Page 62 of Between Never and Forever

There Dex was, completely dressed, leaning on the doorframe on my bedroom, totally eavesdropping on me. The smile that spread across his face was so slow and so genuine that I completely forgot about everything for a second but him and how carefree he could look. His eyes twinkled as they raked over my body. “Can’t I wish my fiancée a good morning?”

I crossed my arms. “We don’t do that.”

He hummed. “Maybe we should. Anyway, why aren’t you talking to your mom?”

Immediately, I took a step back. My guard flew up, and my mind shut down. When it came to her, I was like an animal protecting a life-threatening wound. My father had always instilled in me that what was family business stayed in the family. Plus, my mother was slowly losing everything, fading away, and I wouldn’t let anyone come near that pain. It was my job to protect them and I would at any cost.

So, I lashed out. “Why are you eavesdropping on me? You’re not going to give me privacy now?”

His interest obviously piqued as both of his eyebrows raised. “Why would I when you’re in my room?”

“This is my freaking room.” I stomped my foot and pointed to all the clothes I’d yet to hang and unpack. “I live here now. Get the hell over it and stop spying on me. Don’t you have work to do?”

“Sure.” There was a drawl in his voice as if he wasn’t at all in a hurry to do it. “I’ll get to it after you answer my question.”

I narrowed my eyes. Why did he care anyway? “Did Dimitri tell you?” My tone came out accusatory.

“Tell me what, heartbreaker?”

Scrambling to cover up my mother’s disease was necessary. Our last time traveling together ended with my mother lost in a hotel, and when the story leaked, media outlets hadn’t used discretion in showing the video of my father restraining her when she’d seen me, when I’d said I was her daughter but she didn’t recognize me. There’d been no sound, but the video showed a family in distress, and I wouldn’t give details.

Mitchell had begged me to use it for the media but it was one time my father had stood by me and agreed that our family’s health would not be used in the media.

Her pain wasn’t a tool and I wouldn’t ever use it for sympathy or to make people feel bad for me. I definitely wouldn’t use it to make Dex understand me.

“I don’t talk with my mother anymore,” I said, not offering anything else.

He ran his tongue over his teeth slowly as he nodded. “So, you’ll tell my brother things but not me?”

“I just told you.” I straightened up and tried to appear as put together as he was, except I was wearing an old sweatshirt and underwear. No socks. No bra. Nothing else.

He hummed and then he pushed off the doorframe before he pointed behind him. “I came to tell you breakfast is ready.”

“Breakfast? But… We don’t… Why did you make me breakfast when we don’t eat together? You’re always gone when I wake up.”

There was his smile again, so big even a dimple showed. “Keeping tabs on me, huh? I heard you talking, but for your information, I normally I leave at 5:45 every morning. In case you want to eat together,” he said before turning toward the hall and leaving me confused. “Move your ass, heartbreaker,” I heard two seconds later. “Your eggs are getting cold.”

I blinked twice at seeing him at the island counter with a plate in front of him and another nearby.

“Scrambled with a cinnamon roll still good enough for you, Ms. Keelani?” he murmured, not looking up from his laptop.

“Did you make this?” I stood there frozen.

“Yes,” he said without looking up as he sipped on some coffee. “Coffee’s in the pot if you want some, but I’m guessing you still don’t drink it because—”

“It makes me jittery,” I whispered out. “Wh-Why did you make breakfast?” I pulled at the sleeves of my sweater and tried to shrink into it. The sunlight from the living room windows was shining its bright rays on the fact that I’d just snapped at him. I was here at breakfast with my hair a mess, my teeth not brushed, and probably still had pillow-wrinkle lines on my face.

“I just…” I stumbled over my words. “You’re never here in the mornings.”

He slid a plate over and patted the stool next to him.

I didn’t move to sit down, and finally he looked up from his plate. His gaze drifted over me. “Like I said, I’m here until 5:45. Whose sweatshirt is that?”

I crossed my arms over the Harvard insignia and felt heat rise to my cheeks. “I never ended up going to college. Olive and Dimitri thought it would be fun to buy me Ivy League sweatshirts so I’d feel included.”

He hummed and his eyes traveled up and down my body again, but this time they stopped on my thighs that were bare. “You never would have felt included in college anyway.”

Dex said the statement so matter-of-factly I wasn’t sure whether I should take it as an insult or a compliment. “Well, still would have been nice.” I rocked back on my heels. “My mom always wanted me to go to college.”