yours does seem to be one for living his life in a hurry. As if it might get away from him if he didn't watch out. But what a grand surprise you were for all of us."
"Thank you. You were all so kind. I didn't get a chance to thank you properly."
"Oh, honey, it was thanks enough to see you both so happy. Especially Nicholas. We all agreed we'd never seen him so pleased with himself." She fussed with the arrangement of items on her tray. "Um, I brought cinnamon rolls and Cream of Wheat and some juice. Everybody's in a hurry to get to work so we don't have elaborate breakfasts around here during the week. I know Nicholas has his own pot so I didn't bring coffee, but there's milk enough here for your cereal and a glass for you."
Nicholas poked his head out of the bathroom just then, a fringe of shaving foam around his face. "Trissa, did you say some -- Oh, Augusta, good morning."
"She brought us breakfast, Nicholas."
"I see. That's great. I'll be out in just a minute."
"I'll leave you two alone. Who wants a meddlesome old widow around at their honeymoon breakfast?"
"Don't go, Augusta, I need to talk to you. Get her some coffee, please, Trissa." He winked at his make-believe wife before he shut the door to finish shaving.
Trissa mirrored his whimsical show of affection with a wink of her own then touched the backs of her fingers to her cheek, surprised to feel the heat there. With smile on her lips, she finally turned her attention to her guest. "Do you take it black, Augusta?"
"None for me, honey. I have a cup cooling downstairs. I really do feel silly barging in like this. You tell Nicholas to come find me when he needs me." She bustled toward the door. "I'll be around." With that she was gone and Trissa heard her slippers flip-flopping briskly down the hall.
Trissa shrugged and adjusted her pajama top and cuff. On an oak dry sink by the closet, the coffee pot blinked its red light as it finished its percolating. Trissa found cups in the cabinet below it and poured the coffee into them, a cup for Nicholas and a half-cup for her. Gliding slowly so as not to spill, she brought them back to Augusta's tray. As she filled her cup to the brim with milk and stirred, she sang under her breath, something old from Johnny Mathis. She didn't know all the words and hummed in the blanks "And I say to myself, it's wonderful, wonderful. Oh, how wonderful..." The chorus rose to a sweetly sung whisper before she hushed self-consciously. She almost never sang. She didn't know what had got into her.
She settled back into the sofa, her legs tucked underneath her, and sipped her coffee waiting for Nicholas to reappear. When he did, haloed in yellow light from the bathroom, she couldn't believe her eyes. Her stomach did a little flip-flop. The backlight shadowed his scuffed and bruised face and touched off the sunlight in his hair. He was dressed in perfectly pressed gray flannel slacks and a navy blue blazer with a gleaming, white shirt and a paisley tie in shades of maroon. There was a twinkle of gold at his tie clip and cuffs and his shoes glinted with high polish.
"Presentable?" he asked, turning to give her a view of side and back.
She teased him with a long, low wolf whistle. "Gorgeous."
"Didn't think I had it in me, did you?" he smiled, and disarmed her with that wink again. The mischief of it and the warm brown struck with gold of his eyes made her giddy inside. "Where's Augusta?"
"She... umm, didn't want to disrupt the honeymoon. She said you could talk to her later."
Nicholas moved the table closer to the sofa and sat down beside her. "Unfortunately, I have to go to work and the honeymoon has to end before it ever gets started." He tipped his juice glass to his lips and peeked at her out of the corner of his eye. "But I did enjoy sleeping with you last night, Teresa Marie."
When she noticed her coffee jiggling in her cup, she set it down hurriedly and grabbed a cinnamon roll. It was warm and sticky and heady with spice. She had to lick the glaze from the tips of her fingers before she felt composed enough to speak. "I won't put you out of your bed, Nicholas."