Then, because I wanted to get a rise out of her, I knocked over my stack of clothes. Threw a pair of her shoes that were in the top of her bag onto the floor in different directions and followed that up with dumping half her bag onto the dresser beside my shit.
Grinning wickedly, I closed the door and headed back to the kitchen for a cup of coffee, finding only my mother.
She wasn’t cooking eggs.
She had a box of donuts in front of her now and she was nibbling on a kolache.
“I thought you were making eggs?” I said, pulling out a glazed donut.
My mother smiled at me wickedly.
“Justice,” she said. “I’m not dumb.”
I grinned at her.
“Don’t give her shit when she comes out here. I think she’s half in love with y’all,” I told her.
My mother’s face softened.
My mom really was the coolest mom ever.
She didn’t beat around the bush when it came to me—or even my sister for that matter.
I was always able to practice safe sex because my mother provided me with condoms. But, those condoms had come with a long list of things that happened if I didn’t wear the condoms and be safe. She always was direct and to the point. She told it like it was and didn’t hesitate to share the very bad with the good.
Hell, there was one time that my mother showed me a slide show of all the STDs you could get when I’d given her shit about not wanting to tell her what I was doing one night when I was seventeen.
“She’s a great girl,” Mom said. “Dad told me that something was up with you at work. He told me I didn’t need to know the rest. But he also told me that there was a possibility that you might’ve been in trouble at work.”
I waved it off.
“Not in trouble, per se,” I admitted. “More like I chose Royal over my undercover assignment and will likely not be repeating any more undercover assignments.”
I didn’t see the point of lying.
I generally tried not to do it at all, but in the case where my mother was involved, I definitely didn’t do it.
She could smell a lie from a million miles away, therefore, I always told her the truth since inevitably she would find out if I didn’t.
“Coffee?” Mom asked, sitting up when she heard a frustrated growl come from my closed bedroom door.
I grinned and nodded.
“Royal likes order,” I told my mom as she moved away. “I might or might not have messed up our shit before I left the room.”
There was a bang, followed by a curse, and I wondered just how quiet we were earlier when I was taking Royal.
Probably not nearly as quiet as I’d have hoped.
If I could hear Royal moving around that much, there was no doubt in my mind, my parents knew exactly what we were doing not too long ago.
The door to the bedroom opened, and Royal’s eyes found mine almost instantly.
“Not nice!” She pointed at me. “Very not nice.”
Grinning at her anger, I gestured to where my mom was pouring coffee for me.
“Want some?” I asked.
Royal’s eyes found my mother who was holding out an empty coffee mug.
“Yes, please,” she said politely. “I’m sorry for my rudeness.”
My mother waved away the apology.
“My son’s an asshole like his father,” she said. “Sorry for that.”
“Hey!” Loki said as he arrived back into the kitchen. “I resent that!”
I took a seat on the nearest stool and smiled at my mother when she handed me the coffee.
“You’ll need to fill Royal’s about halfway up so she can drown it in milk and sugar,” I said when my mother started on Royal’s cup. “She drinks a little coffee with her milk.”
My father snorted.
“Where’s Lock?” I asked.
“Riding the bike,” he answered, his eyes shifting to Royal who took up a seat beside my dad and across from me. “Donuts?” He pushed the box in Royal’s direction.
Royal’s entire face lit up.
“Are these them?” she whispered hopefully.
So I might or might not have talked up our donut store on the way over here. To say that she was excited to try the infamous donuts would be an understatement.
“That’s them.” I plucked another glaze out of the box.
They were so good that I had to limit myself to just two.
Not that I didn’t deserve a donut every once in a while, but Donut Cave’s donuts were lethal. One second I’d be having one, and the next I’d have twelve gone.
It was just that easy.
“Oh, God,” Royal whispered as she took her first bite. A glazed donut with white icing on it. “You’re right. They’re so good.”
“Just wait until you try the cake ones.” I gestured to the brown ones in the middle.
I would’ve had one of those myself, but there were only two left, and I had a feeling Royal might’ve wanted both of them.