She awoke with a stretch and a smile. She couldn’t remember what had happened to put her into such a glorious mood, until her arm whacked something warm and hard in her bed. Her eyes shot open and she jerked her head.

Oh.

Declan had happened.

He opened his eyes sleepily, smiling at her. “Good morning,” he said in a deep rumble. He reached his hand out to stroke her hair away from her face. “Sleep well?”

She bit her lip, unable to hide the grin spreading over her. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d woken up this happy. It was joy, pure joy, from the tips of her toes to the end of her nose.

“I may have had some pretty strenuous exercise right before falling asleep; helped me have some real amazing dreams, actually,” she said with a mischievous grin.

“Funny that,” he said with a matching grin. “I remember something like that, too.” 

He reached for her, pulling her against his chest, and began nibbling across her neck. “Hmmm…maybe we should refresh our memories…”

Just then, Iris felt a furry head whack her arm and she jerked away to find two piercing green eyes staring straight at her. “Meoowww…” Milk was hungry.

“Sorry,” she said with a laugh, rolling away from a fake-pouting Declan. “If I don’t feed these two, anarchy may ensue.” She pulled on her ratty bathrobe and, grabbing her cane, shuffled into the kitchen to pour out the cat food for the morning. She heard Declan coming in behind her, and then over to the sink.

“If I’m going to be up, I might as well be human,” he said, rinsing out the coffeepot of the remains from yesterday and refilling it. She showed him where the coffee was stored and he set about making coffee for them. It was just like their college days, and Iris couldn’t help loving that feeling. Waking up next to Declan, making coffee, chit-chatting about their day ahead…

It was like the last fifteen years hadn’t happened at all.

Speaking of college and studying, though…

“Hey, Dec, would you mind quizzing me on some codes?” she asked as they settled down on the couch with their steaming mugs of coffee. Milk curled up next to her while Oreo nudged Declan’s arm, hoping for some love and attention while they obviously weren’t doing anything else. She grinned at her cat, shaking her head. He loved to be loved, that was for sure.

“Codes?” Declan asked, cocking his head to the side.

“Yeah, for my coding class. I’d love to have you help me run through these codes and see if I get them right.”

He paused, his coffee mug partially up to his lips. “Quiz you on them?”

“Yes,” she said, a little impatiently. “You know, you read the medical procedure out loud and I try to tell you which code I should use without looking at the book.”

“Oh. Right. Well, I actually meant to say that I needed to get going.” He scrambled to his feet, their lazy day suddenly evaporating around her. “I should’ve been out in the fields this morning, not lazing around in bed. Harvest is almost done, but not quite. I’ve got some final chores to finish up.” He popped a kiss on top of her head and headed to the bedroom to pull on his clothes from last night. Before she could even push herself up to her feet, he was back in the living room. “I’ll give you a call later,” he promised, and then the door was closing behind him.

She collapsed back onto the couch, giving up on the struggle to stand up, and instead just stared at the front door.

“What. The. Hell,” she said aloud. Why was he acting like she’d suddenly contracted some flesh-eating disease and he couldn’t get out of there fast enough? She looked down at herself and then took a tentative sniff of her armpit. Did she stink? She’d taken a shower yesterday. She couldn’t smell any offensive odor wafting off her, but then again, didn’t they always say you couldn’t smell yourself?

It couldn’t have been the studying stuff. Throughout high school and college, they’d spent a lot of time studying together. He’d helped her study a lot of subjects, like…

She thought. Real hard. Had he helped her study in high school and college? Now that she thought back on it, she realized that she was always helping him. Which made sense; school came naturally to her. She didn’t need much help with her classes, whereas for Declan, he usually had to work pretty hard to even get C’s. 

But if she needed help, like she did today, why wouldn’t he be willing to help her? She didn’t understand.

Just like before – he chose farming over you. Here he goes again, making that same choice. Your sister was right about him.

She pushed the thought away. Declan wasn’t selfish.

He was confusing as hell, though. Someday, she’d love to figure out what was really going through that handsome head of his.