Company

Everything else was forgotten. The kitchen, the stove, breakfast... everything. All Rosalyn saw was Chad as her heart beat wildly in her chest. She had only met him but yesterday - only hours before. Yet there was an invisible force at work here. She didn't know him. She knew nothing about him. He was indeed a total stranger. But gazing into those eyes, none of that seemed to matter. Everything her common sense told her just... didn't matter.

Soaking up his words, she wondered if she could ever grow tired of his poetry. It was so sweet... whimsical... deep. She could feel the heat in her face turn even warmer, her palms starting to sweat. As he brings himself even closer, she can feel him up against her, trapping her - albeit gently - against the counter. Her hands instinctively rise to his shoulders and her eyes lower to his lips then back up to his eyes again. 

Fear surges through her veins. But it was not a fear of him - it was simply a fear of the unknown. Of what would happen. Of how it would feel to have his lips touch hers. His breath caresses her face and her eyes fall shut. He was allowing her one last chance to resist. One last chance to say no or push him away. And something deep down warned her that she should indeed escape. But common sense had no place in her heart this morning. 

"I don't think I can speak," she whispers back. "So you better take your chance now while you've got it." 

Bam!

Rosalyn's eyes fly open and she jumps, her entire body tensing as her hands drop from Chad's shoulders. Her sight immediately lands on the kitchen's back door that had just been slammed shut. "Dylan!" she snaps, more out of embarrassment than anything. Sidling away from Chad, she tries to act as though everything were normal. "What are you doing?!" 

Dylan hardly reacts, his eyes just narrowing slightly. "Geez. Sorry. The wind took the door." He eyes his cousin and this man for a moment, wondering if he'd really walked in on what he thought he had. "Any coffee yet?" 

Rosalyn turns to hide her red face and goes to the stove to check the muffins. "Yes." She forces her tone to be a little kinder. "Help yourself. You want a muffin?" 

"Nah." Dylan grabs a coffee cup from the cupboard and heads to the coffee pot, giving Chad a tilt of his chin as a silent acknowledgement. 

"You really ought to stop skipping breakfast," Rosalyn chides, placing the first batch of muffins on a plate. Dylan was still as skinny as he'd been since coming back to the ranch and it concerned her. 

"Mmhmm. Later." Dylan carries his coffee cup out into the dining room, aiming for the corner where he'd left his school books the evening before. He'd study while he drank the coffee then head back outside, as was his usual routine now. 

Left alone in the kitchen with Chad again, Rosalyn wonders if her face will cool down ever again. Keeping her back to him out of sheer embarrassment, she works at arranging the muffins neatly on the serving plate. "Would you like some breakfast?"