Neighbors

Chapter 43

Eliza woke up and carefully stepped over the sleeping men on the floor as she headed to her room. She quickly changed into some leggings and a baggy shirt then headed back down the stairs and into the kitchen. Making sure to be as quiet as possible she started pulling out items to make homemade muffins of different kinds. She decided she was going to make blueberry, strawberry, chocolate chip, and apple cinnamon muffins.

She put on her headphones so she could listen to music without waking anyone up. As she turned on the music, she started humming along softly to herself. She made a couple batches of muffins and had them cooling on the cooling rack and the men still hadn't woken up. She made another batch and just as she turned to put them in the oven, she heard her phone ping through the headphones.

"Okay, I'll put these in then I'll check my phone," she murmured to herself as she started to turn towards the oven. Feeling a pair of hands wrap around her waist she jumped in surprise.

"Sorry, Beautiful," Marc said after he pulled her headphones off. "I didn't mean to startle you."

"It's okay," she smiled, "I just didn't think anyone had woken up yet."

"Smells good in here, what all are you making?"

She shrugged, "just different kinds of muffins, I wasn't sure what everyone liked."

"We aren't picky," he smiled softly, "thank you, the guys are going to love it when they finish waking up. What were you murmuring when I walked in, Beautiful?"

"Oh," she turned back to the oven and opened the door, "my phone pinged so I was saying that as soon as I put these in I'll check to see why it went off."

"May I?" he asked and she nodded.

"Sure, I have nothing to hide from you, thank you," she said as she shut the door and set the timer.

Marc grabbed her phone off the counter, "Password?"

She giggled and turned to face him, "It's Kiairi."

"Her birthday?" he asked confused and she shook her head.

"No, it's her name spelled out," she explained, "like back when we would have to push the buttons a certain number of times to get a letter. It's her name spelled out. I figured hardly anyone does that anymore since phones have the whole keyboard now but I still have it memorized so I use it."

Marc chuckled and hugged her, "That's actually a really good idea, I never would have thought of that. Corey will get a kick out of that."

"What will I like?" Corey asked as he walked in. Marc explained her password and Corey smiled, "I love it. I'm going to start doing that now."

"Anyway," she blushed as she started preparing another tray of muffin mix, "what was the notification?"

Marc typed in her password then opened her notifications, "It's a reminder to make a grocery list for Thanksgiving since it is this upcoming Thursday. Well, you don't have to worry about that, we already have everything." He beamed as he swiped it away. "I know I am excited to learn all your recipes, Beautiful, and I know our son is excited to learn them as well. It's going to be a blast."

"I hope so," she whispered as her mind began to go over everything that needed to be made.

"Hey now," he said snapping in front of her face to break the trance she was in. "There's nothing to worry about, you won't be doing it alone anymore and we are more than willing to be your helpers in the kitchen. You'll have fun bossing us around, I promise."

She hugged him and pressed her face into his chest, "thank you."

"Hey quit hogging Cupcake," Luke whined as he came into the kitchen making her giggle into Marc's shirt. "I want hugs too."

She turned around and raised her arms up, squealing in surprise as he suddenly appeared in front of her and picked her up while twirling them. She wrapped her legs around his waist and tightened her grip around his neck as he laughed. "Best kind of hug," he said into her hair.

She giggled, "I love these kind of hugs too."

"Wow, it smells good in here," Silas said as he came into the kitchen. "Been on a baking spree, Marc?"

"Nope," he shook his head proudly, "these are all Beautiful's work."

"Wow, thanks, Angelos Mou," Silas smiled as he pulled her from Luke. "It smells scrumptious."

"I hope so," she admitted nervously, "It's been awhile since I've baked and I had to stop a few times because of my hand. I'm not really sure how well they turned out. I need to get back into the hang of it."

"These are fucking yummy," Gabe said before popping the rest of his strawberry muffin into his mouth.

"Yay, chocolate chip!" Luke beamed, his eyes lighting up when he spotted them. "Thank you, Cupcake."

"You can't have all of them Lucian," North growled as he entered the kitchen. "You're supposed to be resting, Baby."

"I'm okay, North," she smiled softly, resting her head into the crook of Silas' neck. "I took a break every time my hand started hurting, I promise."

"Do you want a pain pill, Pookie?" Sean asked. "Do I smell an apple pie?"

She giggled, "No but there are apple cinnamon muffins in the oven."

"Well, I'll take over making the rest," Marc said setting his coffee cup down. He walked over to her and Silas, "go rest and cuddle Beautiful. You deserve it for spoiling us with all these wonderful snacks. Get her out of here, Si."

"You got it," Silas chuckled. "Save me some of the blueberry ones. Come on, Angelos Mou, let's go find something to watch on the TV."