Chapter 21 It Has Been A Long Time
Gracie
I wake and reach for Ryland, but the bed is empty. Rayland is nowhere in sight. I start to panic because I don’t do well in places that I am not familiar with. It is different when he is in the room with me. I cautiously pull myself out of bed and go to search for him. He couldn’t have gone far. He wouldn’t leave me alone in his house.
“Ryland?” I call out, almost fearful.
It takes only seconds, and he appears in front of me, smiling brightly at me.
“Good afternoon, sleepyhead.”
Good afternoon? Surely it isn’t the afternoon, yet, is it? I look around, trying to find a clock for the same. When I do, I realise it is after twelve. I can’t remember the last time I slept this late. I don’t think I have ever slept this late.
“I can’t remember the last time I slept in so late. Why didn’t you wake me up?” I ask, running my fingers through my hair.
“Because I have a feeling that you don’t get to sleep peacefully often, Gracie. I decided to let you sleep, and you would wake when your body was ready too.”
I glance at the ground. “Thank you.”
Ryland reaches in and takes my hand in his. He leads me through the house and into the kitchen. He seems to be in the middle of cooking food.
“Brunch will be ready soon. There is fresh coffee in the pot; help yourself.” He smiles.
He cooked for me. This is a first. I am the one always doing everything for my father. I haven’t had anyone cook for me since back when my mom was still alive.
“You cooked for me?” I ask, the surprise clear to hear in my voice.
“Yes, we need to eat. I made poached eggs, bacon and hashbrowns.”
My stomach grumbles when he tells me. “Sounds good. Can I help in any way?”
Ryland shakes his head and tells me to sit my ass down, which I do, but not before grabbing us both some coffee. Ryland soon joins me and sets a plate before me, and sits across from me. It looks and smells delicious. I smile brightly over the table at him before I tuck straight in. I have to give him credit where it is due, he knows how to cook. It is amazing. I don’t even speak as I stuff my face. I am enjoying the food too much to think about anything else. I clear the plate, and so does he.
“Thank you, Ryland, it was tasty,” I say brightly.
“Anytime, brown eyes. I love to cook.” He smiles.
I gather the dishes, insisting that I do the washing up. It is the least I can do after he cooked. He tries to fight me on it, but I win. He comes over to help. I wash while he dries and puts everything away.
“What do you want to do today?”
“I am not sure, but I will need to head home to shower and change into some clean clothes before we do anything.”
“Sure, then we can think of something,” he replies.
We go back up to Ryland’s room so he can shower and change before we go to mine. He insists he will come to mine and wait in the house while I get ready. I can only hope he doesn’t notice all the holes in the walls and doors my dad caused. When he can’t get to me, he takes his anger out on the house. The holes were all over the place. It will be hard for Ryland not to notice them. I used to fix the walls and doors, but stopped. It was pointless because he would punch them again.
I sit on his bed to wait for him. I am nervous. I am trying to think of a way to talk him out of coming into mine, but I can’t come up with anything. Even if I did, it wouldn’t matter because he wouldn’t listen anyway. He appears from out of the shower ten minutes later with only a towel wrapped around his waist.
Don’t look at him, Gracie, don’t do it.
I repeat the words in my head. I can’t have him catch me looking at him. I don’t want him to think I am the kind of girl who only goes for guys because of their bodies. It isn’t me. I look everywhere I can that isn’t him. My hands in my lap soon become interesting.
“Trying to distract yourself from me being half-naked, brown eyes?” he laughs.
I refuse to lift my head to look at him because I know he will be smirking at me. “Hmm.”
“I will take that as a yes. Don’t worry, beautiful, I will put some clothes on.”
I nod, still not looking up at him. Why do I need to act like an idiot around him? I need to pull myself together, especially since we are spending the rest of the day together. I can’t keep acting like a girl with a crush around him.