Try

Part 2 of 8

Being startled out of sleep is not something Matilda ever agrees with. She sits bolt upright, with her heart pounding in her chest. She could have sworn she heard something. Her ears strain to listen to the now quiet house, that is until a sudden noise causes her to flinch so hard she nearly falls out of her bed. She is used to her brother sneaking around her kitchen at insane hours of the morning, but usually, he keeps quiet. He must still be angry, she grumbles to herself. A flash of thought passes through her mind and sticks like a bug on a windshield and her eyes widen in horror. Morgan does not know that Cooper is staying here.

She quickly jumps out of bed and gets dressed for the day in her usual work jeans and a tank top. Chief, though laying down on his bed, waits for her to tell him to get up. She does so with a nod to the door. While she is pulling her hair into a pony-tail she emerges from her bedroom, with her feet still wiggling into her tennis-shoes. "Hey, Morgan. I got to tell you something..." She trails off as she rounds the corner of the kitchen from the dining room side.

"Good morning." Cooper glances up in such a way that causes her breath to catch. She closes her mouth when she sees him smile over her surprise, and then he turns his attention back to a skillet on the stove. Whether he notices Chief at his feet silently begging, she does not know.

"Morning." She manages to find her voice while she hesitantly walks a few steps toward him, her gaze flicking between the strange sight of a man in her kitchen and whatever he is making on the stove. "You are up early." She does not know what is more fascinated by, the mouth-watering smell wafting from the skillet, or the way the sunrise casting through the room is making his hair glow like a halo.

Cooper shrugs while forcing himself not to look at her. She can tell because though his head remains fixed in place, his eyes dart to the side in her direction. "I am a morning person..." He hesitates, and for the briefest of seconds thinks he might be blushing, but that cannot be right. Can it? What could he be embarrassed about?

It takes a solid minute for the memory to barge into her brain again. He had been the first to wake up that fateful morning. She has found herself wondering how long he had been awake before she woke up and screamed at him. "Right." She answers forcefully and makes her way to the fridge and pours herself a glass of orange juice.

"When will your brother arrive?" He questions in a cheery tone while continuing to stir the skillet. He certainly is a morning person, Matilda mentally remarks.

When she had walked into the kitchen, registering that the man is Cooper, she was briefly struck dumb at seeing him in a different style than she had seen the day before. Sporting a pair of work jeans, with genuine rips and different colored stains showing wear, he has one of the corners of her dishtowels tucked into a front pocket. With his Richey-Rich attire the day before, she would have never guessed a man like that had a pair of jeans like this in his wardrobe. What stumps her even further is that he is completely barefoot, as well as wearing a white cotton tank-top under an unbuttoned red plaid shirt. Of course, she is only able to get away with her second of quizzical staring as she is taking a drink, and when he flicks his gaze to hers she realizes she has not answered his question. She turns to gaze up at the clock for longer than necessary and wonders who in their right mind gets up at six in the morning.

She suddenly feels very tired at the realization that she is up two hours before she usually wakes up on her own. "Probably not for another hour." She tries to keep her voice flat and not grumble as she feels.

"Good." He chirps and her attention lands back on him. "I was hoping to spend a little time with you before your brother murders me." He smiles in a way that makes her wonder if he knows how charming he can be, as he dishes out their portions and hands her a plate. She motions to the front door, and begin eating on the porch. Chief pouts by the door, and she has the high suspicion that the pup is going to be spoiled rotten by Cooper.