The next morning, Lily was awake before everyone else and headed downstairs towards the kitchen. The night before she turned out to be a lot more tired than she'd first believed and slept the rest of the evening and on into the night. That being so, she was up earlier than anyone in the house.
They were all planning on beginning their vacation that day and so all of the participants stayed the night at Kevin's house.
Lily entered the kitchen and looked around, wondering if she should cook for everyone, or just herself. Assuming that they would all be awake soon, Lily decided to cook for them all. As she pulled out a frying pan, preparing to make eggs she glanced at the door nervously. She hoped that that man wouldn't mind her coming to his kitchen to make breakfast. Hopefully she would have it all cooked and cleaned up before he woke up and so he would have nothing to complain about.
Lily pushed her nervousness aside and set about making a big bowl of scrambled eggs. Considering she was cooking for five men, she made a little more than usual. As she cooked Lily smiled. Growing up she'd always loved to cook. Her mother had taught her young how to make certain dishes and Lily had become an excellent cook by the time she moved out of her mother's house at age 18. Six years later, Lily jumped at the opportunity to use her skills.
She was so engrossed in her thoughts that she didn't hear anyone enter the kitchen until he spoke behind her.
"Is there some reason you are up at 7:30 in the morning, banging around in my kitchen and waking everyone up?"
Lily spun around at the voice and came face to face with Kevin. As she saw him she immediately frowned and said "Sure there is a reason. I'm up at 7:30 in the morning, 'banging around in your kitchen and waking everyone up' because I am making you breakfast." as she said the last she pointed at him and poked him in his bare chest with the rubber spatula she was holding.
Kevin clenched his jaw in an effort not to yell at her. "Well, I appreciate you asking for the use of my kitchen." he said with as much sarcasm as he could muster.
Lily narrowed her eyes at him and said equally as sarcastic "Well I'm sorry, sir, for not coming into your room at seven o'clock this morning and waking you up to say 'Excuse me, would you mind terribly if I went down stairs and had the use of your kitchen temporarily so that I can could cook for this house of men? Since I'm so sure that your kitchen is used quite often, I'll be sure to put everything back just the way I found it'" Lily stopped her show and looked at Kevin. She could tell he was getting madder by the moment but she didn't care.
They stood toe to toe with one another, silently looking into each other's eyes, as if in challenge, both stubbornly refusing to back down and look away.
Lily looked at him and thought that he was probably the most stubborn man she'd ever met.
Kevin looked at her and thought that she was probably the most beautiful woman he'd ever met.
Lily watched as the fire in his eyes changed from anger to something else. Her breath caught in her throat as she saw Kevin's gaze fall down to her lips.
"What are you two doing up this early?" Brian said as he entered the kitchen. He'd walked in and seen them standing toe to toe with each other and assumed they were arguing again and decided he needed to break them up.
"I'm trying to make breakfast." Lily said as she looked pointedly at Kevin and then turned back to making breakfast.
Kevin didn't answer, only stalked out of the room and entered the bathroom.
"What's wrong with him?" Brian asked Lily as Kevin left.
Lily shrugged and carefully avoided his gaze as she cooked. "He doesn't like me and resents my using his kitchen to make something for him to eat too."
Brian came up behind her and put his arms around her waist. "He's not really that bad, Lil. I don't know why he's been acting this way. He's not usually like this."
Lily shrugged and said "Well maybe it's just me then." and moved out of Brian's arms to finish breakfast.
In the bathroom Kevin splashed water on his face and cursed silently. He don't know what he would have done if Brian hadn't entered the room at that precise moment. He probably would have kissed her and promptly gotten himself slapped. He groaned aloud as he thought back. He couldn't believe he'd been about to kiss her when Brian came in. Kevin admitted to himself that their increasing animosity towards each other was probably his fault but it was because Kevin needed to keep her at a distance. He was more mad at himself than at her. He was mad that he would let her effect him so much, even though she was dating his cousin. It was obvious to him that Brian cared for her and he would only make things worse by getting involved.
But he couldn't stop himself from wanting her. He admitted to himself that he wanted her since the first moment he'd seen her standing in the airport looking at him scared that he'd hurt her. Putting toothpaste on his toothbrush, he cursed himself again for frightening her. As he brushed his teeth he made a vow to keep her at a distance and keep his hands off. Besides, Brian could have her, he didn't want to have to deal with her attitude anyway.
***************
Lily put the last of the eggs in the bowl just as AJ entered the kitchen. He was wearing a pair of gray sweat pants and a white wife beater. Rubbing his eyes and yawning he walked over to where Brian sat at the end of the table, reading the sports section of the paper, and took the comics out from under his arm.
"Whatever's cooking smells good." He said huskily, sleep still evident in his voice.
Lily smiled and handed him a plate so he could fix himself something to eat. Howie entered the kitchen next wearing a red football jersey and a pair of pajama bottoms and with Nick not far behind him, wearing jogging pants and a white T-shirt. As they entered the kitchen, Nick's eyes widened as he saw all the food on the table. "I knew I smelled something good." he said as he sat down at the table and accepted the plate Lily offered him.
Lily herself sat down and started putting food on her plate and didn't look up when Kevin came in. She was very aware that he still didn't wear a shirt and his very lean and muscular chest was a tempting diversion. Guiltily, she looked up from her plate of food to Brian who was still engrossed in the Sports page.
Since Lily didn't offer him a plate like she did the other guys he went to the cabinet and got his own and sat down beside Nick, across from AJ and fixed his plate.
"Tell me about our vacation, Brian." Lily said in a sweet voice and Brian looked up from his newspaper and smiled at her.
"Well, we're going into the Everglades tomorrow. It ought to be fun. We'll leave tomorrow morning and take a tour and then spend the night in some cottages that we rented. Then we'll leave the next morning and go to Colorado and spend a week up there at a ski resort, and we'll have a show up there too, then the rest of the month will be spent down in the Bahamas." Lily raised her eyebrows as he finished his speech.
"I guess this means I get to go shopping today." she said and took a bite of her grits.
Brian smiled at her and laid his hand on hers and said "Yeah, baby, I'll take you shopping today." and Lily smiled back at him.
The rest of the breakfast progressed normally with everyone chatting with one another. Everyone except Kevin, Lily noticed. He seemed remarkably quiet throughout the meal.
After breakfast Lily showered and changed clothes, and Brian took her shopping. The spent the entire day shopping for things for Lily to bring with her. She bought ski suits, sweaters, gloves and more for their ski trip and swim suits, shorts, tank tops and more for their trip to the Bahamas. Their shopping trip didn't end until late that evening and Lily and Brian returned to Kevin's house quite late. Wanting to rest up for the trip tomorrow, they both went to bed and got a good night's sleep.
