Page 56 of Crazy In Love

“Can get a cake from the place that does the shop pastries,” Franky inserts in monotone. “Also, do I have to go to the party?”

“Yes. Name of the bakery?”

“The bakery.” I don an oven mitt and slide the pizza stone from the middle rack. “Plainview is a small town, Fox.The bakeryis the only bakery. Head in and ask to speak to Pedro. He’ll figure you out easy peasy.”

“Great. And since it’s soeasy peasy, I’m officially putting you in charge of the cake.”

Unimpressed, I straighten and turn to her with a sneer. “Seriously?”

“Yep. And before you ask, yes, you have to go to the party.”

“Wasn’t gonna ask.”I’ll just hang out in my office and go on with my life. “Color scheme is pink?”

“Color scheme is green,” she drawls. “Pink is small town, small minds. Green will match her name, if not her eyes.”

“Silly me.” I set our dinner on the stove and come around to the silverware drawer, yanking it open and snatching out the pizza slicer thattingsagainst the countertop when steel meets stone. “I can’t believe I assumed pink was an appropriate color scheme for a girly party. When is it? Also, have you told Tommy?”

“The Saturday a week before I leave. That gives Alana time to settle in with the baby, and it allows for your invitees to RSVP and plan their travels.”

“Travels?” I move back to the pizza and roll the slicer through. “Where the hell are they traveling from? We don’t know people outside of Plainview.”

“Alana knows plenty of people outside Plainview, and if you tried really hard, I bet you could think of some, too.”

“You know fighters,” Franky drawls, his tone as blandas if we were discussing dirt.Actually, dirt would be more interesting. “You know loads of fighters.”

“And remind me again why the hell I would invite fighters from outside of Plainview for a baby shower for a baby who is already born to a woman they’ve never met?”

“Because if you contribute nothing, and no one comes, and Alana feels unloved,especiallyafter everything that happened last time she lived here…”

“Fine.” I wave her off and wish for bedtime-Fox. Sexy-time Fox. I’d even take sleepy-time Fox. Because any of those are preferable to rest-of-the-day Fox. “I hear you. I’ll think of some folks and figure out a way to invite them without looking like a total fucking idiot.”

“Thomas Watkins is the current world champion,” she huffs. “I’m certain you could fill a stadium if you simplyspoketo another human being.”

Sleep escapes me for the second night in a row while frogs croak outside and the cicadas scream from the trees. A soft breeze knocks on the windows of Tommy and Alana’s house—Franky wanted to sleep here, in his own bed, but only if Fox went upstairs with him—which means I sit on the couch, my body dug between the cushions and my legs spread wide apart.

I tap my fingers against the arm of the couch to a tune I don’t even know, and while the clocktick-tock-tick-tocks, promising to steal my sanity, I simply… exist.

I fucking hate the nighttime.

“You look lonely.” Fox’s soft voice rolls through the dark, like a hug that wraps all the way around. A caress that touches a man’s soul.

I tilt my head back and watch her, upside down, step off the staircase in a pair of tiny sleep shorts I’m pretty sure belong to Alana and a sports bra brandishing my own gym logo on it.

Fuck. Me. Please.

Smirking, she saunters around the couch with a seductive swing of her hips and a delicious arch in her back. She wears her hair in a messy bun atop her head and a spare scrunchie on her wrist, its stark blackness standing out against her pale skin.

“You often awake this late at night, or is it a new thing for you?”

“It’s not uncommon,” I grumble.Despite my strict bedtime routine and the handful of melatonin I choke down every evening.

She wanders around and stops between my legs, grinning and tilting her head to the side.

“Franky asleep?”

Nodding, she nibbles on her bottom lip. “Uh-huh.”

“Areyouoften awake this late?” I surge forward and snag her wrist, then I pull her onto my lap, her excited exhalation, a sweet breeze hitting my face as I help her settle over top of me, her legs on either side of mine, and my hands on her hips. “How can you be a night owl and a morning person, all at the same time?”