“Wow,” Helen said. “That’s incredible.”
“It is,” I said. “Between that and what Deacon and Carter were able to put in, we were able to start it up and hit the ground running. Carter supplied our first plots of land and Deacon bought the house me and him moved to when we got here. It was a team effort all the way around.”
“Your uncle seems like he is a great guy,” she said. “Does he come visit often?”
“About that,” I began.
Suddenly, there was a knock on the door and it startled Helen so much she grabbed the sheets and threw them up over her head. I looked down at the small crack between the sheet and my body and caught her wide eyes looking back at me. She looked thoroughly shocked.
“Who the hell is that?” she asked.
I grinned. “Hi, Uncle Harry,” I said.
“Just checking on you, son,” he said from behind the door. “There was some noise.”
The look of horror that spread across Helen’s face was so pure, so funny that I couldn’t help but burst out laughing. She slapped me hard on my shoulder and it only made me laugh harder.
“So yeah,” I said. “I see him occasionally. He just so happens to be visiting right now.”
Another slap on the shoulder made me laugh again.
“I take it you’re fine,” Uncle Harry said. “Goodnight.”
“Goodnight,” I called out. “We’ll see you in the morning.”
“Everett!” Helen hissed, slapping me yet again on the shoulder. It was playful, but there was also an element of embarrassment and shock in her voice and action.
“I’m sure you will. Goodnight, Everett,” he said. “And you too, Miss.”
With that, he creaked away down the hall toward the guest room where he was staying. When the sound of the door shutting floated up to us, Helen pushed up on her palms, hovering over me with feigned anger on her face. It was hard to take that too seriously with her breasts swinging just above my lips.
“That was not okay,” she said, a grin still curling up one side of her lips. “Not telling me he was here was not cool.”
“You didn’t give me a chance.” I laughed. “When was I supposed to tell you? You had your tongue in my mouth before I had the door all the way open.”
She seemed to think about it for a second and then decided to ignore the facts and grimace instead. “Point remains,” she said.
“Come on,” I said. “Curl up with me. What time do you have to work tomorrow?”
“One,” she said. “I work the afternoon and evening tomorrow.”
“Then you can spend the night,” I said. “If you wanted, that is.”
The smile spread from cheek to cheek instantly and she collapsed down onto my chest, sliding so she was curled in my arm. I laughed and pulled her tight, enjoying the smoothness of her leg wrapped over my thigh and her breast against my side.
“It is such a long drive back,” she said. “And it’s so late.”
“Oh yes, that brutal five-minute drive,” I said. “Much smarter to just stay here.”
Chuckling together, we curled up and I pulled out my phone, accessing the app to control the smart bulbs, and turned them off. We drifted off to sleep not long later.
I woke up before she did the next morning, which was a bit of a surprise. Usually, I was the one who tended to sleep in, and I figured that someone who was used to opening restaurants would probably be up before the sun. Yet, here she was, mouth open, sleeping soundly on my tingling arm. I smiled and stared at her for a little while. She was gorgeous. Simply stunning.
Even when she very softly snored.
The alarm that I had set to ring on weekdays started going off. Usually, I had three alarms set. One was to break me from deep sleep, the next to actually wake me up, and the third to wake me up if I fell back to sleep. Nine times out of ten, I was up and moving at the second alarm. This time as the sun started peeking over the mountains and through the windows of the house, I was up with the first one.
“Morning,” Helen whispered as she blinked her eyes, curling a little closer and keeping her head turned away from the window with the bright yellow sunlight. “What time is it?”
“Seven,” I said. “No need to get up yet. You can sleep in.”
“No, no,” she said. “I should get up. I want to go get my clothes from the car before your uncle is up.”
“Ha,” I said. “Yeah, good luck with that. If I know Uncle Harry, he’s been up for an hour already. If not longer.”
“Shit,” she muttered softly. I had no idea why I found it so cute when she cursed, but I did.