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Page 46 of Second Chance Fate (Hope Falls: Brewed Awakenings #5)

Taylor’s eyes fluttered open as she drifted awake in a groggy sense of displacement.

The soft sheets felt unfamiliar, and the sunlight bleeding through the curtains was distinctly brighter than the low-wattage bulbs of the cottage.

For a moment, she thought she was dreaming, until the warm, musky scent of laundry detergent and a faint trace of musky aftershave brought vivid flashes of the night before surfacing in her mind.

Her cheeks instantly flushed at the memories.

She wasn’t sure if she was blushing out of arousal or modesty.

All of the boldness she felt last night seemed to have worn off.

Without glancing to her left, she knew she was alone in bed, which she was grateful for.

She was glad to have a moment to herself to process.

The last thing she remembered was being in Caleb’s arms. She’d fallen asleep snuggled up against him, his hand running up and down her back as she rested her head on his chest with his heart beating against her cheek.

It was the same way she’d fallen asleep the night they’d spent together in Daytona Beach, but that night she’d been the one to wake up first, and he was the one who had woken up alone.

After pushing up to a sitting position, she swung her legs over the side of the bed, expecting to see the evidence of their hookup on the floor.

In her head, she imagined a chalk outline around the sweats, shirt, and her underwear like a crime scene, but they were no longer on the floor.

Instead, the only clothing she saw was a robe on the nightstand.

She slid the robe on and padded into the en-suite bathroom, where she found that Caleb had placed a clean shirt, a pair of sweats, and socks on her overnight bag from the hospital.

She needed to go back to the cottage to grab some of her clothes today, but until then Caleb had graciously offered her another pair of his sweats and a shirt.

After piling her hair up in a messy bun and taking a quick shower to rinse off where she got the remnants of the glue from the IV tape off of her arm, she dried off and slathered lotion on herself.

She brushed her teeth and got dressed in Caleb’s t-shirt, which she was swimming in, and sweats, pulling them up and cinching the drawstring tight enough to keep them from making an unscheduled descent.

When she was tying the knot on the sweats, she glanced in the mirror and saw that the shirt he’d chosen had one of her favorite TV couples, Jim Halpert and Pam Beasley from The Office, on it.

It was an outline of their characters, and she immediately recognized the scene.

It was when Pam fell asleep on Jim’s shoulder during a meeting and Jim didn’t want to move after it ended.

There were words in a circle around it, but they were so small she couldn’t read them.

She stepped closer to the mirror but realized that she was trying to read them backwards, so she lifted the shirt up and was able to read the quote from the show.

“ When you’re a kid, you assume your parents are soulmates; my kids are gonna be right about that. ”

Her heart didn’t just skip; it was doing Olympic-level double Dutch, but she pulled it back by the collar mid-jump.

It’s just a shirt , she told herself. They’d watched The Office the night before, and she told him it was her comfort show. That was why he’d picked it out. That’s it. Nothing more.

Putting all soulmate references out of her mind, she grabbed her phone and headed out of the bedroom. In the hallway, a buttery, syrupy scent mingled with fresh-brewed coffee wafted through the air, causing her mouth to water and her stomach to growl.

When she reached the kitchen, she winced. It was brighter than she expected. Sunlight poured through the wall of accordion glass doors that led to the backyard. Caleb had his back to her, standing at the stove with both dogs posted on either side of him like the King’s Guard at Buckingham Palace.

Her mouth watered once again, but this time it had nothing to do with the delicious smell; it was the yummy sight that had her taste buds salivating.

Caleb was shirtless, wearing only a pair of dark gray drawstring sweats that were riding low on his hips.

She watched as he flipped a pancake with a spatula in one hand and stirred scrambled eggs with the other, like a pro chef.

His back, shoulders, and biceps flexed with every movement.

The chiseled lines of his Adonis-like upper body and his competence at preparing even the most basic food had her feeling a little, a lot, lightheaded.

Taylor caught herself becoming unexpectedly flustered by the sight of him in domestic mode. She took a step back and must have made a sound because he turned and glanced over his shoulder.

“Morning.” He smiled, revealing the very deep dimple in his left cheek, sapping whatever strength she had in her legs.

Thankfully, the doorway was within swoon distance from the table, and she lowered down into the chair without incident. When she did, she felt the effects of their activities the night before. She was sore in places that she didn’t know could get sore. “Morning,” she replied.

“How are you feeling?” Caleb asked, sounding genuinely concerned.

She wondered if he was asking in the general sense or if it was more specific to their night.

“Better,” she answered generically.

“I hope you’re hungry.”

“I am.” She nodded.

Taylor felt her pulse quicken just being in the same room as Caleb again.

