re harboring.”
She cocked her head. “What strange thing is Warrant harboring?”
I snorted. “You mean besides the fact that he’s an asshole?” I said it with a grin because he would be the first to admit it. “He’s a fucking menace.”
“That’s…true,” she replied with a laugh. She turned fully toward me and leaned forward a bit. “I’m curious…”
“Yeah?”
“What’s Demo’s?”
I looked over at her in silence.
She shrugged. “He just seems like he’s carrying something…heavy.”
