7. Katie

CHAPTER 7

Katie

C ody’s soft brown hair glides through my fingers. It’s starting to get too long. He’ll need a haircut soon.

His little round face is relaxed in sleep. I don’t love waking him up before he’s ready, but I’ve learned that the fallout of not giving him the choice to get up with me is worse. He’s my little best friend. We do everything together, and he always feels left out when I start our morning routine without him.

His dark eyelashes slowly rise until his sparkling hazel eyes meet mine. He looks so much like his dad, but he has my tan complexion.

“Good morning, baby. Would you like to join me for yoga today?”

Cash, our Australian Shepherd mix, grumbles his annoyance at being woken up.

“Don’t be mad.” Cody blinks at me, his face a mask of guilt.

I frown, my stomach cramping at the thought of something awful happening. “You know I won’t be mad as long as you tell me the truth. ”

He looks up at me with a pained expression. “I stayed up late reading.”

My shoulders relax, and a smile tips up the side of my mouth. “Ah. Was the story too good to put down?”

“Yes!” He groans, slapping his palm against his forehead. “They were in the middle of a battle, and I couldn’t stop reading. I was too excited to sleep.”

I laugh. “I completely understand, baby. Just remember, it’s not okay?—”

“To stay up on a school night, or my brain won’t be able to learn anything new.” He rolls his eyes, but his grin is wide. That became my only rule when I figured out how voracious of a reader Cody is. I don’t mind him staying up to read; I just hate when he’s dragging the next day because he didn’t get enough rest. “I’m not ready to go back to school yet, Mom. I love it when we get to spend time with just us.” There are only a few more days of winter break left before we both have to go back to our regularly scheduled activities. I’m far from ready to don my teacher hat once more.

“Me, too, baby. So, how about you try to rest for a little while longer, and then we can go over to the diner to get pancakes.”

“That sounds awesome!”

I lean over to kiss him on his forehead. He snuggles deeper under the covers and closes his eyes. The likelihood of him falling back asleep is minimal, but he’ll try his hardest. Cash jumps onto the bed and snuggles into Cody’s side.

I leave his room, closing the door so he won’t be kept up by my noise. As much as I love going through a flow with Cody, I need something a little more intense than what we normally do in the mornings.

After moving the coffee table, I unroll my yoga mat in the middle of the living room. I plug my headphones into my ears and start my meditation playlist. Deep breaths only get me so far while my mind wanders to the main stressor that’s been plaguing my brain.

It’s been four days since I slept with Nolan.

Fuck me, I slept with Nolan Ellis.

I still haven’t been able to wrap my head around that fact. It was the most intense night of my life, and I would be kidding myself if I said I didn’t want it to happen again. That’s the main problem I’m struggling with. I know that if I called him up, he’d be over here in a heartbeat. Hell, his threat when we got back to town was enough to make my knees weak. I stood there for a solid minute, trying to get my heartbeat under control enough to drive home.

That’s what has me so freaked out, though. Nolan is a force to be reckoned with. I’ve known it from the moment I met him. His flirty charm had me falling under his spell in a matter of minutes. Freezing him out was my only choice. I had to do whatever it took to protect myself from falling for his charm.

And then I went and fucked it up by sleeping with him. Jesus Christ.

I switch my music to my power flow playlist. There’s no way meditation is going to cut it this morning. As the heavy beat blares in my ears, I use every ounce of control I have and focus my attention on moving with my breath.

I stretch up tall before sinking into chair-pose. My muscles start to scream, forcing all my attention into holding the position. A deep breath has me releasing the pose to stretch out my tired muscles.

This is exactly what I needed and why I love yoga as much as I do. There’s no room for other thoughts when you’re carefully balancing your weight. It keeps me centered when my world feels like it’s spiraling.

When every muscle in my body has been stretched and pushed to the limits, I relax back into corpse pose and let my mind rest as well as my body. This time, I don’t have a single thought threatening to undo all of my work, and I can take a deep breath for the first time in days.

“Momma?” Cody’s little voice brings a smile to my face.

I hold my hand up in the air to wave him over. “Come join me in our favorite pose.”

His giggle announces his arrival, and I brace for the impact of his body. Oof. Cody’s chest crashes with mine, pressing all the air out of my lungs.

“I didn’t mean you could do corpse on top of me.” I tickle his sides.

“Moooom. Stop!” He cackles.

“Okay, okay.” I wrap my arms around his not-so-little-anymore body.

“You’re kinda smelly.”

I gasp. “You turd!”

Cody laughs maniacally and climbs off me. “I’m just telling you the truth.”

I jab him in the ribs. “Fine. I’ll shower, and then we can go get breakfast. Are you ready?”

“Mm-hmm.”

I eye him. “Teeth brushed? Clean underwear on?”

He grimaces and races back to his room. I shake my head. Kids.

