Changing Lanes (Devil's Knights 2nd Generation 4)

“Coffee?”

I nodded toward the pot. “Ready to go. Help yourself.”

Apollo stumbled to the cupboard and grabbed a cup. “Aren’t you up kind of early?”

He filled his mug and leaned against the counter. His hair was disheveled, and he was wearing loose sweatpants and a t-shirt. Much different from the dress slacks and button-down shirts he normally wore. Working in the Wyndemere kitchen gave me access to see the behind-the-scenes of all of these mafiosos. Underneath those suits and ties, they were just like any guy.

I was perched on one of the barstools at the kitchen island and crossed my legs. “I wanted to make dessert for lunch, and I also need to make the buns.”

“Make the buns?” Apollo laughed. “Are you telling me that you make the buns we eat?”

I nodded and looked down at the magazine I was paging through. “Uh, yeah.” I had gotten into the habit of making a large batch of bread and rolls then freezing them. The day of the explosion, I had planned to make a bunch, but then all hell broke loose. I was a bit behind and needed to get the freezer restocked. “I have the dough proofing right now.”

“You do know that is awesome, right?”

I shrugged and turned the page. “Just doing my job.” And earning my paycheck.

“Since you’re making bread, does that mean we’re having cereal for breakfast?” he laughed.

I rolled my eyes and scooted off my stool. I opened the oven and waved my hand in front of it. “You can have cereal, but I have almond croissants that are just about done.”

Apollo’s jaw dropped. “If I wasn’t happily married, Bristol, I would put a ring on your finger pronto.”

I closed the oven and hopped back up on my stool. The croissants still had seven more minutes until they were perfectly golden brown.

“Are you proposing to Bristol?” Murphy called. He walked into the kitchen in the same state as Apollo. Too bad I thought of these guys as my brothers because they were all nice to look at.

“You tell Greer, and I’ll kick your ass,” Apollo warned.

Murphy grabbed a cup and filled it to the brim with coffee. “Say stupid things, and get stupid results.”

“You do know that Greer said something along the same lines to me before, right?” I laughed.

“That hussy,” Apollo spat. A huge smile spread across his lips, and he laughed loudly. “You would be a major upgrade from me, so I can’t really blame her.”

“At least you can admit it,” Murphy chuckled.

“Whoa, you guys are up pretty early.” Princeton strolled into the kitche

n with the newspaper under his arm.

“Do you know you’re probably one of the last people on Earth who actually reads the newspaper?” Apollo nodded to his phone on the counter. “I get the daily news without even climbing out of bed.”

Princeton sat next to me and spread out the newspaper. “My dad used to read the paper every morning. I guess it just wore off on me by seeing it all the time.”

“That’s sweet,” I smiled. “My mom used to make breakfast from scratch every morning for me. As you can tell, that totally wore off on me, too.”

Apollo pointed to the oven. “The proof of that is in the oven.”

“Baking day?” Princeton asked.

I nodded proudly.

“You know about bread baking day?” Apollo asked. “I had no idea she made all the bread and shit, too.”

“Really?” Murphy asked. “How did you not know that? She’s been doing it for years.”

“I know it might seem like a lie, but I really don’t spend my whole day in the kitchen like you two seem to do.” Apollo sipped his coffee and glared at Murphy.