27

ALY

Once upon a time, mornings were a breeze for me. I had a whole system for it. I’d set three alarms at fifteen-minute intervals, the last of which was the “real” time I needed to be up. Once the last one sounded, I’d open my eyes, swing my legs out of bed, and sit up for five to ten seconds before dragging my feet to the bathroom. In there, the first thing I did was splash cold water onto my face.
And from there, it was a breeze.
A painful, exhausting, bleary-eyed breeze. But still. I was used to it. I didn’t totally mind it. I pretty much could never wait to get to work anyway, because there was always something I was eager to fix or get done. In short, mornings for me were on autopilot.
Well.
At least they were till I started sleeping with Emmett.
It was damned near impossible to leave him in the morning, especially since it required wiggling out of his embrace, which was basically like waking up to a daily morning torture.
On the particularly rough mornings, Emmett would stir and manage a few adorably sleepy words of protest – usually “stay with me” or “five more minutes,” the latter of which always included a groggy little grin. Because the first and only time I stayed five more minutes, it wound up being twenty. And when I gasped myself awake and tried to wiggle out of his arms, he locked them tight around me, keeping me trapped in his embrace for another ten seconds while he buried sleepy kisses in my hair.
Lord.
Leaving bed after that was the actual worst, and I wound up spending the first few hours at work pouting over how much I missed him.
“That’s a good problem, ya ding-dong.”
Those were Evie’s wise words to me that morning. The exact words, actually, were that’s a good problem, ya lucky fuckin’ ding-dong, but that didn’t stop me from mentally replaying them today as I lifted Emmett’s gorgeous arms off my body and crawled quietly out of bed.
“Morning,” I whispered to Ozzy.
As usual, he watched me from his corner, stretching lazily and waiting for me to pass by him on my way to the bathroom. Once I did, he got up, his tail wagging as he sniffed a polite hello around my legs. He’d see me out of the room, but within my first two steps into the hallway, I’d hear him hop up onto Emmett’s bed and get comfy in the spot I’d just left.
It was no different this morning and it made me smirk. As Emmett predicted, Ozzy was getting used to me and in some way, it made leaving Emmett a little easier. At least I knew someone was happy about the situation.

