And I’m worried Colton isn’t going to renew my contract after this season. I’m in year three, which means he has the option to extend my ride with CD Enterprises, but if I can’t pull off anything better than a top five placement, there’ll be no reason for him to keep me around. He wants a racer. A winner. And I haven’t done that since last fall.
Lena shifts, tapping away on her phone, the motion wiggling her ass in my direction. I almost groan, but manage to hold it in. The last thing I need is for her to take off because I can’t keep my mind out of the gutter when she’s around.
“Hey,” I state, stepping into the kitchen and startling her.
“Oh!” she hollers, her hand against her chest as she whips around to face me, her phone still clenched in her hand.
“Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you.” I look over at the stove and find the source of the amazing smell. “What’s that?” I ask, nodding toward the big stock pot.
“Oh, uh, I made some beef and noodles. I hope that’s okay,” she replies, looking at me uncertainly.
I walk over and glance in the pot. It looks as good as it smells, and my stomach growls angrily, reminding me my eating schedule hasn’t exactly been normal lately. “It’s perfect, actually. Thank you.” Our eyes meet again, and it’s like a kick to the chest. It hurts a little, but I’ll be damned if I can look away.
Lena’s the first one to break eye contact as she gazes back down at her phone. “It’ll be ready in about thirty minutes.”
She’s studying that device pretty hard, and I can’t help but reach my hand out and ask, “Whatcha got there?”
Lena glances down and blushes. “Oh, uh, when you didn’t come back downstairs, I sort of went up to make sure you were okay. I noticed you don’t have much yet for the baby, so I got online and started looking at different sites. I started adding a few things to a shopping cart,” she replies with a shrug.
Extending my hand, I ask, “Can I see it?”
Our fingers brush as she hands me the phone, and it feels like electricity zipping through my blood. It’s a familiar and welcome feeling. I try to keep my cool and play off the sensations coursing through my veins and scan the shopping cart. There’s a lot here, and honestly, I have no clue what most of it is, but I trust Lena. She’s a researcher, so if she has it in a cart, it’s probably something we need. “Let’s order it all,” I tell her, handing her back her phone.
“What?” she asks, her eyes wide. “There’s like…four thousand dollars’ worth of stuff here.”
I shrug. “If you think I need it, then we get it. I’ll get my credit card,” I tell her, grabbing my wallet off the corner of the counter.
“But don’t you think we should go through it? It’s a lot of stuff,” she argues, taking in the extensive list of baby products.
Again, I shrug. “Not necessary. It’ll save us from having to go out and try to deal with shopping in the store,” I tell her, reaching for the phone to enter my card information. It takes me a few minutes to input my shipping and billing details, and even though I rarely pay for express shipping, I go ahead and click next day. It adds an ungodly amount to the total, but it’s necessary. “Done,” I tell her as I hand her back the phone.
“Wow, okay,” she replies, closing out the app and slipping her phone back in her pocket.
I grab a bottle of water from the fridge and chug half of it down, my hip leaning against the counter as I face her. “Sorry I fell asleep earlier. I didn’t mean to leave you on your own.”
Lena smiles. “It’s okay. Obviously, you were a little tired.”
A snort pulls from my throat. “Yeah. I think I got about two hours of sleep total last night. Every time I’d finally drift off, Oliver would wake back up.” I run my hand over my face. “Even with Fish here, it was a rough night.”
Her green eyes are sympathetic, as is her smile. “I have an idea. Since this will be done soon, why don’t you go shower and change your clothes. If Oliver wakes up before you’re done, I’ll get him changed and fed. I think I can handle