"Why did you stop?" I ask, and he looks over at me.
"The diner wasn’t in the best part of the city, and the dealers would use it as their office at night. There was a drive-by shooting, and well, when I went back in the morning, nothing was left."
My mouth hangs in shock. "You could have died?" I say, and he just shrugs.
"If it’s my time to go, it’s my time to go regardless of where I am," he says as he turns to get the oven mitt. He opens the oven and takes out the pan of biscuits. He put the hot tray on top of the stove. "It could have happened at five a.m. instead of eleven p.m." He grabs two plates. "The good thing is that I was able to get a job not too long after in the kitchen." He smiles. "So everything worked out."
I watch him place two scoops of fluffy eggs onto a plate and then place two slices of bacon with two biscuits side by side. "Do you want more?" he asks, holding the plate in front of me.
"No.” I shake my head, grabbing the plate and bringing it to my nose. My fingers tingle from his hands brushing against mine.
"You smell everything." He laughs at me, and I look at him. "You don’t notice it."
"No." I shake my head, and I look at him, trying not to let it show that I’m shocked he noticed. No one in my whole life has ever noticed that I do that.
"You got up, and you smelled your coffee." He turns to plate his own eggs and bacon, leaving two more pieces on the plate. I put my plate down and grab the extra slices and place them on his plate.
"Who doesn’t smell coffee first thing in the morning?" I counter him. Turning to refill my coffee cup, I walk to his and top his off as well. I ignore the fact that his eyes are watching me. I look over at him when I grab two forks out of the drawer. "Everyone smells their coffee."
"Okay, but they don’t smell the flowers when they walk into work. Nor do they look up and smell the sky when they get out of their car." I stop moving, trying not to overthink that he watches me when I get to work.
"I have your fork," I say softly, turning to grab my cup and walking to the table. I sit in the chair I always sit in, and he sits down in front of me. "Thank you for making breakfast," I mumble, not making eye contact with him. "You didn’t have to."
"I know I didn’t have to," he says, and I can feel that his eyes are on me. "But I wanted to," he says, and I don’t bother looking at him.
I grab my fork and taste the eggs; the buttery fluffy eggs melt on my tongue. "These are good," I say, still not looking up at him. He doesn’t say anything to me as we eat, and when he gets up to put his plate in the dishwasher, I turn and look at him. "I’ll clean up." He looks over at me. "You cooked, I clean. It’s a universal law." I try to make a joke out of it and look over to see that it’s almost seven and I know he starts at seven. "You better get going; you start in ten minutes."
He turns the water off and dries his hands. "I guess I’ll see you later," he says, and I watch his back retreating and he stops and turns back to look at me. "I’m sorry if I said something that offended you in any way."
"You didn’t," I tell him. "This was lovely," I say, and he just nods and turns to walk back into the bedroom. I sit here at the table and I know that I should leave before he comes back out. I put the plate in the sink and walk back to my bedroom.
I close my door softly behind me and put my back on it, leaning my head back. The sounds of him walking around have me looking out the window to see him leaving with the black bag.
"It’s for the best," I say out loud. "You have one goal and one goal only,” I remind myself. "And being stupid and in love is not one of those goals."
Chapter 9
Asher
I carry the bag out with me, because no matter how much I want to go back, I’m not going to. I toss the bag in the back seat and get into the truck. The heat already starting to feel thick, I drive toward Casey’s headquarters, not surprised when I see Ethan’s car already there.
You would never know that in this white tin barn holds the most advanced computer technology in the world. Casey isn’t just a cowboy, he’s a computer tech.