Page 24 of Tanner (Dirty Misfits MC 5)
As he closed my door, I rolled onto my back. I stared up at a hazy ceiling, trying to get my bearings as the foggy, listlessness of sleep slowly rose from my view. I pressed myself up with my elbows and looked around as everything came rushing back.
And as I clamored off the bed, I tried my best to look presentable before heading out into the kitchen.
“I told him he didn’t have to wake you up,” Summer said.
I waved my hand at her as I made my way to the stove. “He’s fine. You’re fine. Let me get something whipped up for you.”
“Really, I can make it,” she said as she came to stand beside me.
I nodded. “Then, you can help, because cooking pre-caffeine isn’t a good decision for me.”
Her cute little giggle flooded my ears as it fell from her lips and I thought my heart might shoot into the heavens. I peered down at her and watched as she dug around for pots and pans. She walked over to the fridge and looked to me for guidance, like we always used to do whenever we had her parent’s kitchen all to ourselves.
“Ready when you are,” she said.
I had a miniature flashback to when we were teenagers. I remembered back to the first time we ever cooked together. We had come back from playing around in the ocean and she had on nothing but a bikini top and the skimpiest little shorts I’d ever seen in my fucking life. With salted hair caressing her skin and a glistening tan against her skin, she looked to me for direction and guidance.
Just like now.
Guess some things never change.
“I’ll need some eggs, cheese, and any vegetables we’ve got in there that might be on their last leg,” I said.
She dipped into the fridge and I couldn’t help but stare at her ass.
“All right, we’ve got half of an onion, one more carrot left, half a red pepper, lots of shredded cheese, and… oh! We have to use this.”
When she raised up and dumped the arm-full of food she had onto the counter, I saw what she was talking about. She had found her favorite food, corn on the cob, and it was apparently left over from something one of the guys brought in. I wasn’t sure whose it was, but the rule of the clubhouse always stood tall and strong for the compound.
If their name wasn’t on it, then it was fair game.
“Did any of that come out of anything labeled?” I asked.
Summer peeked back into the fridge. “Nope. Everything came from the veggie drawer down here, except for the corn on the cob. That was just in a Ziplock bag in the door, of all places.”
I grinned. “Fair game, then. I’ll get started on the omelets, but I want you to put some toast in the toaster and see if you can find me some bacon. Or sausage. Or something to go along with everything.”
We danced around each other in the kitchen like we hadn’t skipped a beat from our teenage years. It felt familiar and comforting, especially during this tumultuous time for the crew. Every time she brushed by me, my cock jumped. Every time she smiled up at me, my heart leapt in my chest. Electricity sizzled through the marrow of my bones every time her eyes met mine, but for the life of me I couldn’t get my walls to come down.
The rebar and cement walls around my heart had hardened over the years, and even after our conversation, I still didn’t understand why she didn’t show up.
She’d never been one to listen to her parents, ever. She had never been one to give into her parents demands in fear of their punishments.
So, what changed?
Breakfast moved by in a blur. Summer met the rest of the women staying at the compound, and after twenty minutes of talking over breakfast, they already had plans for a girls’ movie night, complete with snacks. The rest of the guys trickled out one by one, and I whipped up as much food as I could before I slipped away. I picked up a piece of bacon I fried on the stove and shoved it into my mouth, but that was about all I could stomach.
Especially since Brooks beckoned for me.
“We need to talk,” he murmured in my ear.
I nodded my head as I watched him walk out of the kitchen, and I knew that meant that I needed to follow him. Molly was already roping Summer into helping set up a nursery for their impending one once we all got ourselves out of this mess, and it shocked me that Summer agreed to help.
But everything fell to the wayside once I slipped into Brooks’ room and found the rest of the guys there as well.