Thanksto my longer-than-usual shower, I didn’t get downstairs till about half past five. I still had to pack up my bag but that only took about five minutes, and that was fine since Emmett and I had stocked up at the grocery store last night, which meant we had more than enough options for on-the-go breakfasts.
I was already planning on a banana and vanilla Greek yogurt, but once I got into the kitchen, I froze.
Holy what.
A stunned smile drifted onto my lips as I stood and stared at my surprise view this morning: Emmett shirtless, wearing just sweats and a backwards cap on his head as he toiled over the stove.
Oh… my frickin’ word.
On the cutting board next to him, I could see some leftover mise en place that was so perfectly chopped that I wanted to ask when the heck he’d learned to cook. But I kept my mouth shut because priority went to soaking all this in – especially when he started tossing the contents of his sauté pan. It prompted his bicep to flex, and it made all those muscled lines in his back move in a way that had me damned near drooling on the floor. I honestly could’ve stood there watching till noon, but there was still that whole getting to work thing to remember, so I made myself snap out of it.
“Good morning?” I finally said, the biggest grin on my face when Emmett tossed his cooking rag over his naked shoulder and turned around.
Good God. This man. This view. It was even cuter to me that he still looked sleepy as hell while doing all this for me.
“’Morning,” he said, lowering the heat on the stove before he grabbed a mug he’d pre-set next to the coffee maker, filling it up before coming to me. As he wrapped my hands around the mug, he kissed me. “Hey.”
“Hey yourself,” I murmured. I could almost feel the awe glimmering in my eyes as I gazed up at him. “I can’t believe you’re up this early.”
“I wanted you to have a nice breakfast before work,” he said simply, nodding for me to take a seat at the counter. “I cleaned up the stuff on the dining room table and put it in your folder, which should save you a couple minutes, right?”
I stared at him in a daze.
“Uh-huh,” I replied while wondering what the hell I’d done to deserve this man. I cocked my head curiously as I watched him put the finishing touches on whatever he was cooking in the pan. Another sprinkle of salt, a dash of pepper, and suddenly, there was a gorgeous thick-cut bacon and sweet corn hash on the plate before me.
I was impressed enough with that, but then Emmett opened the oven and took out two perfectly browned pieces of toast, and baked eggs in a cast iron skillet.
I stared at him.
“Emmett… for lack of better words, what the fuck?” I burst out laughing. I laughed even harder when I finally got a big, sleepy grin from him as he finished plating in front of me. “I feel like I’m at some super fancy restaurant. Do you realize how much money a restaurant could make if you were the chef and you served everyone shirtless?”
“That’s definitely an idea. But I only bust out these moves for a select few people.”
“That’s smart, because if you did this for any of your hook-ups, they’d fall instantly in love with you.”
“Is that what you’re doing with me right now?” Emmett asked, flashing me a teasing smirk that almost stopped my heart. But before I could consider just letting it all out and saying something crazy, he moved mercifully on. “You need cream for you coffee, right? Half-and-half?”
“Yes. I can get it – ”
“No, I’ll get it. Start eating. You only have a little more than ten minutes.”
I didn’t argue because honestly, the food was calling to me and within the first bite, I had a moment and shoveled in two more before I once again cast my twinkly wonder-eyes at Emmett.
“Emmett. This is delicious. This is better than stuff I’ve had at restaurants,” I said seriously as he poured a bit of cream in my coffee. “When the hell did you learn to cook like this?” I asked. “When we were in high school, you used to set off the fire alarm while using the microwave.”
He laughed. “Yeah. I think it was actually a talent how bad I was at cooking then.”
“You messed up instant ramen once.”
“Sure did.”
“So… explanations? Please?” I asked, watching Emmett’s shoulders widen as he leaned across the counter from me, digging in to the plate he made for himself – which I noted was plated much less nicely than mine.
“When I was in college, my other roommate Lukas taught me the basics. Mostly how to cook eggs.”
“Where’d you learn the rest of it then?” I asked. “How’d you learn to prep and time and plate so perfectly? Because I’m kind of amazed right now.”
Emmett blinked, like he thought his answer before had been sufficient enough explanation.
“I don’t know,” he finally said. “I just had to learn. I needed to feed myself. The cafeteria food at college wasn’t the best.”
I narrowed my eyes at him.
“You used to eat plain cold cuts in high school because you were too lazy to get bread from the pantry. I also recall the fact that you were happy to eat multiple bowls of cereal for dinner, because ‘cereal’s already here and ordering out takes time.’”
Emmett squinted as he recalled those memories with me.
“That’s… yep. That’s completely accurate,” he laughed, wrinkling his nose at his former self. “Speaking of dinner though, one of my friends opened a restaurant in Montauk. Can I take you tonight?” he asked, making my heart flutter. God, was I ever going to get used to him asking me out on dates? Because so far, I was actually getting increasingly giddy with each invitation.
“Of course,” I replied. “Is it a super fancy place that requires me dressing nicely?”
“No, but if you want some new dresses, I’m more than happy to go shopping again,” Emmett grinned, making me giggle.
“You better not talk about that because we don’t have the time to get all turned on right now.”
“Fuck. True,” Emmett said, reaching down to presumably adjust his junk as he eyed the clock. “You got two minutes to finish eating.”
“No way am I gonna finish all this, but I’m already very full and content,” I said, dunking a bit of toast in my broken egg yolk. “But you should definitely finish it.”
“I’ll save the hash for later.”
“Why? Going right back to bed once I leave?” I smirked.
“You bet your sexy ass I am,” he yawned, stretching across the counter and flexing every stone-carved muscle on his naked torso. Good Lord. And after that, he hit me with that sleepy grin that was so damned cute I almost fell out of my chair.
Seriously. How was I supposed to leave this?
As the last few minutes of our surprise breakfast wound down, I went back to chanting Evie’s mantra.
You’re a fucking lucky girl.
And this is a good problem to have.