Page 85 of The Shake Off

“It looks loved.”

“It’s my favorite book. Have you read it?”

I shook my head, “Not since college.”

He stood there staring at me, unsure of what else there was to say, and I remembered why I didn’t do sleepovers; the awkward roommate bump the morning after. No one should have to make polite conversation with a stranger before you’d finished your first coffee.

Finally, his eyes flicked over to Ace and down to the neat line of ingredients.

“Are you hungry?”

I nodded. “Ace was about to make breakfast.”

Lux threw his head back with a loud laugh. “Imake the breakfast.”

My brows knitted together, and I looked at Ace who smirked, then rounded the island and sat next to me. “It’s true. He makes breakfast, I was just getting it ready for him. But I help with the whisking.”

I let out another giggle before I could slap a hand over my mouth to stop it.

“Hey,” Ace murmured, his lips brushing against the shell of my ear, “don’t hide that giggle. I like it.”

Heat flushed my cheeks again, as my belly fluttered away. Again. If you’d have asked me two months ago what being in Ace Watson’s apartment would be like, I’d never have been able to conceive of this; two strapping major league baseball players – one in a rainbow covered apron no less – making me breakfast.

“You can put the chocolate chips into the batter,” Lux said, passing me the bag.

Ace’s eyes widened and he leaned in to kiss my cheek. “Wow, no one’s ever allowed to pour the chocolate chips.”

“You’renot allowed,” corrected Lux, “Otherwise the entire bag disappears in one go.”

I picked up my coffee, peering at the pair of them over the rim of my cup. “So other girls get to pour them?”

Ace grabbed the bowl and cracked the first egg into it. “Girls don’t have breakfast here. Breakfast is a sacred time.”

My brow furrowed. “What does that mean?”

“We never make breakfast for girls. You’re the first.”

“Oh.” I took another sip of my coffee, because I wasn’t sure what else to do with that fact drop. “Do you guys do this every morning?”

“I do,” Lux nodded, taking the bowl from Ace and whisking it at a speed I’d only seen on The Great British Bake Off, a show Kit and I used to have an unhealthy obsession with. “But if the boys aren’t awake, I leave breakfast for them.”

“My mama used to do it for me and my brothers before school, but Lux likes cooking so he makes it,” added Ace.

“It gives me something to do before a game. I like to start the day putting effort into breakfast.” Lux put the bowl of batter in front of me. “Here, add a cup of the chips.”

I took the red measuring cup from Lux and scooped out one portion into the pancake mix, only for Ace to shove his fist into the bag and add another when Lux’s back was turned, whispering, “Lucky Aces strikes again,” with more mischief than a kid in a candy store.

“What do you normally do for breakfast?”

I shrugged. “I grab something on my way to the office. Usually a bagel. Mostly I forget, and just have coffee.”

“What did you do as a kid?”

The smile I’d beamed at Ace dropped a little, and my fingers tightened around my coffee mug. “My parents were too busy fighting to have time to make me breakfast. But once they were going through a divorce, I did get double pocket money so they could out-do each other. I had a nanny for a while who used to make me egg white omelets, but they were gross.”

To this day, I still can’t look at an egg white omelet without thinking of Griselda, and any number of the monumental fights my parents had.

I turned to Ace, the grin he’d been wearing a second ago as he’d stuffed the chips in his mouth had vanished. Out of nowhere, a thick ball of tears pushed up my throat, and I had to work hard to swallow it down.

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