Page 69 of Rent Free

“You came,” he said to me.

I nodded. “I had a few issues.”

My gaze went to the back yard, and I frowned. “Are those raccoons?”

“They are,” Garrett chuckled. “Probably the ones that keep going through Quincy’s trash, too.”

“If he put it into a normal trash can, it wouldn’t matter. But he keeps putting it beside the back door because he’s too lazy to walk outside at night to put it into the trash can,” Atlas pointed out.

“Yeah, you can’t do that,” I said. “We used to live out in the country, too. We’d feed our outside cats, and if the cats didn’t eat fast, they’d get kicked off their food bowls by the racoons.”

“What are your issues?” he asked as he stood up, bringing Forest with him.

We all walked back into the kitchen as the oven dinged, indicating something was ready.

He opened the oven door to reveal spaghetti.

Garrett grimaced and looked away.

“You don’t like spaghetti?” I asked.

“Hate it,” he grumbled. “It reminds me of blown up brain.”

I gagged. “That’s gross.”

“It’s accurate.” He shrugged.

“Garrett,” Atlas grumbled. “Why are you still here then?”

“This one asked me to come inside,” he gestured at me. “Said she had a problem she needed my help with.”

Atlas spared me a glance as he dished up the food for his son, who was still on his hip.

The domesticated way he was taking care of his baby and providing made certain places inside of me sing in rejoice.

Why was a man providing so sexy?

And why the heck couldn’t we have figured our shit out before this new development arose?

Mostly, I started feeling bad for myself because I’d wanted him for what felt like forever. Now, when he was finally starting to be nice to me, and maybe sharing some of my own feelings, his world had been turned upside down.

There was no way on God’s green earth that I was going to push a relationship with him now.

I was going to be perfectly respectable.

I was going to be the best friend ever to him.

I was going to be a Monk… Nun?

Thoughts morose now, I looked around for a spot for Forest to eat and found a bunch of encyclopedias to stack on the chair closest to the wall.

He gave me a thankful nod and placed his son on the books before placing the food in front of him. “This is hot. You have to be careful. Watch.”

He picked up a bite of the food with a small baby fork, then blew on it.

Forest watched intently, then snatched the fork from him and blew on it.

It had all of one piece of meat on it after his exuberant snatch job.

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