Love, Exes, and Ohs (Cactus Creek #4)(40)

Her blanket disappeared off her body next.

Evil man.

She shivered and curled up in a ball to try and regain her nice cocoon of sleepy warmth. “What happened to not wanting to disrupt my privacy by using my spare key unless in emergency,” she accused.

“It was an emergency. You were snoring so loud a crowd was gathering outside and threatening to break down your door.”

Xoey shot up to an upright position and covered her face. “I wasn’t snoring was I?”

Though none of the guys who’d spent the night at her place had ever told her she snored, Dani had. Her description describing the sounds as something she imagined a cute rumbling bear cub would make did not make the news any more appealing.

Isaac chuckled. “No more than usual. It’s pretty damn cute.”

She pouted. “Don’t you dare say I sound like a bear cub.”

“No, I was thinking more like the engine of my bike. Well, if my bike sounded like a really cute roaring T-Rex.”

She launched her pillow at him, and he caught it easily. “I’m kidding. It’s really more like a cat purring. It’s cute. And only when you’re exhausted, which I know you are, but—” He pointed to the clock. “We need to book it if we’re going to make it over to the hospital in time to beat Darcy’s hospital breakfast delivery.”

“Oh, shoot! Is it really that late already?” The glowing 6:00 a.m. time stamp on her clock proved Isaac right, and she scrambled out of bed to get dressed. “I didn’t get a chance to check the breakfast places in the area up there.” She didn’t want to surprise Darcy with food that was two-hours cold from the drive up.

“I checked out the reviews of a few places. There’s a diner right around the corner from the hospital that folks apparently rave about. I downloaded the menu to my phone so we can call our takeout order in from the road.”

She stopped for a second and tilted her head at first the amazing man in all his early morning gorgeousness, and then the big, cheerful bouquet of flowers sitting on the coffee table in front of him. Sometimes, he really did make her believe in the existence of over-perfection. “Darcy will love those.”

“Good.” He produced something far better than flowers then, at least where Xoey was concerned.

She rushed over and launched her still only bra-and-panty-clad body onto his lap to plant a kiss on his smiling lips, whilst simultaneously opening up the bakery bag that held her precious bacon doughnuts.

“I didn’t think you’d be able to last the drive without some sustenance.”

The man knew her so well.

After kissing him silly, she peered in the bag and feigned a look of dismay. “There are only three in here.” Normally she got at least a half dozen of the little things. She blinked up at him prettily. “But whatever will you eat?”

“The craft fair the next town over seems to be responsible for the doughnut shortage. Nancy did save these three for you just in case though. The na?ve woman seems to think we split these doughnuts evenly at breakfast.”

Xoey didn’t find any fault with their five-to-one split.

“But I always get you either those giant ham and cheese turnovers or a few of those meat pies that you like so much.”

“They were all out of those, too.”

Hopping off his lap to finish getting dressed, she took the bag with her so he didn’t get bright ideas. “Well then, we have a little problem on our hands. I don’t suppose you’d settle for some fast food on the way?”

“And break our no-fast-food streak at a measly five months?”

Right. She forgot about that. They may not be fully on the home-cooked-meal band wagon yet, but they did have surprisingly high standards for takeout.

“Okay, then how about I make it worth your while later?” she lied outrageously.

He raised an amused brow. “You’d really exchange sexual favors for three little doughnuts? Because I’d be totally okay with that.”

She giggled.

“And in that case,” he added, “I might hold the frilly coffee drink I have sitting in the truck right now hostage as well.”

The force was strong with this one. He was a worthy opponent.

“Okay, then Rock, Paper, Scissors to decide who gets the whole bounty,” she suggested.

“Honey, you’ve never won against me. Not even one single throw.”

Now that he mentioned it, that was absolutely true. What was that about? She narrowed her eyes on his smug expression. “Are you saying I have a tell?”

“If you did, do you really think I’d tell you?”

Pouting, she clutched the bag of pastries under her arm and grabbed a bunch of things she’d picked up for Darcy yesterday while he gathered up the flowers and followed her to the door.

Whatever her tell was, it had to be pretty bad considering she’d played a round of rock-paper-scissors with Bennett the other day to decide which set of chairs would be gracing the lobby area of his new apartment building and he’d won all five out of five throws. And then again when she’d demanded a rematch. All while he’d been simultaneously checking out the blonde that had been flirting with him in the furniture store, no less.

Now seated in Isaac’s truck, her eyes widened at the pretty plastic cup of sugary, caffeinated goodness.