Page 17 of Codename: Dustoff

CHAPTERNINE

Ihad a dream about him. Emmett. That instead of drifting off to sleep, he’d rolled me over, kissed every inch of my skin, and cradled me while I screamed out in other ways. The dream was so intense I actually woke up feeling that delicious laxity in my bones as if I had actually come just as I woke up.

“I didn’t know what time you normally like to wake up.” He smiled at me as I stepped into the kitchen, following the scent of coffee and something cooking on the skillet. “There’s coffee right there.” He motioned with his chin to the drip pot on the counter closest to me. “Cream and sugar is on the table.”

Emmett acted super chill, as if nothing out of the ordinary happened. He didn’t bring up my night terrors or the fact that I’d wrapped myself around him like a python in the middle of the night. He’d been right though. Having someone next to me (even if I had invaded his personal space to the infinite degree), allowed me to sleep peacefully for the first time in I have no idea how long.

“Is there anything I can help you with?” I asked mesmerized by his intricate dance between the stove, the fridge, and the sink.

There were very few items in his kitchen that were actually accessible. I’m not sure why that surprised me so much, but for someone who was so good at cooking, I would have assumed that his kitchen would make his job easier.

“I think I’ve got everything taken care of.” He pulled the towel off his shoulder and bunched it around his fingers to clean them. “We’re just doing waffles this morning so it’s nothing I can’t handle.”

His smile dripped through my blood stream like the butter sliding in the pan he tended.

“There’s some strawberries in the fridge, if you’d like some with your waffle.”

I opened his fridge and couldn’t help but chuckle at how many plastic containers there were full of seemingly random objects: tomatoes, pickles, applesauce. All of them neatly stacked, labeled, and dated.

“The strawberries are in the drawer to the bottom right.” Emmett called to me from the stove. “And if you want whipped cream there is a container of cream in the door.”

Embarrassed I’d been snooping, I grabbed the items in question and took them to the table.

“Can I ask you a potentially personal question?”

He set the waffles on a platter between where he set a plate for himself and where I sat. I watched while he puttered around making the whole breakfast picture perfect, setting out coffee and juice along with the waffles and fruit.

“Sure, sugar, shoot.”

He grabbed a piece of bacon and took a bite, smiling at me between chews.

“Your kitchen seems so normal.”

I lacked an ability to finesse. Blame the Army. Everything about being enlisted was straight and to the point.

Rather than challenge what I said, he pulled his phone out instead, resting it on a little cell phone holder on the table and pulling up YouTube.

“Finn and I have been hosting a YouTube channel for about a year now. At first we did more slapstick like oh look Finn’s a grumpy asshole and I’m the cute charming one.” He winked at me with a wide, eye crinkling smile on his face, “Eventually though as the channel picked up steam, there were so many people who have been affected by amputation like us, that have reached out to tell me that seeing me finding my way around the kitchen with just one arm, is something that keeps them motivated. He stood and collected our plates, bringing them to the sink. I followed behind him. The least I could do was help him wash his dishes after he made such an amazing breakfast.

“And so,” he looked around his kitchen his eyes bouncing from stove to walls and around the room, “I feel like I owe it to those people to see you don’t have to upend your whole life in order find happiness as an amputee.”

“You adapt.”

I handed him a dried plate for him to put away. Our fingers brushed against one another, and you would have thought I’d been shocked by a taser the way my body jumped at the contact. Emmett brushed his fingers along mine a second time, as if trying to get me to react the same way a second time.

“I guess Henry knows me better than I thought.”

His lip quirked up in smirk, his eyes tilting up as if considering the world’s most complex problems. Adorable. It was the only word I could describe his playful, seemingly adaptable personality. The room felt as if it shifted, the mood went from playful to oddly sensual. Between the previous night’s congenial conversation, his care and concern over my well-being, it rolled like blast of warmth within me, pushing me towards Emmett’s lips. I could smell the sweet sugar of the syrup on his breath, and the pine scent of his soap.

“So, looks like the bridge is gonna be out till at least Monday afternoon, possibly even Tuesday.”

Finn and Gemini pushed through the backdoor of Emmett’s house, breaking the crystalline magic that had surrounded us. They both stomped snow off their boots on the carpet by the backdoor before unraveling their scarves and hanging their jackets on the coat hooks. Neither looked any the wiser they’d just interrupted an almost kiss between the two of us.

“Wait. I thought it was just ice on the bridge. Won’t it melt when the sun comes out?” I asked, returning to the kitchen table and my cup of coffee.

“Apparently the snow collected up in hilltops and slid down, creating a major avalanche. We got more than nine inches yesterday! Can you believe it? That storm came in from out of nowhere.” Gemini accepted a cup of coffee from Emmett, smiling at me when I passed her the cream.

Of all the times for that damn county line bridge to get taken out by a snowstorm. The winter season had barely started. It wasn’t supposed to snow heavy for another month minimum.

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