“I wasn’t even wearing my boots!” I object, my jaw falling open.
“What’s this?” Rafe asks, suddenly narrowing in on our conversation.
Both Luca and I turn to Rafe, him grinning, me searching my mind frantically for an excuse -But, both fortunately and unfortunately, a convenient distraction arrives.
A mountain of a distraction, actually, his full tray balanced between his two gigantic hands.
As I look up at Jackson, my mouth falls open because I honestly didn’t think he’d take me up on my invitation to come to breakfast.
And…also because I kind of forgot that I issued it.
“Can I sit here?” he asks, his voice quiet but tense with what I now realize is anxiety, not aggression.
“Sure,” I say, my face breaking into a hesitant smile at the same moment that Rafe says “absolutely not!”
I
