Page 33 of From the Embers
I tried to convince her to take a break. I even suggested a trip to the park with the kids. But Bree was having none of it. Eventually, she got sick of my hovering and told me to take a hike. I’d gone for a run instead, having found it helped expel this newfound energy I had lately.
“What does four o’clock have to do with anything?” I asked.
“It’s getting late, and I need to get the car cleaned up and the kids bathed, and make dinner, and—”
Was it wrong to think she was gorgeous when she was flustered and overwhelmed? Her hair all out of place. Her shirt dirty and wrinkled. The tiny hint of smudged mascara that reached toward her temple beside her left eye.
Was it even more wrong that my first instinct was to wrap my arms around her and tell her I’d deal with what needed to be done and to hell with whatever wasn’t finished? The best part for me was just taking something off her plate and watching her exhale for usually the first time all day.
Sometimes the silent, grateful look she gave me stole my breath—a little.
“Why don’t you just go sit outside for a while and take a breather. I’ll leave you alone.” I cut my eyes away, not wanting to make her uncomfortable like she’d been around me lately. “I’ll take care of the car and the baths, and I’ll order a veggie pizza for dinner.”
“Pee-za!” Luna yelled, taking off as fast as her little legs would carry her to spread the good news to Asher and Madison.
I grinned, enjoying the fleeting moment where I was taking care of my girls all at the same time. “See, it’s a done deal now.”
“I can’t let you do that. The weekends are supposed to be your free days so you can work.” She stretched her neck, again proving the toll the long weekend had taken on her.
“Yeah, well. I’m taking a personal day to help a friend.”
Her eyes lit up, but then she quicky frowned, a crinkle forming between her eyes. “You should get new friends. The one you have now is really needy.”
The one I have now is sexy as all hell, standing in front of me, dead tired in old Birkenstocks.
“Psh, you should get new friends. The one you have now is about to sneak bacon onto the veggie pizza.”
She curled her lip. “Isn’t bacon after a workout counterproductive?”
“Not if you’re only working out so you can eat the bacon.”
“Touché.” She quietly laughed, her gaze dipping to my chest for a nanosecond. Her whole body startled as her green eyes snapped back to mine. “Ummm, you sure you don’t mind? I can handle bath time and even ordering pizza. But I’m emotionally tapped.”
“You did good this weekend. Really fucking good.” I gave her shoulder a squeeze.
“Yeah. Thanks.” She shrugged off my hand.
Jesus, what the hell was her deal? Okay. Don’t read into it. She had literally just said she was emotionally tapped. The last thing she needed was me reading into shit.
I slapped on my signature grin and fell back on my specialty skill of making a joke. “Now, just to be clear, you did hear the part about bacon on one of those pizzas, right?”
“Extra bacon. I gotcha.”
I did not do enough cardio to warrant extra bacon, but I sure as hell didn’t correct her, either.
After a quick stop for a shower, I made my way out to the garage. I steeled myself before peeling back the tan cover on Rob’s ruby-red Porsche 911. Besides the occasional start to keep the battery from dying, no one had touched the car since we’d lost him.
A wave of nostalgia stabbed me in the gut as I opened the door.
There wasn’t much to clean. Short of a thin layer of dust on the dashboard, the interior was spotless—an abandoned iPhone charger being the only proof that the car had ever been out of the showroom. I went to work flipping the visors and popping the glove compartment open. Inside, there was all the usual fare: pack of gum, sunglasses, service records, and proof of insurance, but it was a small black cell phone that caught my attention.
Immediately, I picked it up and turned it in my fingers. Rob’s cell had been lost in the fire, so I assumed it must have been a work phone or an older model he’d upgraded. Either way, Bree would want it back, so I plugged it into the charger and moved on without thinking much of it.
The small trunk in the hood was empty, and after checking under the seats, wiping down the console, and shaking out the floor mats, I called it a day.
I managed to unwedge my body from the tiny clown car only to remember the cell, so I leaned back in.
