"It's really only been me and my mom since my grandmother passed. It was always a small family. My grandmother was an only child and so was my mom. And then me."
"Small is nice."
"It is," she agreed. "But I have always secretly been envious of those big, crazy Christmas mornings in movies and TV. Or having a literal crowd at backyard barbecues or stuff like that. A dozen happy birthday texts. All that kind of stuff. I imagine it might feel overwhelming, but in a good way."
"That's a good way to put it," I agreed, my finger toying with the ends of her hair, the silky strands slipping over my skin. "I can't even explain to you how loud it gets," I told her, shaking my head. "With all the kids and the teens and the adults. It is insanity. But in a fun way. And I was somewhat used to it, having so many siblings."
"Your poor sister," Katie mused. "Four brothers to pick on her."
"I'd like to say we didn't, but we absolutely did. But she had a lot of people on her team when she needed us too. No one fucked with Scotti."
"I'll bet. I haven't seen all your brothers, but if they're all as intimidating as you are, I imagine no one wanted to mess with her."
There was a sad twinge to her words, like maybe she was thinking about her own shitty school experience, wondering if having four big, burly brothers might have prevented her from being bullies.
I didn't know if it would help with the girls being assholes, but having brothers absolutely would have kept the guys in line. Even if we had to punch our way through the whole school.
"Okay, I have to go get breakfast started," she said, sucking in a deep breath, then slowly pulling away from me.
Her gaze stayed downcast as she gathered her blankets, and made her way to the door.
"What the fuck was that?" I mumbled to my empty room, scrubbing my hands down my face as my cock continued to throb with its need for release.
On a sigh, I got out of bed, going into the bathroom for a shower, then got into junk around clothes, grabbing some coffee Katie had made before she started making the donuts.
"I'm gonna go take a look around. Call me when the food is done, babe."
With that, I went outside, knowing I needed to keep my distance from her, and the simmering sensation of interest I was feeling toward her.
It just couldn't happen.
The bed-sharing thing, that was an isolated incident. And nearness with the opposite sex could just stir sensations that, under normal circumstances, you wouldn't feel toward someone else. Especially a coworker.
I didn't have a lot of rules regarding sex. But not fucking around at work was one of them.
The air was crisp and damp as I went outside, finding the ground littered with small broken branches, blown around leaves. Nothing crazy. But I set to work on it like someone was paying me to, hoping to burn off the excess energy that could so easily turn to sexual frustration.
I gathered sticks, raked leaves, took a walk around to clear any big limbs that had fallen in the path on the way to the lake.
Only then did I head back, smelling the donuts and something else, a mixture of breakfast scents, as I made my way into the kitchen, finding Katie coming back from the fireplace in the common room with a frying pan in her hand.
"Oh, good timing. Eggs are done. You can't just eat donuts," she told me, passing me a plate with the eggs, a sliced apple, and two donuts. "How were things looking?"
"Not bad. I think we are going to luck out with the road being clear, so we can go make some calls. We got to get the power on. The water is on a well pump. We're going to go dry fast.""Damnit," I growled a couple hours later when we huddled into my rental only to be stopped by a massive tree that had downed right across the entire street. "If that useless shed has a chainsaw, I might be able to work on this," I told her with a sigh as I turned the car around, heading back to the cabin.
I wasn't worried about being trapped, per se.
I was worried about being trapped with no electricity.
It would have continued to be a pleasant break from the busier world back in Navesink Bank if not for the worry about water. And with the worry about water came the worry about plumbing. I could rough it. I'd been camping. I could bathe in the pond. I could keep us warm by fire. I could move some of the refrigerated stuff out into the shed, the days were cool enough, to keep anything except dairy and meat from spoiling.