Hook, Line & Sinking (Completed)

21. The Morning After

Final update before the weekend! Enjoy everyone ;-)

I bought a couch today... I feel super adult right now! xD

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The Morning After

When I woke up I was lying in my own bed, by myself. There was sunlight coming through the blinds so it had to be morning and a glance at the alarm told me it was in fact nearly eleven AM. There was no sign of Matt in my room, no evidence that he'd stayed here after he'd carried me up so he must have gone to the guest bedroom afterward.

I felt a little hot just thinking about how I'd gone and fallen asleep so easily on the couch with him. It had been exactly what I needed to get my mind to slow down and my body to feel safe and relaxed. Was he still here? Or had he left by now?

After I'd washed up in the bathroom (I had the ten second rinse and evaporate trick down pat now), I dressed in shorts and shirt and after a little hesitation pulled on the sweater I'd borrowed from Matt. I'd worn it more than I should have, especially the last two weeks when he hadn't been around and I'd had to wash it so it no longer held his scent. Still it comforted me to wear and I needed that today.

A look in the guestroom told me the bed was a rumpled mess, Matt had clearly been tossing and turning a lot. His duffel lay open at the foot which meant he was still here didn't it? Heart beating wildly in my throat I headed down the stairs and smelled before I saw that he was in the kitchen making breakfast and coffee.

When I turned the corner I saw him standing at the stove flipping pancakes, wearing just those sweats which hung dangerously low on his lean hips. I loved the difference between his sleek left arm and his inked right arm and shoulder, it gave him just the right amount of bad boy vibe. From the back I could see that he had shallow claw marks running from both sides on his back. As if Gavin or maybe Clay had had him around the middle and scored him good with their nails. But it didn't look as bad as I would have expected from an injury that had happened yesterday.

He turned around and caught me looking at him from the doorway. The patch with the bandage was gone from his chest to show the cut with the butterfly strips; that injury too looked like it might almost be a few days old. "Morning darling, how you feeling?" he asked me with his head canted a little to the side. He did however have what looked like a faded black eye and a pretty bruised up belly.

"Hey Matt, I'm glad you stuck around... You're looking better," I pointed at his chest and he grinned, "It's a perk. I heal fast." Now he gestured at my nose, "I think you're all healed yourself." It was true, two nights of sleep had done wonders for my busted nose and though the bruises on my hip were still faint shadows under my skin they hardly hurt anymore.

We sat down at the breakfast nook to eat the food he'd prepared and talked for a while as if nothing had changed at all. As if he hadn't been gone two weeks and we were just being friends that sometimes flirted but nothing had happened. When we were both done Matt reached out and folded one of his big hands around mine, looking me intently in the eye he said: "You doing okay Dani?"

I shrugged, "I feel like it's happened in another life time, or to another person... I don't know. Is that strange?" "No that's okay, it's your mind trying to distance you from it," he assured me. I bit my lip while I thought about it some more and in the end told him that I'd probably be okay. I was never seriously hurt and though I felt a little shaken up, he'd saved me in time. I thought all in all that I might have been more freaked out about being lost in the water.

"We'll work on that okay? I can teach you several tricks that will help you with that, don't worry, you'll do fine." After that he leaned in a little more to brush his fingers over my cheek and with an almost flirty tone to his voice he said: "If you feel up to it I can teach you that later today."