15. Katie

CHAPTER 15

Katie

I groan as the morning light filters through my blinds. Being sick fucking sucks. Thank God Sue is taking care of Cody this morning. I plan to lie in my bed for as long as I can stand it. Wait a minute. How did I get to my bed?

I think back to the last thing I remember.

Nolan was playing with my hair while I lay in his lap. The movie I picked out was one I’d seen before because I didn’t want to have to pay attention. And I don’t remember anything else after eating ice cream.

Did he carry me to bed?

“Little dove? Are you awake? I’ve got coffee for you.”

He’s still here? The question is screeched inside my head. I look down only to realize I’ve still got my T-shirt on, but no pants.

“Uhh. Just a second!” I call out as I race into my bathroom. When I see myself in the mirror, I whimper. Talk about a hot mess express. My dark hair is wild, I’ve got black smudges under my eyes, and I’m pretty sure there’s dried snot on my upper lip. Gross.

There’s not a single hope for my hair, so I yank it up into a messy knot on the top of my head. A quick scrub of my face removes most of the leftover makeup and snot, and then Nolan’s voice pulls me back to my room.

“Little dove, I just want to know how you’re feeling this morning. I couldn’t give two shits what you look like.”

The panic from his surprise arrival has eased some, leaving my brain to catalog how I’m feeling. It’s not great. In fact, I just want to go back to bed. So, I do. If Nolan wants to be a part of the mess that is my life, then he’s just going to have to be okay with what’s happening right now.

Talk about jumping off the deep end. Good God.

“You can come in,” I croak. A glass of water sits on my nightstand, which was not there yesterday, and I take a welcome drink.

Nolan walks through my cracked door in the same clothes he was in yesterday. A pair of dark jeans sit low on his hips, and his light grey long-sleeve Henley is wrinkled. He’s carrying my favorite coffee mug that says Good motherfucking Morning while his eyes scan me from head to… well, waist since my toes are under the covers.

“Good morning.” Nolan smiles a devastating smile, and I wonder, not for the first time, how I thought I’d ever be able to turn down his advances. He sits down next to my hip and hands my cup to me.

“Thank you.” I sip the hot liquid as I peer at him over the rim. “Did you stay here last night? How did I get to bed?”

He bites his lip to hide his laughter. “I did. I carried you to bed when you refused to be roused from the couch. You were quite insistent about staying there.”

I cringe. Naturally, I would make a medicine-induced fool of myself in front of him. “Where did you sleep?”

“On the couch.”

My cringe deepens. That’s not the most comfortable place to sleep. I look down at the dark liquid in my cup, giving it a fleeting thought that it’s exactly how I normally make it in the morning. “Next time, you can just sleep in here with me. If you want.”

Nolan palms my thigh over the blanket. “All right, then. How are you feeling?”

Surprised and grateful he moved past my declaration, I shrug. “About the same as yesterday, I guess. My body is aching, and my head is swimming with all the junk that’s stuffed in there.”

Nolan wrinkles his nose in sympathy. “I brought you some daytime cold medicine as well as nighttime medicine. I wasn’t sure which you might want.”

He holds his hands out with a packet of orange and green pills. I waffle back and forth on which would be best. “I can’t really afford to take the nighttime ones since Cody’s going to be home this afternoon.”

“Feel free to say no without worrying about my feelings, but I could hang out with him today while you sleep. I don’t have to be at work until this evening.”

I bite my lip. The offer is so fucking tempting. I could sleep off this virus instead of having to push through for the next several days. But… I’m not there yet. I may have agreed to see where this could go with Nolan, but that doesn’t mean I’m ready to leave my kid with the man I’m dating, even if I know in my gut that Cody would be safe with him.

Nolan gives me a soft smile and hands me the daytime pills. How the fuck can he read me like that? Maybe my indecision was obvious, but he still had to be paying close enough attention to see it. I’m not used to someone understanding me that well. I’m not sure how I feel about it either.

I open the pill packet and swallow them down with a drink of water.

“Would you be interested in breakfast? I make a mean omelet. I’m also not too shabby at French toast.”

I smile at him. “I wouldn’t turn down some regular toast with peanut butter. ”

“I can do?—”

“No, wait.” I grab his arm. “Cinnamon sugar. I don’t feel like trying to mess with peanut butter.”

Nolan laughs. “You got it, little dove.” He presses a kiss to my forehead, lingering for a second before pulling away. I scoot down in my bed and pull the covers over my head. I refuse to acknowledge the happy flutters in my stomach right now. Or how big my smile is. This won’t last. He’s only doing this to impress me, not because he has some weird desire to do it.

Despite knowing all of that… it might be working a little bit.

But I’ll never tell him that.

I scroll through the options on Netflix. Choosing something to watch while you’re sick isn’t the easiest thing in the world. Which seems backward to me. When else do you get to veg out on the couch without feeling an ounce of guilt for it? You’d think I’d want to catch up on all the shows I don’t have time to watch during the week, but those take more concentration than I’m willing to put into my TV watching.

