Dragging in a deep breath, she hesitated for another long moment before she nodded. “Okay. I won’t be too long. Grab me a drink too, while you’re at it. I’ll be out in a few. Then you can have a turn.”
As she turned and disappeared behind the screen, I squeezed my eyes shut and tried not to think about the fact that she was about to get naked only a few feet away from me. Deciding that it was best to get out of the room before she did and the scent of her shampoo inevitably filled the entire space, I marched my ass toward the minibar and took out a bottle of red wine.
Wine had a tendency to knock me on my ass, but I didn’t care. If I was going to be spending the night with her withoutspending the nightwith her, then I wasn’t doing it sober. That was for fucking sure.
CHAPTER12
SERENITY
As I woke up, the first thing I saw was Bart sleeping on the couch that was far too small for him. Groaning softly, I rolled over and looked up at the powder blue sky instead. I felt so bad for making him sleep there, but I knew it was for the best.
He hadn’t been wrong when he said this had to be the most romantic place on the planet, and with the world outside dusted in a fresh layer of snow and the early morning light still lazy, daylight hadn’t brought much reprieve from that romance.
I’d already had so many emotions reawakened since I’d started talking to him again, but I wasn’t ready to take anything to the next level just yet. Not again anyway. We’d stayed up for hours last night, sitting around the propane fire and just getting caught up on each other’s lives. He’d told me Jeremiah’s and Tanner’s stories, laughing when I confessed how surprised I’d been to hear that either of those guys had actually settled down.
In turn, I’d told him all about Leah and our songs, explaining more about the work I did for clients and how proud I was every time I heard one of my creations on the radio. It had felt just like old times, except that instead of talking about what we wanted to do one day when we grew up, we’d been talking about what we had done so far.
The cobwebs of the best sleep I’d had in years cleared from my head, and so did the memories of the first night of our trip. I knew he had plans for today, and even though I’d grabbed a quick shower after we’d arrived, I needed to take another.
Carefully getting out of bed, I headed for the bathroom. By the time I was done, he was up and rummaging through the stocked fridge. Wearing only a pair of flannel pajama pants, he was shirtless and his hair was sticking up in all directions. It reminded me of a time when waking up together had been a novelty. During high school, it obviously hadn’t happened all too often, and when we’d hit college, our mornings together at first used to be this bashful sweet time when neither of us had really known where to look or if we should be walking around in pajamas around each other.
“Good morning,” I said, averting my gaze when I realized that I definitely shouldn’t be ogling the ropy definition of the muscles in his back or how they rippled when he moved.
“Morning,” he said, sounding cheerful despite having been crammed onto that tiny couch all night. “What do you feel like for breakfast? They aim to give their customers the most privacy they can, so the kitchen comes stocked with some basics to cook yourself and they don’t offer any meals on the premises.”
“What are the options?” I asked, going over to sit at the small dining-room table instead of joining him in the kitchenette while he was half-naked.
I wasn’t an animal and I knew he wasn’t either. It wasn’t like we wouldn’t be able to control ourselves if we got within a few feet of each other while scantily clothed, but it would also be a temptation we just didn’t need when we were still trying to hit our stride with the whole travel-companion-only thing.
He glanced at me over his shoulder, smiling as he pushed his glasses back up the bridge of his nose. “There’s some stuff for a normal breakfast. Eggs. Bread. Some pancake mix and milk.”
“You don’t sound particularly enthusiastic about any of those options. What else is there?”
“Well, there’s fish.”
“Fish?”
“Yep. It’s for a traditional Icelandic breakfast. There’s a recipe attached to the box. Want to try it?”
“Let’s do it,” I said. “I’m really not sure about anything fishy for breakfast, but when in Iceland, right?”
“Right.” He chuckled as he pulled out the packet of pancake mix as well. “If all else fails, at least we’ll have this as a backup plan.”
“We won’t need it.” I injected what little confidence I had in my culinary abilities into the statement, and Bart laughed.
“Let’s be honest. Between the two of us as chefs, we might need it. At least this will be an interesting experience.”
“Just tell me where you want me,” I said, getting up and going over to him in the kitchen. If we were cooking together, at least there’d be a reason for us to be squeezed together in the tight space.
As he turned, he almost bumped into me, and I froze, just staring up at him for a second. Tension suddenly filled the air between us, but when my gaze accidentally dropped to his mouth, I ducked my head and jumped back.
“Right. I’m sure you want to go have a shower. You go do that and I’ll get started here.”
“Yeah. Okay.” He blew out a long, quiet breath, then nodded and walked around me, giving me as much space as he could, given the size of the kitchenette. “I’ll only be a few minutes.”
“Take your time,” I said, meaning it. Both of us needed time to adjust to the situation, and it would be better going forward if we did all the adapting we needed to do now.
Old habits died hard, and considering that we’d kissed for so many years whenever we’d found ourselves as close to each other as we had been right then, I was chalking it up to habit.All we need to do is get into a new rhythm.