Page 49 of Spark
Nope.
He went through the necessary motions of disentangling his and Chloe’s limbs, then slipping to the bathroom to take care of the condom.Surely, if there was anything that would make this weird, it wasthat.But then, he returned to find her lying in the middle of her bed wearing nothing but an ear-to-ear grin, and weird was the furthest thing from his mind.
“Hey,” she said, propping herself up on her elbows.“I don’t know if this is normal or not, but I’m still eighty percent sure I can’t feel my legs.”
Tyler laughed.“This might be the only situation where that’s a good thing.”
“Please.”She came dangerously close to a snort, and okay, he was really fucked, because itstillwasn’t weird.“I’m pretty sure we left ‘good’ in the hallway, along with my clothes.”
Chloe rolled over, grabbing a long, silky bathrobe from the chair beside her bed, shouldering into it while Tyler located his discarded clothing and dressed in a few economical movements.This was the moment where he usually crafted a respectful exit.Anything that came after orgasm swapping had the potential to be sticky territory if he lingered.
But then Chloe looked at him and said, “I guess we can finish the party favors, if you want,” and his corresponding “sounds good” just shoveled right on out like it was the most natural thing in the universe.Tyler knew that was a bad, bad sign, but it felt too fucking good to walk it back.
Especially when Chloe took a detour to the kitchen, pulling a clear zip-top bag of red velvet cookies from a cupboard before padding her way back to the living room.“These are no baby cinnamon rolls, mind you.”She held up the package she’d grabbed from the counter.“But they’re good in a pinch.”
“Yeah, hand ‘em over.”Tyler made a matching motion with his fingers.Chloe passed him the cookies with a laugh, then sat on the floor with her back against the couch.She opened up the cinnamon rolls to pop one into her mouth, and something stupid kicked behind his breastbone.
But then he took a bite of one of the cookies and promptly forgot it.“Mmmf,” he said, the chocolatey/tangy/sweet trifecta making his tastebuds sing a hallelujah chorus.God,they were good.
Chloe laughed.“I’m glad you like them.You’re welcome to take the bag.I’ve got three more just like it in my freezer.”
“You bake a lot, huh?”he asked, and the speed of her shrug wasn’t lost on him.
“Sure.It’s my job.Do what you love, and all that.”She busied herself with the cinnamon rolls, and Tyler waited her out until the package was empty.
“But?”
Her sigh made a slow escape.“ButI also do it as stress relief.Which you have, no doubt, picked up on.”
“Not a complaint.”Tyler lifted both hands, one of which held another cookie.“But, yeah, the sheer volume of baked goods you’ve been sharing lately is a bit of an indicator.”
“Well, you can blame Ryan for inspiring my love of cooking and baking,” she said, and she might as well have grabbed Tyler’s curiosity with both hands and given it a good shake.
“Really?I didn’t know that.”
Chloe picked up a hangover kit, her blue eyes crinkling with her smile.“Oh, yeah.When I first came to live with my family, I brought a lot of baggage.Not the literal kind.”
“I remember.”He didn’t press—just because she’d brought it up didn’t mean she wanted to tuck in for a tell-all, and God knew he understood the need to keep his feelings about his past locked down tight.
But Chloe opened up like a goddamn flower.“I learned pretty quickly to stuff everything down in foster care.Being a kid in the system was hard enough.Being a kid in the system who had an overload of emotions that made me look messy to prospective families and vulnerable to the other kids?Hard pass.”
Tyler’s heart gave an involuntary squeeze.“I’m sorry.That must have been pretty shitty.”
“It wasn’t ideal,” she agreed.“But it was better to be labeled ‘the quiet one’ instead of ‘the fragile one’, even if it did get me overlooked and bounced around between group homes and temporary foster families.It took over a year after the Dempseys adopted me before I started to trust them enough to see my feelings.Especially the ugly ones.”
Well,thatwas a tune he could sing along to.Not that he gave his feelings more airtime than was strictly necessary.“You felt like you were protecting yourself from getting hurt.”
“Exactly.”Chloe took the hangover kit he’d just stuffed from the small pile on the floor between them, sealing it shut.“But one night, about ten months after the adoption, Ryan was at the house.I was the only sibling living there by then, but he used to come over all the time after he was done at the academy.”
“Oh, yeah,” Tyler said.He and Ryan had shared an apartment back then.“He used to bring back leftovers all the time.”
Her expression softened, wide open and beautiful as she smiled.“I hadn’t eaten much at dinner—I still didn’t want to be a burden to Lou and Carleen, even though I’d been with them for a while, at that point.But Ryan made these cheesy buttered noodles that were to fucking die for, all melty and gooey and loaded with carbs, and I was a goner.I’m not proud of this, but I’m pretty sure I actually licked my plate.”
Tyler laughed.“As one should when cheese and butter are involved.”
“That became my go-to comfort food.He’d come over and make it, and we’d eat and talk.I know it’s a little woo woo, but the food made me feel...nourished, I guess.Safe.So, I learned how to cook, then bake.I discovered I loved pastry almost as much as those cheesy buttered noodles, and I guess the rest is history.”
He thought for a minute, a pang of understanding unfolding in his belly.“That’s why you self-soothe with baking.”
