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Her hands went still, and she looked up at him. “Thank you.”
“I’d still like to see what you’ve been working on.”
“You will.”
“Soon?”
Nicole smiled. “Soon.”
He was curious as hell, but for now, he’d fall back.
By seven forty-five, they were sitting side by side at her kitchen table, both fully dressed. Nicole had made oatmeal and set out banana slices, raisins, chopped pecans, brown sugar, honey, and cinnamon so they could fix their bowls however they wanted. Drew liked sitting here with her. When she leaned her head against his upper arm, he kissed the top of her head before she went back to her oatmeal. Nothing about the morning felt awkward, even though he’d never done any of this with anybody else.
Over the last of his apple juice, he noticed the flowers beside the sink. “Ryan get those for Bailey?”
Nicole glanced toward the counter, then set her spoon down and turned to him. “Cedric brought them,” she said quietly. “I was going to tell you. He stopped by last night, before you came over.”
Drew looked at the flowers again. Cedric had bought half the damn florist. “Was he trying to get you back?”
“No. He came to apologize for the other night.”
“And that’s all?”
Nicole rested her hand over his. “That’s all, Drew. We talked, and he left.”
Drew turned his hand over and gave hers a quick squeeze, then let go and pushed back from the table. He took his bowl and cup to the sink. “Could’ve done that over the phone.”
He turned on the water and took his sweet time washing two dishes. He didn’t like knowing Cedric had been here or that Nicole had kept the flowers. He’d have been perfectly fucking happy to see them in the trash. Then her arms came around his waist, and she pressed her cheek between his shoulder blades. Drew kept rinsing, but some of the tightness in his shoulders eased. He shut off the water, set the bowl and cup in the dish rack, and dried his hands before he turned around in her arms.
“It’s over between us,” Nicole said, looking up at him. “He knows that.”
“I don’t want him coming around here.”
It sounded like an order. Drew heard it, but with those flowers sitting beside him, he wasn’t about to take it back.
“He’s not going to keep coming over, Drew. We talked. We’re okay, but we’re done.”
Her arms stayed around him as he settled his hands on her hips. He believed her. That didn’t mean he had to like any of it. “Does he know about us?”
“He knows I’ve been seeing you. But when he asked about us, I didn’t really know what to tell him. You and I hadn’t talked yet.”
Drew’s eyes went back to the flowers.
“So I told him we were seeing where things went,” Nicole continued.
Which was about all she could have told him. Before last night, he hadn’t given her much else to work with. Knowing that didn’t make it any easier to hear.
“Are you mad at me?”
He dragged his eyes off the flowers. “No.”
“Then talk to me. You don’t have anything to be jealous about.”
“I don’t get jealous.”
Yeah, that was bullshit. He hadn’t liked Cedric’s ass since he first saw him with Nicole on the quad.
Nicole glanced toward the bouquet, then back at him, but let that one go.
