“Instead of trying to come up with something that you might like more than your morning coffee, I’ll just have to find things that add to your enjoyment.” He reached for the plate of pastries and offered it to her. “You like Danish, right?”

“I do, thank you.”

He grinned. “So now, you can have a little something sweet with your coffee.”

She reached up and touched his cheek. “And I hope soon, I can have a big something sweet with it.”

His eyes widened, and that big smile spread across his face. “You mean me?”

“I do.”

He looked down at her coffee. “I want to take that away from you so that I can kiss you, but I’ll let you drink it first.”

She laughed. “Wise man.”

~ ~ ~

They didn’t go over to the cabins until after lunch – and that was just fine by Travis. If having Retta stay with him meant that he’d get to start his days having coffee in bed with her, then he was all about it.

When he’d knocked on her door, he’d intended to sit in the armchair in her room while they had their coffee. That idea had gone out the window when he’d seen her sitting up. She looked small, and kind of frail, in the big bed, and he’d just wanted to wrap her up in his arms and keep her safe.

“Trav?”

He shook his head to bring himself back from thoughts of what he’d like to do with her in the mornings once she had that cast off.

He met her gaze with a smile. “What’s up, darlin’?”

“I was going to ask you the same thing – you were a million miles away.”

He went over to where she was sitting in the kitchen and squatted down in front of her wheelchair.

“If you want to know the truth, I wasn’t all that far away – I was only half a mile down the road.”

She gave him a puzzled smile.

“I was thinking about this morning. I can’t think of a better way to start the day than the way we did today.”

She put her hand over his. “I can’t, either. I was a little embarrassed at first. I was a mess – I always am when I wake up, and even more so this morning. I don’t remember the last time I had a hangover.”

He chuckled. “It does you good every now and then.”

“Maybe.”

He was glad that she wasn’t apologizing. Yeah, she was a little embarrassed but not so much that she couldn’t laugh about it.

“And if you were a mess, you were a beautiful mess.”

Her cheeks turned pink. “You’re the beautiful one. Have you seen yourself in those sweatpants and nothing else?”

“What, you mean those old things?” he asked with a laugh. “I only wear them for knocking around the house.”

“You know damn well what I mean. The whole bare-chested, sleep-tousled hair thing works for you. And your tattoos?” Shewaved a hand in front of her face. “I didn’t think that I was into tattoos, but you’re proving me wrong about that. And it hadn’t occurred to me that you’d be covered in them – I thought it was just your arms.”

“You’re welcome to a closer inspection any time you want to check ‘em out.”

She laughed. “Is it weird that I don’t even feel embarrassed telling you that I look forward to it?”

“Nah, I don’t think it’s weird. We don’t need to play games with each other, and we don’t need to hide anything.” He waggled his eyebrows. “I don’t feel embarrassed telling you that I’m looking forward to seeing you bare-chested.”