Light the Lamp by Catherine Gayle Read Free Book Online Page A

and he said, “Mmm-hmm,” which led me to believe he might have done that very thing before.
    I kept going with my demonstration. “Then you add a few scoops of coffee grounds like this. Since we’re making a full pot, let’s try four scoops and see how it comes out. We can adjust on the next pot if it isn’t the right amount. And once you have it all set up, you flip the switch.” I turned the machine on, and seconds later the heavenly aroma of freshly brewed coffee filled the apartment. “Piece of cake.”
    “ Yeah,” Babs said. “Maybe for you.”
    “ Start with making coffee and who knows what you’ll be cooking next.”
    “ He’d better not be cooking anything,” Liam said, his tone light and teasing as he came around the corner from the end of the apartment opposite his bedroom. He had on sweatpants and a gray T-shirt, and he was rubbing a towel over his still-wet hair. When he saw me, he smiled.
    He hadn’t shaved yet, which made me unreasonably happy. I’d loved the sensation of his scruff teasing my palm and my lips when I’d touched him last night.
    My dad had never let his facial hair grow out, and both Chris and Ethan seemed to be following in Dad’s footsteps in that regard. I wasn’t sure if I liked it so much because it was different from the other men in my life, or maybe it was just because it seemed so very Liam . Either way, I didn’t want him to shave it any time soon.
    “ He’s not,” I said as I met Liam’s eyes. “I showed him how to make coffee, though, so maybe he can start doing that sometimes.” I winked at Babs, and he blushed even harder than he had been before. I found him endearing and just as dissimilar from my brothers as Liam was, but in an entirely unique way.
    Liam shot a look over at Babs and then returned his gaze to me. “As long as he doesn’t burn the place down.”
    “ He won’t. I’m a good teacher.” That was what I’d wanted to do with my life, at least before my parents died—teach. I’d always imagined myself in a classroom full of kindergarteners. But then everything had changed, and I’d had to drop out of college so I could get a full-time job and support my brothers.
    I didn’t regret it. Not even for a moment. But I did sometimes wonder how my life would be if my dad hadn’t tried to be a hero that day.
    “ I can believe that.” Liam came into the kitchen and took a couple of pans out of a cabinet, setting them on the stove before turning on the burners. “Fix yourself a cup, and I’ll have breakfast ready by the time Babs finishes showering.”
    “ I’ll take that as my hint to scram,” Babs said. He grabbed an orange from a bowl on the bar and headed in the direction Liam had just come from.
    Liam opened the refrigerator and pulled out bacon, eggs, peppers, mushrooms, and a whole stack of other things. Once he set them down on the counter, he turned to me, his eyebrows knitted together in concern. “Did none of the clothes Sara brought fit you?”
    I hadn’t even given those clothes a moment’s thought today. Or last night, either, since I had already been in the T-shirt Liam had given me and that had seemed reasonable for sleep. “I haven’t even opened the bag to see what’s in there,” I admitted, pouring a cup now that the coffee had finished brewing. I added sugar and cream, probably more than anyone else on the face of the planet would find reasonable, and stirred.
    He lifted an eyebrow at me, taking out a cutting board and a knife. “You realize you’re almost naked and Babs saw you like that.”
    He had a point. I glanced down at myself, suddenly self-conscious. I tugged at the hem of the T-shirt, but it didn’t seem to do any good. “Do you think I embarrassed him?” It seemed possible, especially since I’d never met Babs before. Maybe that had been why he’d kept blushing.
    Liam put a few strips of bacon in a hot pan on the stove. They started popping and sizzling immediately. “I’m not worried about