Travis could relate to that feeling.
Rachel shooed her son out of the room with the ease and practice of someone who had done it a thousand times before.
As soon as he was gone, she clicked the lock on the door.
“You said you locked it.” She turned a fiery gaze on Travis. This time it had nothing to do with the fire from their chemistry experiments.
No, she looked like a dragon about to breathe fire. To be honest, she scared the piss out of him with the way her skin flushed.
“I did.” He scrambled to his feet and pulled on his shirt. “I guess I accidentally unlocked it, too.”
“Accidentally?” she said with a hiss. “Do you know what happens when there are accidents?”
Um…the kid walks in on his mom in an awkward position with his uncle?
“There cannot be accidents.” As quickly as it started, the fire banked, and she fell against the wall, her back to the plaster.
“Rach?” Dave knocked. “Have you seen Mr. Pretzel?”
“No,” she called back. “Give me a minute to finish changing. I’ll be right there.”
“Okay,” Dave replied before his footfalls disappeared down the hallway.
Travis moved toward Rachel, hands up like he was prepared to be arrested. “Scale of one to ten, how pissed are you right now?”
She rubbed her forehead. “That depends,” she said, and suddenly she was smiling. “Are you going to help me find my toothbrush again later?”
“Tonight.” He let out a holy-fuck-thank-God-that’s-over breath. Then he ran his hands up and over her shoulders. “After everyone is in bed and I’ve installed a second lock on your door, I will help you findallthe toothbrushes.”
That got him a smile.
“Then I’m not mad.” She wiped around the edges of his mouth with her thumbs. “There’s makeup remover in my bathroom. You should probably use that—it’s in the pink bottle.”
“Will do.”
“And…uh…wait five minutes after I leave…so…”
She didn’t finish the thought—so we don’t get caught together. She didn’t have to.
He understood why they needed to be secretive, for now. He didn’t like it. Didn’t like the way it made his back teeth set on edge or his limbs itch, but he understood.
Standing on her tiptoes, she pressed a breath of a kiss against his lips. “When you’re done here, we’ll probably need your help to find Mr. Pretzel.”
“It won’t be as fun as the toothbrush hunt, but you’ll be there, so I’ll deal,” he murmured against her mouth.
She smiled, but the effect of it didn’t quite meet her eyes.
Yeah, they’d need to figure out how to handle this thing between them before they had a real accident. The kind of accident they couldn’t cover with a toothbrush and Mr. Pretzel.
The problem was, he wasn’t sure how they could approach the situation reveal without facing the damage of a fallout.
Deep down in his gut, he worried it would affect everyone.
But it’d be Rachel who suffered most.
Chapter Twenty-Three
“New house rule: no one can touch anyone.” — Chris, Florida, USA
