Page 32 of Nave
Back in his room, I slipped into fresh panties, shorts, and a tee, but put his hoodie back on over it. I wasn’t quite ready to let go of that yet.
When I made my way to the kitchen, Edith was happily eating, and Nave was at the stove, pushing some fluffy scrambled eggs around the pan as a couple of golden pancakes finished cooking in another pan.
“Oh my god. Pancakes.”
“Thought you might like that. Woulda just done a whole tower of ‘em. But I thought you might need, you know, protein and nutrients. So… eggs.”
“Thank you.”
“There’s coffee. Pretty sure I hear you can have a cup a day. But we have decaf somewhere. Oh, and my cousin drops off all kinds of weird teas too.”
“Weird as in…”
“No, not like that,” he said, smiling. “Don’t get me wrong, Billie was definitely a dabbler before she had kids. But she now grows her own different kinds of flower teas or whatever.”
“I think I will stick with the coffee.”
By the time I had cream and sugar in my mug, Nave was plating my breakfast.
“A real plate,” I said when he set it in front of me. Reaching out, I touched the porcelain.
“Nice, right? Fresh outta the dishwasher.”
He joined me a minute later, shooting me a knowing smile as I tested the weight of the fork and dinner knife before I dug into my food.
“Oh, God.” Was that an orgasmic sound? Sure. But the food was that good.
“What is the one food you are most looking forward to eating now?”
“Pizza.” I didn’t even need to pretend to think about it. “Followed by French fries, baked ziti, and a big vanilla milkshake.” But, honestly, the list could go on and on. I’d been living on fruit, plain oatmeal, packaged salads, yogurt, brown rice, and the occasional piece of chicken for years. I was excited for even a floret of broccoli, for goodness’ sakes.
“All solid choices. And we have some of the best pizza in the world around this area.”
“I can’t wait.” Even if I had no idea when I would have the money for something like that. “So, how long have you been back in Navesink Bank?”
“A few years now.”
“What brought you back?”
“It was just… time. I always knew I would find my way back here eventually. I just needed a bit of a life that was all mine first, I guess.”
“Can I ask why?”
“Because I grew up in this club. With my parents, my uncles and aunts, my cousins. And I think when you’re really close with people nearly every moment of every day, it’s hard to figure out who you really are and who you’re supposed to become.”
“Was it hard to come back as someone new?”
“Nah. I thought it might be. Which might be what took me so long to get here. But everyone else here had changed a bit too.”
We talked about some of his cousins and their adventures when they’d taken off, but the names mostly started to blur together for me after a while. Only Kit and Ariah stuck in my head since I was going to be living on their property.
“That’s a big switch. Travel vlogs to a homestead.”
“Yeah. I think, to an extent, they felt like they’d seen everything. And they claimed the happiest people they’d met on their journeys were the ones who led very simple lives. Just their land, their gardens and animals, and their loved ones.”
“That makes sense,” I decided. “I never really wanted a grand life, either. Just a little bit better than the life I’d grown up in.”
“These up for grabs?” one of the twins I’d seen earlier asked, gesturing toward the pancakes.
