Jeez, this guy seriously makes me ill. He looks completely sexy. I reach my hand up to once again try to smooth out my hair. Jerk.
Mid eye roll I hear, “Mommy! You ruined the surprise! You’re fired! I’m gonna put you in time out!” Rylie yells to me from across the room while shaking her finger at me. She looks at me over Blake’s shoulder. Blake turns to see me standing in the doorway. He gives me a wide sexy smile as he shrugs his shoulders. “Did we wake you? Sorry – the girls wanted to make you breakfast. Something super-chocolaty they said,” he says as he looks at Nycole and Kyndall and winks. They both give him a sweet innocent smile and then turn to me. All I get is the evil eye. I widen my eyes at them and hold my hands up in surrender.
“What? Don’t be mad at me. Bacon always wakes me up, you know that! How can anyone sleep through bacon?” I attempt to look at Blake innocently. I even throw in the eyelash bat. “Can you sleep through bacon?”
He gives me a beautiful wide toothy grin in response. “I can sleep through just about anything. Well, almost anything. I definitely could not sleep though three little girls tackling me this morning while I slept peacefully on the couch. They’re ruthless. Really, Alex. You should be proud. No bad dreams last night though, just in case you were wondering.”
I look at each of my girls proudly smiling back at me and I can’t help but belt out a laugh. “Good girls. I am proud actually. And Kyndall, I’m glad you had a good night’s sleep too, just like me. I guess we all had some good sleep, huh?”
“Yeah!” they all exclaim in unison.
“Yeah!” I say back while pumping my fist into the air and walking into the kitchen. Blake turns around to flip what I can now see is bacon in the skillet. My stomach growls when I walk past him to get a coffee mug and the ibuprofen out of the cabinet.
“Hungry?” He stays focused on the bacon, but I know he’s laughing at my expense.
“Um, yeah,” I say, grabbing my stomach as it continues to grumble. “I can’t help it, Blake. It’s the bacon. I’m telling you!”
“Well, let’s get some food in her tummy, huh girls? I think she woke up the neighbors with that growl!” He looks at me out of the corner of his eye and winks.
What? Do I look like a naïve little girl? Winks don’t work on me. I walk by and punch him, with my good hand obviously, as hard as I can in the arm. “Shut it, Blake.”
“Alex, be careful,” he says, feigning concern while flexing his bicep. “That right there is pure steel. We can’t have you breaking your other hand now can we?”
I roll my eyes at him and immediately hear the girls’ laughter. Kyndall takes the bowl over to Blake and gives him a curtsey after he takes it from her.
“Please girls. Don’t encourage him. It only makes it worse. Trust me.” I set my coffee on the kitchen table as I take a seat. I hear the sizzle of the pancake batter as it hits the skillet and smell the sweet aroma as it cooks. Blake turns from the skillet for a brief second and gives me a mischievous grin.
“How’d you sleep last night? You sure were tired. And quite hilarious I might add,” he says turning back to face the skillet. I’m pretty sure he’s trying to hide any evidence of laughter.
“Don’t get me started, Blake. I couldn’t help it.”
He turns back around to me and continues his mockery. “I know. Doesn’t mean it wasn’t hilarious, and kinda cute.”
Out of frustration, I put my head down in my hands and rub the heels of my hands into my eyeballs. “Blake, seriously, I’m about to not be cute at all. Trust me, I’m warning you because you are my dear friend and I care about you. Knock it off!”
Blake once again turns back to the stove and I can see his shoulders convulsing. I’m really contemplating murdering this man. But when I look at my girls as they watch our exchange, all with huge grins on their faces, all the frustration leaves my body. I roll my eyes at them and jerk my head in Blake’s direction. Once they’ve figured out Blake is in no real danger, they all happily go back to their breakfast duties.
After a few minutes, the girls put their finishing touches on the plate of warm pancakes and bacon they prepared for me and start to carry it to the table. A couple of times, in the only ten feet of distance, they almost drop it since they all had to be touching the plate.
Rylie would get mad if they held it too high and she couldn’t reach it, which would lead to her bouncing up and down in a mini-tantrum and hitting her head on the plate. Nycole would then have to bend over so Rylie could reach it which would lead to her complaining that her back was hurting. Yes, just ten feet. Eventually Blake steps in and holds the plate to ensure everyone can touch it and to make sure it successfully crosses the kitchen without being splattered all over the floor.
I watch Blake, his tall body hunched over gently carrying the plate. I can’t help but smile at him – while he isn’t looking of course – because he really is sweet with the girls.
Obviously I’m going to have an in-depth discussion with them about my relationship with Blake. He’s the first man in this house, literally, since Derek. I don’t want the girls to jump to conclusions. The situation is a delicate one, but one that I definitely need to get a hold of before any misconceptions occur.
Blake looks up from the plate to meet my eyes and I immediately remove any evidence of smiling and replace it with an annoyed glare. I watch as corners of his mouth just barely tip up and he clears his throat in an effort not to laugh. Honestly, I can’t even remember why I’m mad at him. But I’m sure whatever it is, it’s a good reason. I think I’m too distracted by the food to remember, or care.
I turn my attention to the yumminess in front of me and struggle to not immediately start shoveling the food in my mouth. I wait patiently while Blake helps Kyndall and Rylie get their plates ready, which goes surprisingly well, brings them to the table and goes back to get his own plate with Nycole. While they head to the table, I look down at the pancakes.
“Um, guys. Why are these pancakes brown? Are they burnt?” I say picking up the top one and turning it over for examination. I lift it to my nose and sniff. Chocolate.
I look up at Nycole and Kyndall as they attempt to use the “bat the eyelashes and smile” technique to proclaim their innocence.
Raising my eyebrows at them (they so don’t have me fooled) I ask, “How many chocolate chips are left in the bag?” They look at each other, obviously deciding who’s actually going to be representing the guilty parties. It’s Kyndall that steps up to the plate – I mentally applaud their effort. It’s nice to see them working together actually.
“None, Mama. But we had to use them all. We wanted to make them really chocolaty for you. We wanted you to have the best breakfast ever, since you hurt your hand yesterday. We did it for you,” she says, her eyes as wide as saucers.
Well played, child of mine. Well, played.
I narrow my eyes at her and look over at Nycole who’s nodding her head in support of her little sister. I then glance over at Blake who’s obviously having shoulder problems this morning because they’re shaking again. Then I look at Rylie who couldn’t care less about this conversation and has already started eating her “chocolate extreme” pancakes. She looks up and flashes her dimples at me.
“Okay,” I say, looking back at Kyndall. “Just next time, ease up a bit on the chocolate. I don’t buy a whole bag of chocolate chip for a single use. Got it?”
“Got it Mama. Love you!”
“Love you too, sweetie. Now let’s eat! I’m starving!” I say picking up my fork.