She grins up at me, and suspicion fills her features. She doesn’t know if I’m being serious or if I’m fucking with her. Either way, I’m not about to explain it. She chooses to ignore me and scoops out some ice cream before devouring it.
Her eyes close as the deliciousness hits her taste buds, and I find myself in a trance, unable to look away. I don't think she realizes how damn sexy she is. In fact, I'm sure she has no idea what her little show is doing to me. I could be sitting with a stripper dancing on my lap and not get this fucking hot. She’s just that good. Who would have known that watching a chick eat ice cream from the tub was going to be my undoing? That cold spoon dipping in and out of her mouth, her tongue trailing over the silver metal, making me wish it was something else she was working that hard on.
I look down at my burnt spaghetti and concentrate on the sound of the chainsaw coming from the living room before I throw myself at her and freak her out.
Before I know it, the bowl is empty, and I realize that I must have been hungrier than I thought. It was a big fucking day, and I hardly got a chance to eat lunch. So, despite the fact that it was burnt, it was more than welcome. Had I gone home, I would have gone straight to bed and not eaten until the morning.
I sit back in my chair, and we fall into easy conversation that comes as natural as waking up in the morning. I don’t know what it is about her, but I don’t even need to try.
Realizing time has flown by and it’s just about midnight, I get up and walk into the kitchen. She has two babies to care for tomorrow, and I’m sure having some guy in her home in the middle of the night probably isn’t ideal. I had no intention to barge in on her evening. All I wanted was to fix her railing and leave, but the second she invited me in, I couldn’t say no.
I smile to myself as she spins around on the counter to keep an eye on me. “Oh, no. You don’t need to do that,” she argues as I go to wash up my dish. “I can do it. You’ve already done so much for me.”
I scoff at her efforts to try and get me to stop and get on with my task. I search under the sink for the dishwashing liquid and smirk to myself when I find it. Bingo.
“You know, you really didn’t have to fix the railing,” she tells me as I get busy.
I look over at her, watching me with those big blue eyes. “Yeah, I did.”
She polishes off the tub of ice cream and places it down beside her with a teasing smile gracing her lips. “And what makes you think it was your job to fix it? How do you know that I don’t already have some guy lined up to do it?”
“Angel, I don’t doubt that you have an endless line of guys begging to do shit for you, but I don’t care. There’s no ring on your finger, you invited me in late at night, and when I got here, that railing was still broken. So, as far as I’m concerned, there’s no man in your life … unless you’re about to tell me otherwise.”
Amelia watches me for a prolonged second, and I see taunts and teasing on the tip of her tongue, but she must swallow them as she gently shakes her head. “No,” she murmurs with a smile playing on her lips. “There’s no man.”
Fuck, that’s like music to my ears. “That’s what I thought,” I tell her. “Hence why I couldn’t resist coming around here in the middle of the night to fix it. Besides, my boys were the ones who broke it, so I have to fix it.”
Her brows pull down as confusion plagues her. “What do you mean? Is it some kind of rule with the fire department? You break it, you fix it?”
“No,” I chuckle at the absurdity of it. If we had to fix everything we broke in order to save lives, we’d be broke. “I just wanted to. I didn’t like the way you were looking at it this afternoon, and when you told me about the sentiment, I couldn’t help myself. I had to make it right.”
She purses her lips, looking away while very clearly deep in thought. “Well, thank you anyway. It would have killed me walking past it every day and seeing it like that.”
I walk across the kitchen and pluck the spoon out of her fingers, letting my hand trail over her skin for the briefest moment. “Anytime,” I murmur lowly, loving how my proximity has her cheeks flushing a beautiful shade of red.