I clean up the living room before heading to my en suite shower. Our house is old. It’s a work in progress to be sure, and my pink bathroom is plenty of evidence to show how far we still have to go. Cody and I have been working on it for the past few years. I’ve almost gotten our main living areas updated. It hasn’t been easy. I’ve learned a lot and made plenty of mistakes. I’m also getting close to maxing out my skill level. I want to redo my bathroom, but it’s daunting, to say the least. I can’t afford a plumber to move everything around where I’d want them just yet, so for now, I have a Pepto Bismol-pink bathroom .

A quick shower and a set of overalls later, I’m ready to take my favorite boy out for a breakfast date.

Ugh. I would never tell Cody this, but going out to eat for breakfast is the worst because now I have to figure out what to make for dinner. I’m too tired to make my brain come up with something that’s both well-balanced and delicious.

“C-man! What do you want for dinner? Mom’s brain is fucking fried.” I mumble the last part to myself.

“That’s a dollar in the swear jar,” Cody says as he walks into the kitchen.

I grimace. Dammit. “We’re going to have to work on those listening ears. I think they work a little too well.”

Cody makes a face at me. “Said no mom ever.”

I snort. “Fair enough, kiddo. Although, I think you’d be surprised.” How many stories have I read about kids walking in on their parents having sex because they could hear them?

He struggles up onto the tall barstool that sits under our island. “How about hamburgers for dinner?”

I dig around in the fridge. “We’ve got everything but buns…”

He scrunches his nose. “Never mind.”

“Deconstructed burgers are basically tacos, just with different seasonings,” I muse.

“That doesn’t even make sense. How can a taco be a burger?”

“Don’t worry about it. We’ve got tortillas, so let’s do tacos.”

Cody shrugs. “Fine by me.”

The doorbell rings, and I frown. “Are you expecting someone?”

Cody scoffs. “I’m nine. I can’t do anything without talking to you about it first. ”

I point at him. “You’re not nine yet, and you’re damn right, you do.”

“Swear jar.” His brown eyes sparkle.

“Bah. At this rate, I’ll have your college tuition paid before you’re in high school.” I stride around the corner of the kitchen and into our foyer. To my left is our living room, and if I kept going left, I’d end up back in our kitchen. The rest of our split-level house has three bedrooms and a lower-level bar area that’s packed with shit I’ve been storing for too long.

When I open our front door, a teenager stands on our porch. “Hey, I’ve got a delivery for Katie.”

I tilt my head in confusion. “I didn’t order anything.”

“Uhhh. Well, it’s all paid for, so here you go.” He hands me the bulging plastic bag as if it’s a bomb and then sprints back to his car.

I take the bag back to the kitchen, where Cody is reading his book at the island. The bag crinkles when I set it on the counter. The first item out of the bag is an aluminum container of something that smells suspiciously like Mexican food. I pull out the rest of the containers until the bag is empty, and I stand there flabbergasted.

“Where the fuck did this come from?”

“Free pass, since I’m guessing you didn’t order us dinner.” Cody frowns at the food in front of us.

“Nope.” I look around the room to find my phone. It’s sitting by the sink, so I grab it to make sure that I didn’t actually order food and just forgot.

Four notifications pop up. The first is a text from Ellie.

Ellie:

Don’t be mad, but… I gave Nolan your address. He promised not to randomly show up without asking first. Please tell me he asked first .

Of course, my first instinct is to be mad, but despite his penchant for cracking jokes at the most inopportune moments, Nolan is a good guy. I’m sure Ellie knew he wouldn’t abuse the information. At least I hope he won’t.

Her text doesn’t answer where this food came from, though, so I’ll address that later.

I’ve got three messages from the food delivery app. The first says Nolan Ellis is sending you food! See his message here. The next two are just updates about when the food will arrive.

I click on the link to view the message and have to bite my lip to keep from busting out laughing.

I was going to send you flowers, but that felt stupid and too cliché. Sooo, here’s some Mexican food. I hope you haven’t already made dinner. I guess if you have, you could save it for leftovers… I don’t know. Anyway, I’m still thinking about you. Think of me while you eat a taco. He-he. Dirty. I want to eat your… never mind. Okay, bye.

“Did you find out where this came from?” Cody’s question reminds me of where I’m standing, and my mind blips out at what I should say. I’m not about to tell him a man sent us food to try to get into my pants.

“Um, it looks like the Ellis clan wanted to treat us to Mexican food.” Is that a lie? Fuck. That’s a lie. It’s misleading at best and soul-damaging at worst. Jeez, Katie. Tone down the doomsday thoughts a smidge.

“That was nice of them. It smells good, and we were already going to have tacos. Make sure to send them a thank-you text, Mom. ”

I smile at Cody. “I will, baby.” Although, I don’t have Nolan’s number. Should I get it from Ellie? But then the temptation of talking to him regularly will be even harder to ignore.

Who am I kidding? Nolan Ellis is temptation personified. If he keeps this up, there won’t be any denying him.