“Ohh. Yes!” I wiggle in my spot with excitement. I turn on the first episode of the reality show I’ve been dying to watch. I can never justify starting it, given that I have minimal adult show-watching time.

Nolan peeks around the corner of the kitchen with a frown. He watches the TV for a minute before he scoffs. “Is this that reality show where the shitty dude acts like an ass the whole time?”

I raise my eyebrow at him. “It is, but how do you know that?”

He rolls his eyes. “Social media wouldn’t be doing its job if they didn’t push this stuff. ”

I purse my lips to keep from laughing. “Mm-hmm. Okay.” Does he not realize he has to watch that stuff for it to continue to show up on his feed?

Nolan turns back to the kitchen. I’m not entirely sure what he’s doing in there right now. He brought me breakfast in bed an hour ago, and I came out here when I finished eating. The medicine I took earlier has helped clear up some of the worst of my symptoms. I’m feeling better than I did yesterday, that’s for sure.

Before I know it, I’m completely sucked into the show, but I do not miss how often Nolan comes around the corner to watch. He scoffs regularly, yet he can’t seem to stay away for very long. I don’t say a word. He’d just deny it if I did.

The first episode is almost over when Nolan plops down on the couch right next to me. He holds a plate of chocolate chip cookies out to me, grabbing one for himself at the same time. I stare at the side of his face in surprise. Who even is this guy? Like… I seriously don’t understand where he came from or why he is the way he is. Who just makes cookies for no reason? Because I know for damn certain I did not have premade cookies in my pantry. I didn’t even have frozen cookie dough. I ate it last week in a shameless moment when I was doing everything I could not to call Nolan just to hear his voice. Don’t worry, there was only, like, a quarter of it left.

“You… made these?”

He looks at me like I’m being stupid. “Yeah?”

“But… why?”

He shrugs. “’Cause you deserve it. When I was a kid, my mom always made me my favorite treat when I got sick. It made me feel better to have something comforting when I didn’t feel good. I didn’t know what your favorite dessert was, but I saw the chocolate chips in your pantry and went with it.”

I grab Nolan’s face and kiss him. He’s made it abundantly clear he doesn’t give a damn about germs. Though, to be fair, I don’t stick my tongue in his mouth. I have limits.

When I pull away, he gives me a small, happy smile. “What was that for?”

“You’re a good man, Nolan Ellis. It’s been a long time since someone has taken care of me like this.” Not that I would’ve let them if anyone would’ve offered. In my half-asleep state, I didn’t have the wherewithal to deny Nolan from coming over. Granted, I didn’t want to tell him no either.

“You make me want to be better,” he says against my lips before he kisses me again.

I tuck my arm through his and lay my head on his shoulder while I munch on the fucking delicious cookies he made. Before I know it, we’ve watched almost three full episodes of this show, both of us fully engrossed in the drama.

Cody comes bursting into the house, startling me away from Nolan. Sue comes in behind Cody with his backpack and tiny suitcase in her hands. I barely notice Nolan pausing our show.

“Nolan!” Cody jumps up onto the couch on the other side of him. “What are you doing here?”

“I was just keeping your mom company while you were gone. I wanted to make sure she was okay while she wasn’t feeling well.”

Cody nods as if he approves of Nolan’s actions. “Good. I was worried about her being by herself.” He turns to me. “How are you?”

“I’m better. Not quite 100 percent yet, though. How was your sleepover?”

“It was awesome. ” Cody dives into story after story of everything he did with Sue. She helps him out when he can’t remember parts of his story, laughter in her eyes. I catch her gaze, and she raises an eyebrow at me and pointedly looks at Nolan. My cheeks flush at her attention. I recognize that this is so far from my typical dating scene that I’m sure she has a million questions. She gives me a look that clearly says we’ll be talking about this later.

I grin at her and nod. Maybe I’ll invite Ellie to come over to talk, too. I’ve been avoiding her because I wasn’t ready to tell her about what was happening between me and Nolan. Mostly because I wasn’t sure if anything actually was happening. I didn’t have the answers to the questions she no doubt had for me. But now that I’ve agreed to do this, I could use a little advice on what the hell is expected of me. It’s been nine years since I last dated a man, and look where that got me. I don’t have a fucking clue as to what I’m supposed to do.

I excuse myself to go to the bathroom. When I’m done, I grab my phone to text Ellie, only to find a voicemail from an unknown number. It’s likely spam, but I listen regardless.

When I hear a voice I never thought I’d hear again, all the blood drains from my face.

“Katherine. I’d like to discuss a few things with you regarding my son. I would appreciate a call back at this number. And if you ignore me, I will make things difficult for you. Keep that in mind.”

The voicemail cuts off, and I stare at the wall in utter shock. I don’t know how long I stand there frozen, but Nolan’s voice yanks me out of the trance I’d fallen into.

“Everything okay?”

I blink a few times. “Uh… yeah. Fine. Just zoned out for a second.” Except, I’m not fine. Not even close. I didn’t think I’d ever have to deal with Bryce again. What the fuck could he want with Cody now? And how am I going to stop him from getting what he wants?