Page 29 of Wild Fires

I stared at her until she became slightly uncomfortable. “So, am I out of your system then?”

She bit her lip and slowly shook her head.

“Then we should probably keep working on that.” I winked at her, and I was pretty certain she swooned.

*****

Gracie ended up ordering an entire lasagna and had it delivered. Apparently, this was not an uncommon occurrence, so Gia wouldn't think anything of it. But Gracie insisted that I hide in the bedroom until Gia left.

I felt horrible about that. It was my sister for crying out loud. She would never spread gossip about us. She may be a little surprised by it, but she wouldn’t tell anyone.

And did I even care if she did?

Normally yes. I preferred to keep my personal life private and be discreet about my affairs. But I didn't think it would bother me if the rumors started either. Or maybe I was just telling myself that in the post best-sex-of-my-life bliss.

I didn't want to make things any weirder than they already were though. So I retreated to the bedroom when Gia pulled up.

Using the time efficiently, I checked my messages and then remembered my car was still sitting at the fire station. That could certainly start some tongues wagging and cause Gracie a few headaches because they all knew we had arrived at the fire together.

A quick call to Jennifer to ask her to pick it up was all that took. She didn't ask questions and never pried into my personal life. I appreciated that about her.

Gracie walked in carrying two heaping plates of lasagna with two bottles of water tucked under her arm and set them on the bed.

My jaw dropped in surprise and then locked in horror.

“What's this?” I asked in a strained voice.

“Dinner. You said I had to feed you, so I'm feeding you.”

“In bed?” I blurted out in disgust. I'd never eaten anything in bed. I didn't even take a glass of water to my bedroom. There was no reason to ever eat or drink in bed.

She laughed. “You look like you're going into shock. We've already done a lot more than that in this bed.”

A slow smile crossed my face. “If I'm eating in bed, Gracie, it will be you, not this lasagna.”

I got up and took the plates from her and walked out into the kitchen. I had to take a second and actually find the table amongst all the clutter she had there. But soon we were sitting down and eating a proper meal. My actions seemed to amuse her.

We ate in a comfortable silence. It was strange to me just how at ease I felt around Gracie. I didn't have a need to pretend to be anyone else. I could just be me and that seemed to be enough.

Once we were done eating, I gathered up our plates and went to wash them along with the rest of the dirty dishes she had stacked in the sink.

“You really don't have to do that,” she insisted. “I'll get them later.”

“I really do.”

“Because they'll drive you nuts if you don't?” she guessed.

“Exactly. Trust me, just let me do it real quick, and then it's done and over with and we don’t have to worry about it.”

“I wasn't worried about it to begin with,” she insisted.

It boggled my mind that anyone could leave a sink full of dirty dishes like that, but I also knew that not everyone was like me. How many times growing up had Mom tried to shoo me out of the kitchen, telling me to leave it to the housekeeper? Eventually she'd come to understand that it was just something I needed to do. I didn't badger others to clean or even ask for help, but for my own sanity it had to be done. Besides, it only took a few minutes and then it was done so I could relax again.

“Now, how about dessert?” I asked her.

She frowned. “I didn't get anything for dessert. There might be some cookies in the pantry.”

I was going to ignore the fact that she didn't even know what she had in her pantry because I had other things on my mind at that moment.

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