She watched as he plated both the pancakes and the scrambled eggs and bacon.

He fed a few pieces of bacon to both Casper and Minnie, making sure they felt included in the breakfast. He even thanked them for ‘helping’ him cook, praising them as the best sous chefs he’d ever had.

The way he was with Minnie and Casper was just one indicator of what a good man he was.

He was basically just a walking green flag.

After a few trips back and forth from the kitchen, the table was filled with a pitcher of orange juice, iced water, pancakes, eggs, bacon, syrup, and butter.

Caleb sat down and placed a lavender pill dispenser next to Taylor’s plate.

She glanced down at it and saw that the morning and evening compartments were filled.

“You need to take your morning pills with food,” he stated.

She looked up at him. “You got this for me ?”

He nodded.

It might seem like a silly thing, but no one had ever done that for her. When she was sick in foster homes or in group homes, she was always responsible for her own medication. No one ever knew when she was supposed to take it or if she needed to take food with it or not.

“Thank you.”

“It’s the least I…” he paused, and a wide smile spread across his face as he finished, “…can do.”

They laughed a little as they both filled her plates.

The phrase he’d just said was the one that had led to them sleeping together.

She wondered if they were going to talk about what happened.

She could feel the energy between them was different.

She wasn’t sure if it was because of last night or if it was because she was going to tell Owen today that he was his dad, and they were married. Maybe both.

“Listen, about last night…” Caleb started.

Okay, it was last night . Taylor braced herself for rejection.

Caleb was her husband, but it wasn’t as if he’d married her because he loved her.

Their union was about Owen. It was about legalities and their son.

She was pretty out of it when he asked her to marry him, but she did remember him saying that he loved her.

Still, the truth was it had nothing to do with any sort of emotional, physical, or romantic connection. It was what was best for Owen.

Last night was… well, she knew what last night was for her.

Last night was over a decade of repressed feelings and desires coming to the surface.

She’d done her best to forget the weekend she and Caleb shared together in Daytona Beach and be emotionally faithful to Martin, but it was difficult to do when she was raising a walking, breathing reminder of Caleb.

She never got over him. Whether or not people believed in love at first sight, it was what happened to her.

She did fall in love with him that weekend.

She’d loved him for the nearly twelve years they’d been apart, and once she moved to Hope Falls, she’d fallen even deeper in love with him.

Oh, and wine. Last night was also about wine. She’d always been a lightweight, and she’d had two glasses of wine.

“I just want you to know…I don’t want you to think that I?—”

“It’s fine, really; you don’t have to say anything,” she assured him. “I understand.”

“You do?” His left brow arched.

“I do.” She cut into her pancakes and took a large bite. She figured if her mouth was full, she couldn’t be forced to speak.

When they’d hooked up over spring break, there hadn’t been any awkward morning-after conversations. She slipped out from under his arms as the sun began to rise. She’d been gone before he woke up.

The next time they spoke was when they ran into each other outside Brewed Awakenings.

Speaking of the coffeehouse, she needed to follow up with Audrey to see what her schedule would be next week.

As much as she appreciated Caleb allowing her and Owen to live at his house, she wasn’t going to let go of the cottage just yet.

No matter how amazing Caleb was, she was never going to be dependent on a man again. Ever.

“What?” he asked.

She glanced up at him, and her cheeks heated with embarrassment. Had she mumbled under her breath? It was a habit she’d developed when she was young that Martin hated, and she worked hard to break it.

“What, what?” she repeated.

“What do you understand?” he questioned.

Her forehead creased as she tried to backtrack their conversation to figure out what he was referring to. What could she have possibly said that would have triggered that question? Her confusion must have been evident because he clarified further.

“I brought up last night, and you said that I don’t have to say anything because you understand. So I’m asking, what do you understand?”

She swallowed her bite and then took a drink of her orange juice.

It made sense that he wanted to talk this out.

Their relationship was a poster child for ‘it’s complicated.

’ He must be concerned that she was going to get the wrong idea, and he didn’t want to lead her on.

As much as she appreciated the position he was in, she wished they could just pretend the night before hadn’t happened.

“I understand that?—”

The doorbell rang a second before both Minnie and Casper began to bark their heads off. So much for the King’s Guard.

“Are you expecting someone?” she asked.

“No. Just give me a minute.”

He stood and walked to the door with Casper and Minnie trailing behind him.

The door opened, and Minnie whined loudly as her tail went crazy, her backend wiggling wildly.

“Mom, Dad, what are you doing here?”

Mom? Dad? His parents weren’t supposed to be home for another week. Taylor looked down at how she was dressed.

She was wearing Caleb’s clothes, eating breakfast, and she wanted to say this was not how it looked. The problem was, it was exactly how it looked.