closet that I’d occupied while I was here?
I slipped into the bathroom and scrubbed my body thoroughly. I didn’t mean to dawdle, but some habits really were hard to break. Before I knew it, the hot water ran out. Feeling guilty and selfish for using it all up, I wrapped up in a towel and walked out into his bedroom.
Jeans and T-shirt were laid out for me on the bed along with a fresh pair of underwear. Those tighty-whities he loved seeing my ass in so much.
“I’m starving, so I ordered a pizza,” Callum announced, walking into the bedroom. He shucked his jeans, and I just stared, holding my breath for his boxers to follow. “Get the door when the delivery guy is here.”
He marched right by me toward the bathroom without giving me the chance to say anything to him. I sighed and dressed before I went to hang out with Lulu and Lola, who I had yet to see since I returned. Their tank was clean, and they looked well. Not that I expected any less since they were in Callum’s care.
A knock on the door distracted me from the fish. I paid for the pizza and tipped the delivery guy. Callum had ordered Hawaiian pizza even though he hated pineapple on his.
It was my favorite pizza. He’d even called in to my favorite pizza place even though they were a little bit pricier than the usual. Although I’d had dinner with mother earlier, my belly rumbled now at the mouthwatering smell.
We always had pizza with a side of salad, and I went about quickly putting one together. I hated croutons, but I was adding them to the salad plate when he entered the kitchen, smelling of clean man and raw sexual energy. If desire had a smell Callum would be the fountain of its perfume.
“You didn’t have to do that,” he said, nodding at the salad. “You hate croutons.”
“And you hate pineapple on your pizza.”
He got my point and brushed by me to grab two glasses from the cupboard. I closed my eyes and inhaled deeply.
“What’re you doing?”
My eyes popped open, and my face heated up at having been caught sniffing him. I could lie or…
“I missed the smell of you.”
“It’s just soap.”
But it wasn’t. It was the way the soap mixed with his own natural scent, but I didn’t want to seem too obsessed with his smell.
“Maybe. We eating here or before the TV?”
“Here’s fine. You said we needed to talk.”
Right. The very difficult talk ahead.
We moved by rote and familiarity that not even six weeks apart could erase. He gave me my customary two slices because I didn’t dare eat more especially at this time of the night. Oblivious to what the calories could do to his physique, he piled slice after slice on his plate, devouring four while I was still working on my one.
I was more interested in eating the pineapple slices he’d picked off his pizza and placed on my plate.
“Sorry for using up all the hot water,” I said, breaking our disjointed chatter about how he found caring after the fish.
“I rarely use it anyway,” he said.
Because he always saved me the hot water.
“You’re exactly as I remember.” I dug through my salad for the croutons and transferred them to his which I should have done in the first place. The garlicky taste was just nasty to me.
“And how do you remember me?” he asked.
“Always so patient with me,” I replied, giving up all pretenses of eating now. “Caring and giving me the best of everything. Before I left for Texas, I wasn’t sure if I deserved that. Especially given what happened between us.”
I didn’t need to spell it out for him. He had to know I was referring to the night I’d decked him.
“Ashton, I watched all the videos you sent to Mario.”
I should have expected it. He visited Mario every week and he would have seen the phone, wondered at what it was for. Still I hesitated, running back through the videos in my mind, chagrined at the things I would have revealed. My recovery hadn’t been smooth sailing, and the bad days got ugly.
“Does it bother you that I watched them?”
I swallowed down the mini-panic that started to bubble up inside me.
“Not really. It’s just that…some of them I was at my worst.”
“That’s where you’re wrong. You were at your best in those videos, being open and truthful about what was going on up here.” He tapped at