Strung

Shit. I finished putting on the shirt and turned. “Yup. You should take a shower, Nat. Warm up a bit.”

She shuffled her feet. “And what are you going to do?”

Oh you know, leave the room so I don’t tempt myself to join you and scare the hell out of you with my nakedness. I settled with. “Make you dinner.”

Nat’s eyes went wide, “My mom will freak if she sees you downstairs.”

“Nat, your mom won’t even know I’m here.”

Nat didn’t look convinced.

“Nat. Shower. Now,” I ordered.

Cute as hell, she rolled her eyes and stomped into the bathroom slamming the door behind her.

Chuckling to myself, I ran downstairs and checked her fridge. Left over chicken from the night before. Hmm, I opened the freezer. Veggies. Perfect. I made a quick stir fry, grabbed some soda, and brought it all up to her room.

I was just setting everything on the bed when the bathroom door opened, and Nat stepped out. In nothing but a towel.

Sweet. Lord.

She gasped and clenched the towel. Damn, I was hoping for the opposite.

My gaze met hers briefly before I mumbled, “Sorry, I thought you brought your clothes into the bathroom.”

“Nope.”

Her angry expression was priceless. I smirked. “I’ll turn around.”

“Yes, you will,” she said tightly.

I waited while she ran over to the dresser I was standing next to and started picking through her clothes. She paused and then opened a top drawer filled with underwear. I watched her like a hawk. Her hand floated over a pair of black panties. I coughed.

“Do you mind?” she said tersely.

“I like the pink better.” Hey at least I was honest!

She snatched the black pair. Of course she did.

“Girls take forever to get dressed,” I grumbled, still looking away from her.

“Not usually, I’m just doing it for your benefit,” she sang.

“You’re crabby when you don’t eat,” I teased.

She huffed behind me. “Okay, done.”

I turned around, my gaze hungrily taking in her leggings, imagining that black underwear as it kissed her skin. Agh… death by imagination. “I didn’t really know what you wanted, so I threw in some stir fry with your leftover chicken, hope that’s okay.”

“Smells good.” Her stomach grumbled on cue as she walked over to the bed and sat down. “Aren’t you going to eat?”

“Nat, I don’t think I’ll have an appetite for a week. I was too worried to do anything except call you and stare out the window.”

“I was fine.” She shoveled more food in my mouth.

“I promised Demetri.”

The fork dropped onto the plate. “You promised Demetri? What exactly did you promise him?”

I shrugged and looked away. “I promised him I’d take care of you. Then on my first day of babysitting you disappear.”

“So I’m a toddler?”

“No, you’re just very important.” Though I may as well be explaining it to a toddler for all she understood.

“Important or irritating?”

“I’ll tell you when I know.” I chuckled and pointed to the food. “All of it, Nat. Eat all of it.”

“I swear you’re trying to fatten me up.” She took another huge bite. I looked away as her lips formed around the fork. Yeahhhhh… my thoughts were nowhere near wholesome.

“Maybe.” I sat on the bed.

Nat ate in silence. I watched her take each bite. For some reason I found satisfaction in taking care of her.

“Done,” she announced, wiping her mouth with the napkin.

“Good girl.” I pushed the tray away. “Now, how about a rematch?”

“Rematch?”

“Last I remember…” I stretched out across her bed. “You cheated during our final round of Go Fish. I think I deserve a rematch, don’t you?”

“Fine,” she grumbled. “But I don’t know how I’m going to manage to eat candy after all that food.”

“I’ll be easy on you.” Yeah right. Hard. I would be so hard on her.

“Right, you and easy don’t really fit in the same sentence, Alec.”

My lips twitched with a smile. “My place or yours?”

“Your place doesn’t have crazy people coming in and out all hours of the night to talk about their feelings with my mom, so I choose yours.”

I nodded and bounced off the bed. “You know just because they’re seeking help from your mom doesn’t make them crazy.”

“I know. Otherwise I’d be putting you and your brother in that very same boat.” If she only knew how far the crazy went.

“I thought we were captains of the crazy boat. My mistake.” I opened the bedroom door and led her down the creaking stairs.

“Why do you see her?”

I paused, my entire body tensing. How the hell was I supposed to answer that question? Without telling her everything. “We’re just dealing with some stuff, that’s all. You’re mom’s good at what she does. She wouldn’t be one of the most renowned psychiatrists on the West Coast if she wasn’t.”

“Pardon? What did you just say?”

Didn’t she know how popular her own mother was? “Your mom, she comes very highly recommended.”

“By who?” She yelled.