Page 39 of Coming Unraveled
The next morning Brooks rolls over to find the sheets beside him cold to the touch and he bolts up in bed wondering why he is alone. Taking in his surroundings, he notices that it’s much later than he normally sleeps as the sun shines brightly in the sky, well past the horizon. Typically, he wakes as the sun rises, a habit from his childhood when he had to be up bright and early to toss the baseball with his coach before school. His body must have felt its anxiety dissolve away with Everleigh snuggled close to him, the only other time that has happened was when they were sharing a bed in Vegas.
Gliding out from between the sheets he snatches the pants he left on the floor and shimmies them over his thighs as the smell of bacon wafts through the air. A growl sounds in the quiet room and he realizes that his stomach has awakened at the thought of food, especially as he realizes that he didn’t get to eat much the evening before.
Following the heavenly scent down to the kitchen, he stops mid-step as he watches Everleigh shake to the music playing in the background, a current pop starlet singing about finding her true love. Seeing her like this connects another puzzle piece for him of what makes up this amazing woman. She seems young and carefree, how Brooks always wishes that she would look, instead of fearing that her world will end at any moment.
She bends to grab a muffin pan from the oven and Brooks’ eyes practically bulge from their sockets as her gray shirt rides high, up past the sweet curve of her ass, and exposing the toned muscles of her upper thighs. Everleigh startles as the growl bellowing deep in his chest reaches her ears and she spins quickly, almost dropping the pan in her mittened hand, but her free one reaches out to catch the hot metal, burning her fingers in the process.
“Shit,” she cries out as she throws the muffin pan onto the counter and rushes towards the sink.
In full doctor mode, Brooks dashes forward meeting her at the sink, turning the faucet on to cool the wound.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you. Let me take a look,” he urges as he holds her hand under the running water.
He examines her reddened palm face up on his own and he brings it close to his face to inspect the burn more closely.
At the same time, she whispers, “I woke up early and thought I’d make you breakfast.”
Head still bent over her hand he looks up at her through his lashes and half-grins at the blush on her cheeks. “It smells great. I can’t wait to eat.”
He turns his gaze back down after a moment, but only after he notices her cheeks redden further almost darker than the red of her palm. “I think you’ll be ok, I don’t see any blistering. But there is one more thing I’d like to do. It’s something my grandmother used to do whenever I found myself hurt.”
“What’s that?” she asks breathlessly as he brings her hand closer to his mouth.
“Kiss it and make it better.”
Everleigh gasps as his lips press against the center of her warm palm. He can feel her pulse jump underneath her skin at the contact and it eggs him onward. With her palm still resting in his hand, he tugs it behind him, bringing her elbow to his mouth where he presses another kiss to her soft skin, loving when her pulse jumps once more.
Peering down as he presses a second peck in the same crook of her arm he notices how her bare breasts pebble under the thin material of her shirt. Her free hand clenches the bottom of the material in her fist as she absorbs his pleasure.
His mouth instinctively heads towards his favorite spot of her body and nips at her collarbone before moving towards the receptive skin just beneath her ear.
“You know what I want for breakfast?” he poses as he trails his hand up the outside of her thigh, gliding under her shirt, and resting on the globe of her ass.
“Bacon?” she responds in a husky voice with both wonder and inquisition.
“No, you. I want you for breakfast.” Hoisting her up into his arms she instinctively wraps her legs around his waist. “Kiss me, Everleigh.”
She follows his command as she sinks her hands into his hair, drawing his mouth against hers. Brooks reaches out and turns off the burners on the stove, never removing his lips from her possession, and then turns to take them back to her bedroom. His stomach may want bacon, but he plans on feasting on Everleigh until his hunger is quenched.
“Tell me how you got this scar,” she asks as they lay naked together on her bed having spent two incredible hours indulging in each other’s bodies.
The muscle underneath his shoulder aches as it does every time someone asks about his injury, but he knows she deserves his answer, the truth, not the played-up version sold to the television networks to save the team.
“I got the injury during my first real game, I mean I had been with the team for two years, but it was the first game where I started. Anyway, I was playing third base and a player on the other team tried to steal the base from second. It’s pretty common. He came running straight for me just as the pitcher noticed the steal. Well, I had a man running like his life depended on it and a pitcher throwing a ball at around 100 miles per hour. The runner hit the front side of my shoulder while the ball hit the back, shattering the bone. It was a one in a million hit to have both happen at the same time.”
“Surgery didn’t fix it?” she asks as her soft fingers rub against the scar that resides just along the curve of his shoulder.
“It did, but the physical therapy was brutal and by the time it was over so was I. Honestly, they gave me the option to return, but I didn’t take it.”
“Why not? It was your dream. You had worked so hard.”
He smiles at the confused look on her face and wraps an arm around her waist, pulling her naked body closer to his own.
“Sometimes dreams change. My grandmother had started showing signs of Alzheimer’s and I still had my pre-med classes under my belt, so I took the option to finish school. The league let me keep my contract payout and I enrolled back into medical school. Best decision I ever made.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Because it all brought me to you.”
