I nodded.
“Is this the show where they get stranded on an island and they have fight to be the winner?”
I laughed and shook my head. “Uh, no. Wrong show.”
“Good. I’m not into that shit.”
“Trust me.” I had a feeling Roc was going to love this. At least, I hoped he would.
“Right, right,” he grumbled.
I settled into the couch and being next to him because I had already seen every episode, but I didn’t mind watching the show again.
Roc gave a grunt or grumble every now and then, and surprisingly, didn’t fall asleep.
“Next,” he mumbled.
I chuckled and didn’t move. “Netflix has this cool thing where it automatically plays the next episode.”
“Nifty.”
I shook my head and couldn’t help but laugh at the word nifty coming out of Roc’s mouth. “I think I’m going to pop some popcorn. Anything you want?”
“Popcorn sounds good.” He was focused on the TV as it flipped to the next episode.
“Be right back.”
I popped up a bag of popcorn and dumped it into a bowl. I grabbed a ranch seasoning packet and sprinkled it over the popcorn. Buttered popcorn was good. Buttered ranch popcorn was even better.
“You coming, Doc? This shit is getting good,” Roc called.
I rolled my eyes. And the man doubted I knew what he liked. “I’m coming. I’ve seen this before so I know what I’m missing.”
I grabbed two bottles of water and the bowl of popcorn.
Roc turned and looked at me. “You’ve seen this before?”
He seemed slightly upset that I had one up on him.
I rounded the couch and sat back down next to him. “Yeah. That’s how I knew you would like it.”
He took the popcorn from me, and I set the bottles of water on the coffee table.
“We can watch something you haven’t seen before.”
He settled his arm back around my shoulders. Three times. Definitely not a fluke at all.
Whoa.
I waved my hand at him and grabbed a handful of popcorn. “If I didn’t want to watch it then I wouldn’t have put it on in the first place.”
He moved the bowl of popcorn in my lap. “If you say so.” Roc grabbed a handful of popcorn and popped it into his mouth. “Fuck, that’s good,” he grunted.
I smirked but kept my eyes on the TV. I pulled the blanket over my lap and realized how close to Roc I was sitting. My thigh was pressed up against his, and I could feel his warmth radiating against me..
“I can hear your brain running a mile a minute, Doc. Turn it off and watch TV.”
I gulped and unballed my hands in my lap. “I’m not sure what’s going on, Roc.”
“We gotta give it a name?” he asked quietly.
“Well, I…no. But I just don’t kn—”
“Shh,” he interrupted. His hand on the other side of me tapped my shoulder, and I turned to look at his hand. He pointed at the TV. “Watch.”
I rolled my eyes. If this was what he wanted, then I guess that is what was going to happen. Being pressed up against Roc wasn’t anything to complain about.
“I don’t play games, and I don’t give mixed signals. Want you next to me, Doc. That’s what this is,” he stated simply.
Well, there it was.
I kept my eyes trained on the TV and just enjoyed being this close to him.
We finished the popcorn by the time the second episode ended, and I was surprised when Roc said he wanted to watch more.
“Whatever you want, Chief.” I laid my head on his shoulder and sighed.
I was getting tired, but I needed to stay down here until Roc was ready to do to bed so I could help him get in the chair and then into bed. I also wanted to stay down here because I was with Roc.
My eyes fluttered shut, and I sighed. Roc could wake me up when he wanted to go to bed because I was beyond tired.
Being tucked up against Roc was mighty nice, and I was going to take his advice. I was going to accept it and not question it.
At least, not until I woke up in the morning.
*
Chapter Eleven
Roc
This was nice.
Beyond nice.
I couldn't even remember the last time I had woken up to a woman in my arms. Harlyn’s mom might have been the last one.
Don’t get me wrong, I had been with plenty of women since then, but I never let them stick around for very long once I was done with them. They never slept in my bed or stayed the night.
Mave was different. I was getting to know her before falling into bed with her. I was actually liking what I was learning and wanted her to stick around.
Mave was sleeping on my shoulder with her mouth hanging open as she snored lightly. Absolutely beautiful.
The sun was streaming through the windows, and the TV was a blue screen. Mave had fallen asleep before the end of the third episode, and I had only made it through the fourth episode before I fell asleep. She had been right that I would like the show, but after a day of working at the garage, I had been exhausted.
Mave’s hair was in her face, and I brushed it off her cheek. She really was beautiful. When she had started talking about her douchebag ex, it had taken everything in me to not ask her where he lived so I could go beat the shit out of him.
She wasn’t dumb for not knowing what was going on. People don’t go into marriage suspecting the person they were supposed to spend the rest of their life with is cheating on them. She was obviously still dealing with it from the way she had slammed back a half of a bottle of wine. I wanted to ask her more about herself, but I knew that probably wasn’t the best idea.
She had also brought up the fact she was getting paid, and that soured my mood for a second. I liked being around Mave, and the thought that she was only with me was because of money pissed me off. What she had said wasn’t wrong. I wanted to show her that she was there to help me around the house but she wasn’t getting paid to hang out with me.
Mave could have stayed in her room whenever I didn’t need her and not planned to take trips with me. This should have been a job to her, but it wasn’t.
She was starting to care about me, and that wasn’t because she was being paid.
She stirred against me and raised her head off of my shoulder. “Ugh,” she groaned. She raised her hand and laid it against her neck. “Oh, hell, that hurts.”
She slowly pulled her head and moaned.
“You good, Doc?”
She cracked open one eye. “Why am I here?”
I chuckled. “You fell asleep.”
“I know, but I figured you would wake me up when you wanted to go to bed.”
I shrugged and laid my head back against the couch. Thankfully, I had a comfy as hell couch, but even my neck was a bit sore from sleeping on it last night.
“Fell asleep before I could wake you up.”
She closed her eyes and laid her head back on my shoulder. “What time is it?”
“Uh, not sure, but I’m gonna say it’s somewhere around seven.”
Mave grumbled and flopped out of my arms onto the other end of the couch. “Ugh, it’s entirely too early to be awake.”
“Doc, you’re up around this time every day.”