CHAPTER NINE
Mouse
True to my word, I didn’t wake Amber when my eyes popped open at six in the morning. I was going to let her sleep as long as she wanted. I also wasn’t so sure that I was ready to deal with another person quite yet. Nothing against her, I just woke up already lost inside of my head.
She’d rolled away from me sometime in the middle of the night and had taken the covers with her. Which wasn’t such a bad thing because I woke up sweating like a whore in church. I didn’t have an explanation for it and since I felt fine, I knew I wasn’t coming down with something.
I let the minutes tick by while I stared up at the ceiling. Then my eyes snapped to the top drawer of my dresser. It was like I was trying to burn a hole into the wood and see what was inside.
The letters.
Why was I thinking about them right now?
And more, why were my fingers itching to touch them?
It wasn’t like I really needed the writing on the papers to know what they all said. I pretty much knew them by heart now.
I carefully rolled out of bed and went into the bathroom. The cold shower cooled my skin but not the odd fire running through me on the inside. Stress, I was going to use that as an excuse. Just plain old generic stress.
I was surprised to find Amber awake and getting dressed after I’d showered. I checked the time beside my bed and saw that it was later than I thought. I must have been lost in my head longer than I realized.
“Breakfast?” I asked as I slipped on a fresh pair of boxers and then pants. I dug around until I found a plain black tee.
“You promised,” she said with a smile.
Stuffing my feet into my boots, I tossed on my cut and was good to go.
I took her hand in mine as we made our way out of the room. I knew I’d been distant and I didn’t want her to think that I was pushing her to the side.
But she’d said it the night before.
We didn’t do heavy.
And that was pretty much how I’d been feeling all the time lately.
Like I promised, I set out to make her breakfast in an empty kitchen.
“What would you like to eat?” I asked with a smile on my face. I was prepared to make her anything she wanted, even if it didn’t come out so well.
“It doesn’t matter,” she said with a shrug of her shoulders.
I felt a sigh weighing heavy in my chest but I held it back.
Since she didn’t care what she ate, I made eggs and bacon because I knew I could nail that shit. And I did, presenting her with perfectly fluffy scrambled eggs and crispy bacon. I didn’t even screw up the toast.
As we were just about done, Ky came storming into the kitchen with a little cutie in his arms.
“Hey, Ky. You okay?” I said, smiling and waving at Chry.
“No,” he grumbled looking a little lost. “Ingram had to go into work and Chris is at the bar doing inventory. I have to get to the shop and I don’t know what to do with him.”
Chry was giggling in Ky’s arms as he pushed on his uncle’s cheeks.
“We didn’t think she’d get a job this soon and then she did. Which she’s super happy about. They told her she’d start in two weeks because they had to wait for someone to work out their notice or something.” He was rambling witch told me that he felt a little clueless about what to do right now. “Anyway, they called last night and said they needed her to start right away. I guess the person just walked out.”
“So this was just sprung on you, then?” I asked with a little laugh in my tone. He gave me a look that said yeah.
“I thought maybe he could hang out with me at the garage but obviously I hadn’t really thought that through.”
