Page 30 of Tore Up

“Do you have cereal?” I asked before he left.

“Fifth shelf on the far right,” he replied.

I went over to the right side, and sure enough, on the fifth shelf were three different boxes of cereal. Two were shockingly healthy. One was Cocoa Puffs. I started to reach for the Cocoa Puffs but then stopped. That wasn’t the best choice for the baby, I realized. Scrunching my nose, I looked at the other two and decided that the one with the dried blueberries looked like the lesser of the two evils.

Once I was back in the kitchen, Bane was standing at the stove with a cup of coffee and cracking eggs into a bowl. He cooked for himself. He was just full of surprises.

I went to the cabinet I had found the bowls in earlier while I was looking for food and got one down. I just had to figure out where the spoons were now. I could ask, but he didn’t like tohear my voice, and he was busy.

I opened the first drawer to find potholders and closed it. The next one had hand towels. When I reached the third one, Bane stopped me.

“Here,” he said as he pulled out a drawer to his left.

Yeah, the one closest to him would have been the last drawer I’d tried. Heck, I might have just eaten the cereal with my hand before I had gone over there.

“Thanks,” I whispered and went to get a spoon.

The options in eating utensils were excessive. There were three sizes of forks and four different spoon sizes. Who needed all this? They were guys. I doubted they threw dinner parties.

“Is getting a spoon that complicated?” he asked.

I snatched out a regular-sized spoon and closed the drawer. It seemed to only require a push, and it slid slowly in on its own. Going over to my bowl, I filled it halfway with cereal, then added the milk before going to put it back in the fridge. I wanted to ask about the screen, but said nothing. It was as if I were living with Nick again. Not talking or doing anything to draw attention to myself.

“Morning,” Than said as he walked into the room. He was shirtless again and had on a pair of black-and-blue plaid pajama pants.

“Good morning,” I replied, only glancing at him before giving my cereal my complete attention.

“Lost your shirt?” Bane asked him.

“Don’t be jealous of the pecs,” he drawled and pulled out a mug from the cabinet.

He swung his gaze over to mine and grinned, then put his mug under the large contraption that I thought was a coffee machine, but it had a screen and three different spouts, so I’d stayed away from it.

“Who slept in the guest room?” Than asked.

“Locke,” was Bane’s response.

“Did Gathe do something to piss him off?”

I took a bite of my cereal as I watched them. It was difficult not to. As much as I disliked Bane, he wasn’t hard on the eyes. Seeing him stand over a stove and make what looked like an omelet with his thick arms flexing with each move was a show most females wouldn’t be able to ignore.

“Gathe is dealing with … well, you know,” Bane replied, his jaw tight.

“Hmm,” was all Than said as the machine spit out his choice of drink. He picked it up and walked over to take the stool on the other side of me. “Sleep okay?”

I cut my eyes to Bane, who was taking bread from a toaster.

“Uh, well, I had a nightmare,” I told him, wondering if my screaming had woken him up.

“He knows that,” Bane replied as he put the jam I had gotten out and not used because I didn’t want to ask Bane for any of the bread he’d taken from the pantry.

“I heard you,” Than said beside me in a gentle tone. “But I meant after that.”

“She snores,” Bane said, then placed the jam-covered toast on a plate beside me.

I didn’t know if I should thank him for the toast or argue that I did not snore.

“I assume that was why you got the jam out,” he told me, then turned back to the stove.

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