She rolls over, and I try not to get distracted at how perfect she looks in my bed. Soft golden hair draped over my pillow, sleepy eyes looking up at me. I love her so fucking much it hurts. Especially when she smiles; it’s so genuine, so bright, so Lily.
“Pancakes.”
“You want pancakes right now?” I look at the time just to confirm it really is the middle of the night. It is.
Her smile dims and she sinks into the bed. “Sorry, you’re right. That’s ridiculous, I can wait until the morning.”
I climb on the bed, and cage her in with my hands resting on either side of her. “Hell no. it’s not ridiculous, it’s what you want. You know I’ll give you whatever it is you want, no matter what time it is.” I lean closer, but remain hovering over her. “And don’t you ever call yourself or what you want ridiculous. Got it?”
She raises her hand to her forehead in a salute. “Aye aye, Captain.”
I drop a quick peck onto her lips before standing up to go make her pancakes.
“Parker?” she calls.
I turn around, and she’s sitting up, leaning on her elbows. “Yeah?”
“Has anyone told you what a great ass you have?”
I bark out a laugh. “Only you, Lil.”
“Good, I like being your first.” She smileswidely.
“First and only.” I wink, leaving the room before she can tempt me back into the bed with her. Because she easily could, and I know she really is hungry, or she wouldn’t have said anything.
I make sure to throw in some chocolate chips into the pancake mix because those are her favorite. When I return with the two plates and syrup, I expect to find her asleep again, but she’s laying on her side petting Franki who’s purring loud enough for me to hear from across the room.
“Can you tell her to like me?” I request, handing one of the plates to Lily.
“No can do, she’s independent and likes who she likes.” She shrugs before diving into the food. At the first bite she lets out a moan that has me shoveling food into my mouth as a distraction.
“So are you,” I retort. “You didn’t like me for a little bit and that changed.”
“Who says it’s changed?” she challenges.
“You did. It sounded something like this,” I change the pitch of my voice to badly imitate her, “Parker, oh my God.”
She lifts her foot, pushing my knee with it, laughing with me as we eat the pancakes. Once we’re done, I can see how tired she really is. I take the plates and encourage her to lay down. She doesn’t even fight me, and Franki settles right next to her head on the pillow.
When I come back to the room after rinsing the plates, both girls are asleep, and I love to see it. There’s only one girl missinghere to make it the perfect picture. I hope Tulips and Franki get along because they’re going to be step-siblings at some point. Or would it just be siblings? I guess I’m not sure how that works with pets.
I climb into bed and worry Franki will attack my face while I sleep. Especially when I scoot closer to Lily’s back, wrapping an arm around her middle to pull her against me. She lets out a soft sigh, and I drift off to the best sleep of my life.
When I wake up,I fully expect to see Lily there. In fact, I look forward to it, which is why as soon as I start to wake, I’m opening my eyes just so I can come face to face with her. What I don’t expect is toliterallyhave her in my face.
“You have some explaining to do.”
I stretch out as a smile spreads. “Good morning, Lil.”
“What’s this?” She holds up her scrunchie I’ve kept under my pillow for years in between us.
“Your scrunchie,” I answer simply.
“Why’s it under your pillow?”
“Because it’s where I keep it.”
“Why?”