20
MADISON
It’s beena couple of days since Grey and Sage arrived, but it hasn’t been as hard as I thought it would be. At least not with Sage. Greyson Reyes, on the other hand, is more mercurial than Mr. Darcy.
“Hey.” Braxton groans as he walks into the kitchen.
Crap. I was hoping to sneak out of the house without waking anyone up, but I should know better by now. He’s as in tune to me as I am to him. I swear I wake up every time he rolls over, and we’re not even in the same room.
“Why are you up so early?” He shuffles around me and starts the coffee before I have a chance to.
“Ah, I was going to get some things done at the Chug before anyone came in, but I was planning to be back before anyone woke up to make breakfast.”
He frowns, then squints at the clock on the microwave. “It’s five forty-five in the morning, Madison. What the hell do you have to do this early?”
“It’s not that early,” I say. “Grey already left for a run.”
“That’s because he’s a robot.”
“That’s not nice,” I mutter.
“No, but he would know I was only teasing. Grey has always run in the middle of the night when he can’t sleep. It’s two forty-five in California. He hasn’t adjusted to the time change yet.”
Grey isn’t the only one having trouble sleeping. Two kisses with Braxton and he’s consumed my dreams ever since. I’m having actual sex dreams that wake me up sweaty and needy, and I don’t ever remember that happening before, not even as a horny teenager. Every one of my dreams stars the man before me wearing a pair of low-riding gym shorts and a T-shirt so soft-looking I want to sleep in it.
He opens the fridge and pulls out my creamer, then takes my favorite mug down from the cabinet all the while I watch him. He knows all my little habits, my likes and dislikes, and I’ve never even mentioned them.
“You’re staring.”
Probably drooling as well. This is why I’m running away this morning. I need a few moments not surrounded by testosterone to get my head on straight. “Sorry. I just have some admin tasks to catch up on.”
He hands me my mug and nods. “Anything I can help with?”
“Nope,” I say too cheerily, and he narrows his gaze.
“You sure?”
“Yup. You have fun with your boys today. Pops is taking you all to the diner for lunch, right? Then coming into the Chug?”
“Yeah,” he says grumpily, then reaches over his head to stretch. “We can’t do anything else in the basement until a plumber can get here, and Sage is bored out of his mind.”
I wince, and he immediately corrects himself.
“It’s not you or the inn, he just finished his entire college semester’s worth of work before they got here. He’s too smart for either of us to keep up with anymore.”
“Have you thought about encouraging him to enroll in more classes or at least harder ones?”
Braxton nods, his eyes softening as he stares at me. “Grey and I talked about it a few months ago. UCLA will probably happen next year—we just didn’t want to push him before he was ready socially. He finished high school at fourteen, and it was pretty brutal for him.”
“I can imagine. He’s a good kid though. I really like him.”
He stalks closer, so slowly I don’t even notice until he’s inches from me. “He likes you too.”
A smile starts somewhere deep in my soul before finding its way to my lips.
“And he isn’t the only one. I like you too.”
“Is that so?” Who the heck flirts before 6:00 a.m.? Me, apparently.
