After the Storm

Chapter Twenty

Holy. How was that—the fact that he was only clad in his black boxer briefs—not the first thing I noticed? Probably because I was so preoccupied with seeing if he was awake.

Okay. I found out what I came for. I didn't want to extend my visit and be disrespectful and watch someone sleep without them knowing.

(Sorry, Edward. No offense.)

As I turned back, Mark was coming down the stairs with a glass of water in his hand. When he saw me just standing there, in the middle of the hall, in the damn dark, it was evident he was shocked, but he composed himself, nodded kindly, then went back to his room. I had briefly thought about sprinting back to the room so that I wasn't visible, or at least darting further into the den. I ended up just standing there, probably because the chances of getting caught were too high either way and I'd rather not be seen running like a victim in a horror movie.

Once I was tucked back into Taylor's bed, sleep wasn't too far off. Hallelujah.

Unfortunately, it wasn't the most restful of sleeps, and that, combined with my late bedtime, made me the last person in the Hudson house to get up the next morning.

When I woke up, it was a little before ten, which wasn't a crazy time to get up, especially for a holiday, but I wasn't even up and at'em. I was still groggy. I had a text message from Taylor waiting for me.

Taylor: Sleepy head, you weren't lying when you said you could sleep. We're already up. When you're ready, come join us for breakfast. Take your time. (But not too much time. If you're not up before noon, I'll come down with a hose)

That made me smile and it was the only message I had. Good to know that my family was thinking about me.

I figured I had already wasted enough of Taylor's morning, so I made sure that I was fully ready when I went to the kitchen. Thankfully, no one made any comments about my sleeping in. I'm not sure why they would, but I guess I was a little self-conscious about it. I was sleeping more now than when I was a teenager.

When I walked in, Mark and James were at the table eating and reading different sections of the newspaper. Sofia was standing near the pancake gridle and Taylor was leaning against the counter, "helping" her. They all smiled at me as soon as they noticed me at the threshold.

"Good morning honey. That colour looks so cute on you!" Sofia said, pointing the spatula in my direction.

I smiled. I liked the sheer, soft yellow button blouse I was wearing.

"Too bad that's the closest thing we're going to get to the sun today," Mark said, looking up from the sports pages. "It's supposed to be cloudy all day."

So much for Taylor's promise of great weather. I took that back. It still had to be warmer than Winnipeg.

As I ate a sunny-side-up egg, a pancake, and a few pieces of bacon, Taylor suggested that we go to the mall, because of the overcast sky.

Fine by me.

He had waited for me to start eating his breakfast—I told him he didn't have to do that—and he ate more than double the amount I did, so I ended up having to wait for him to finish.

We brought our dishes to the sink and I insisted on doing them.

Sofia kicked us out.

"How'd you sleep?" Taylor asked as we strolled through the mall.

He had asked me if I had a preference of which mall we went to, and I didn't. Obviously, I wasn't familiar with any of them and there was no particular American-only store I wanted to visit. So, I told him that whichever was closest would be fine.