He poured her a cup and pushed it across the counter to her along with the cream and sweetener she preferred.
“You didn’t have to do all this.” She focused on the coffee rather than him as she spoke.
“Seemed the least I could do for you after you came to my rescue last night.” Gavin put the first two pancakes off the grill onto her plate along with two sausage links. He slid it across the counter to her along with a knife, a fork, a tub of butter and a jug of her brother Colton’s syrup.
He could almost see her internal debate. Stay and eat or get the hell out of there. Until she decided, he poured more batter on the griddle and bit his tongue so he wouldn’t try to talk her into staying if she really wanted to go.
When she finally took a seat at the bar and began to spread butter on her pancakes, Gavin breathed a sigh of relief. He took his own plate and coffee to join her. They ate in silence for a few minutes before he couldn’t take the quiet any longer.
“What’s wrong?”
She looked up at him, seeming surprised. “What? Nothing is wrong.”
“Something is different this morning. Are you sorry you stayed? Sorry we did what we did in bed? Sorry you ever took that call last night?”
“No, none of that,” she said, but her face flushed with a rosy color that only added to her natural beauty.
“Then what? You’re having morning-after regrets of some sort.”
“I’m not.”
Gavin knew something was afoot, but he couldn’t very well drag it out of her. He ate his breakfast and drank his coffee and tried to figure her out.
“It’s terrifying,” she said after a long period of awkward silence.
“What is?”
“This, you, all of it.”
“Terrifying?”
She nodded and seemed to force herself to look at him. “The little taste I had of what it might be like . . . If you change your mind—”
“I’m not going to change my mind.” Turning his body so he faced her, he reached for her and when she leaned into him, he wrapped his arms around her. “I have no idea what’s going to happen with us, Ella. Maybe after all these years of wondering, we’ll find out we’re better as friends than we are as lovers. Maybe we’ll give it our very best effort but it just won’t work out for one reason or another. Maybe it’ll be the best thing to ever happen to both of us, the forever kind of love people dream about. I don’t know how it’ll unfold. But I promise you this—you’ll get my very best effort. I’m in this with you. I have been for a while now, and I’m not going to change my mind, especially not after having the exquisite pleasure of sleeping with you in my arms. I can’t wait to do it again.”
“I slept better last night than I have since before Hannah’s wedding.”
“So did I.” Brushing her hair aside, he kissed her face, her neck, and nibbled on her ear. “You know what that means, don’t you?”
“What?” she asked, sounding sort of breathless, which made him smile.
“We ought to do it again tonight. Maybe tomorrow night, too.”
“You think so?”
“I do. I definitely do. We’ve got a lot of sleep to catch up on after months of sleepless nights.” He drew back so he could see her face and the lovely eyes that gazed at him with such adoration, even when he didn’t deserve it. “Don’t be terrified. Not of me. I couldn’t stand to make you feel that way.”
“I’ll try not to be. You’re filling me with giddy hope, something that’s been in short supply where you’re concerned.”
“You’re filling me with hope, too, which has been sadly lacking in my life for far too long.” Because he couldn’t resist the sweet temptation of her lips for another second, he kissed her, hoping he’d earned the right to with his reassurances.
She relaxed into his embrace, her arms encircling his neck as she fell into the kiss, her tongue stroking against his. God, she was so sweet and so sexy.
“You taste like maple syrup,” he said, his lips still touching hers.