Page 14 of Reject Him

CHAPTER SIX

A knock on the door wakes Eme the next morning. With the shades drawn, no light seeps through the windows.

Groaning, she grabs her phone from the nightstand and squints at the screen. She notes a voicemail from Dillon with the time-stamped a little after midnight. When will the man get the hint? Not only has she made it clear that she wants nothing to do with him, but she’s living in another pack, waiting to get mated.

She ignores the voicemail, quickly deletes it, and groans at the time instead. Flopping her head back onto the pillow, she sets her phone on her chest as she stares at the dark ceiling.

The knock comes again but this time with a bit more volume. “Eme?” the muffled voice calls from the other side of the door.

“Who is it?” And what do you want?

“It’s me, Val,” she says. She opens the door a crack and peeks her head in.

“Val?”

She opens it wider, and Eme sits up. In her free hand is a cup of coffee. “Oh good, you’re up.”

“Well, now I am.”

“Here. I thought you might like some coffee.”

The scent of the brew wafts into the room, and at the smell of it, Eme throws back her covers. She gets up, pads across the floor, and takes the coffee from Val’s offered hand. “Thank you. Do you always get your guests up this way?”

She points at the mug. “Don’t sip it just yet, it’s piping hot. And no, not usually. I thought you’d like a coffee before Logan steals it all. He drinks an ungodly amount of caffeine.”

“Noted,” she mumbles, smelling the steam instead. “What are you doing up so early?”

“I’m always here this early.”

“Why on earth -”

Val puts her hands on her hips. “Someone has to feed you guys. Logan can’t cook, and from what I’ve gathered, you have no interest in learning.”

Eme waves for her to come more fully into the room, and Val does. She takes the opportunity to open the curtains wide. The sun is barely peeking above the horizon, lighting half the sky in a pale blue.

“You don’t have to do that,” Eme says while eyeing the curtains and the way she ties them back.

Val looks at her from over her shoulder while she travels to the next window on the other side of the bed and whips back the curtain. “Do you think I’m a hostage or something? That I’m forced to do this?” It’s said in a joking manner. Otherwise, Eme would be concerned.

“Well -”

She turns to face Eme. “I like what I do. No one forces me to do this. Let me take care of you. I enjoy it.”

Eme wets her lips and thinks it over. She’s never been cared for. At the Stonewell Pack, she’d always had to care for herself. Sure, when her mother died, she had plenty of females helping to raise her, but she’s never had someone so dedicated.

Eme also gets the feeling that Val likes to do these things because she’s lonely. Eme can understand that feeling. Here, she feels just as alone.

“Thank you,” she eventually says.

Val smiles brightly. “It’s my pleasure.” She wrinkles her nose at Eme’s big t-shirt and her lack of pants. “You should get dressed.”

Eme tries a sip of her coffee, and she ends up grimacing at its heat. “In due time.”

“Well, if you want breakfast, you’ll have to. Logan is already awake, waiting at the island for cinnamon rolls.”

Eme’s stomach growls at the thought. “Freshly baked?”

“Homemade.” Val sniffs as if there were any other way to have cinnamon rolls.