Page 184 of Dawn of Chaos and Fury
“Have you asked Theon?”
“No.”
“Because you’re stubborn and trying to prove a point?” He glanced up to find her glaring at him. “You could ask Xan,” hesaid with a shrug, moving to stir the pot before cracking eggs into a bowl.
“I’m avoiding him too,” she sighed. “He wants to bring my mother here.”
He paused for the briefest of moments. “Yeah, I could see how that would make you anxious.”
“You do?”
“There’s a lot there to unpack, baby doll,” he said, beating the eggs. “Xan is clearly fond of her, and you maybe don’t want to be fond of the female who abandoned you to this realm.”
“Yeah,” she whispered.
“But it might be nice to get answers directly from the source,” he added.
“Maybe.”
Grabbing a pan, he set it next to the pot, turning on the burner.
“And what if she doesn’t regret it?” he continued.
Tessa didn’t answer, but he didn’t expect her to. He was simply naming the feelings she was obviously trying to avoid.
“What are you doing?” she asked again after a few minutes of silence.
“In about ten minutes, Kat is going to wake up craving an omelette,” he answered. “Just getting it ready.”
A small bark of laughter escaped her. “You’re serious?”
“Sure am,” he muttered. “Every night at the same godsdamn time. I’m so used to it now, I naturally wake up.”
She huffed another laugh as he flipped the omelette.
“What’s in the other pot?” she asked.
He smiled to himself, plucking a mug from the cupboard and filling it with the contents. Then he crossed to her, taking her mug of tea and replacing it. She looked down as he went back to finish the omelette.
“Hot chocolate?” she asked.
“Don’t tell Theon,” he said, throwing her another wink over his shoulder. “There’s whipped cream in the fridge.”
He heard her slide off the chair, then bare feet padding to the refrigerator. “I don’t know the first thing about having parents,” she said as she moved. “But I think you’re going to be a great father.”
“I don’t know the first thing aboutbeinga father,” he replied, sliding the omelette onto a plate and covering it with a lid to keep it warm.
“I think you have to care. Have to love. Deeply. The way you love Kat,” she answered with a soft smile, nodding to the covered dish. “Did youwantto be a father though?”
“It was just always something I knew would be required of me one day, I guess,” he answered, leaning against the counter and crossing his arms while he watched her spoon whipped cream into her mug.
“That’s not what I asked.”
He smirked, but then turned contemplative. “Yeah, I think I did. Never thought it’d be this early. Figured it’d be decades from now, but…” He shrugged. “Sometimes the Fates surprise us.”
“Fuck the Fates,” she ground out, lifting the mug to her lips.
He smirked again, picking up on the sound of feet on the stairs. “We can have all kinds of plans, baby doll,” he said, uncovering the plate and carrying it to the counter. “Some work out. Sometimes we’re fucked over. And sometimes we didn’t know we were dreaming the wrong dreams all along until we’re living them,” he said, smiling softly as Kat appeared in the kitchen. Sliding the plate across the counter, he said, “It’s ready, kitten.”
