“Relax. I’m sure the next generation of Edens has yet to be spawned. I’ll go run her off.”
Wade opened the bedroom door and slipped down the stairs to the ground floor. His mother was nowhere to be found, but she’d certainly been in the bunkhouse. Their clothes from the living room floor—not the panties, thankfully—had been picked up and neatly laid over the arm of the couch. The coffeepot was on and dripping the last of a fresh pot. There was a pitcher of orange juice and a foil-wrapped casserole dish on the counter. In the center of the breakfast table was a vase filled with some of the greenhouse-grown roses left over from the pine centerpieces she sold in the shop.
“Is it safe?”
Wade turned to find Tori standing a few steps from the bottom of the staircase, a blanket wrapped around her like a toga.
“Yes, she’s gone. She brought us breakfast.”
Tori stooped down at the bottom of the stairs, snatching up her panties. She found her purse by the front door and stuffed the panties inside to hide the evidence in case someone came back. “Breakfast?”
“Yes, are you hungry?”
She smiled sheepishly. “After the meal last night I thought I might never eat again. But I did manage to work up quite an appetite.”
That was for sure. After they made it upstairs, they’d taken a shower together, starting another round of lovemaking they finished in the bed.
“Would you like coffee or orange juice?”
“Juice,” she said, reaching for her red dress. “This seems like a little much for breakfast, but I didn’t plan for an overnight trip.”
“Upstairs in the bedroom drawer are some shirts you’re welcome to try on. They’ll be big, but it’s better than a cocktail dress. And under the sink are some extra toiletries that Molly keeps here in case one of us forgets something. There should be a new toothbrush and anything else you might need.”
Tori nodded and slunk back toward the stairs. “That’s great. I’ll be right back.”
By the time she came back downstairs in an oversize Yale alumni sweatshirt, Wade had made them both a plate with breakfast casserole and diced fruit that Molly had left in the fridge. He handed her a glass of orange juice as she sat down at the table.
“This looks wonderful. Molly really didn’t have to go to all this trouble.”
Wade sat down with a mug of coffee and shook his head. “She lives for this. Don’t let her fool you.”
Tori took a few bites, quietly eating and avoiding making eye contact with Wade. He wasn’t sure if the typical morning after had been made more awkward, or less, by his mother’s culinary interference.
“How are you this morning?” he asked.
Tori brushed her loose hair behind her ear and took a sip of juice before she answered. “Honestly, I’m a little weirded out that your mother knows we slept together, and I’m still trying to process that fact myself.”
“Do you regret last night?”
“No,” she said. “But sex always changes things. I’m not quite sure what’s going to happen from here.”
“I believe we go out on another date.”
Tori frowned. “I don’t know if I’m ready for that. Three dates in a week. With a man who wants my land and fired me from my first real job.”
“That still bothers you, doesn’t it?”
“Yes,” she admitted. “Despite what you believe, I didn’t do anything wrong. I didn’t so much as shake that guy’s hand, much less handle anything else. I was so naive. And when you fired me, it felt like I’d lost everything. My apartment, my confidence in my abilities. Even a little of my trust in men.”
Now it was Wade’s turn to frown. “I damaged your ability to trust men?”
Tori shrugged. “In a way. More me not being able to trust that I know what I’m doing in a relationship. I had been attracted to you. You were the boss, and I knew it was a bad idea, but I couldn’t help it. Sometimes I wondered if the feeling was mutual. Those couple of nights that we worked late together, I thought I’d felt a spark of something.”
“You did. I wanted very badly to ask you out, but I wasn’t sure if it would be appropriate, since you worked for me.”
Tori sighed and sat back in her chair. “I’m glad I didn’t imagine that. One afternoon I remember asking your assistant, Lauren, what she thought, since I figured she knew you best. She said I was way off. That I wasn’t your type at all. Then you fired me, and I figured I must’ve been imagining things.”