HEARTLESS─── RAFE CAMERON [1]

chapter thirteen

Through the window, I could hear Rafe parking his car in the driveway of my villa. Through the small window of my door, I saw Rafe in his car, pressing his head hard to the steering wheel. I rolled my eyes. Seems like he was not very excited about today, despite the deal we struck up— one which he'd initiated.

I opened the front door. "Rafe!" I exclaimed. He flinched awake from his position, looking all around him frantically for a few moments, before his gaze relaxed as it settled on me. I raised my brows at him, moving to hold the door open for him.

I watched his every move as he made his way from his car, all the way till he was just a few steps away from me. "Where are we off to today, Captain?" He says.

I look over my shoulder. A smile illuminates my face when I look back at him. "We," I start, "are actually going to stay here for a change."

He narrows his eyes a little bit, but cocks his head and follows me inside.

"How's your hand?" I ask, as I make my way to the kitchen. I can hear Rafe following from behind me.

"Fine," is all he says. "It still hurts though. The burn is barely any better."

"Well, no shit, Sherlock. Your hand isn't gonna be all goody-goody in twenty-four hours, you know. Not after a burn like that."

"Thanks, Captain, I think I figured out that much by myself. How are your bruises?"

I snort. "Look at us, so worried about the other. We're making good progress, Cameron."

"How are your bruises?"

I roll my tongue over my teeth. "They're fine. Practically gone. You can barely see any of them. If anyone asks, I'll just tell them that I fell. I was with J— some friends, yesterday, and they didn't ask me anything."

Rafe nods, his jaw clenching. He almost caught me. I was about to say JJ and the Pogues, but I remembered Rafe's dislike at the last second. If he knew, it would've led to an argument I feared neither of us had the energy for.

"Nevermind all that. Today we are going to bake." I move around, bustling, from one counter to the other as I grabbed all the various materials and utensils required for the big bake. Hearing Rafe's silence, though, I look up.

"What?" I say, hints of a smile on my lips.

"I don't know how to bake," he says sheepishly.

At this, I rolled my eyes, but couldn't help but smile a little. "Well, lucky for you, I'm an expert," I said, handing him an apron as I tied my own over my clothes. "We're making blueberry muffins today."

Rafe looked at the recipe book in front of us skeptically. "This looks complicated."

"Trust me, it's not that difficult. I'll help you."

"Thanks, Captain."

I furrow my brows, smiling to myself. "Captain? Is that my new nickname?"

"Only if you want it to be, Captain."

"You know, I was starting to like the name Vandenburg."

"Fine then, we'll combine the two. Captain Vandenburg. How do you like that?"

I nod, raising my eyebrows, but I don't say anything.

"So," Rafe says, regaining his more normal composure. "Do we just mix everything together?" I could see him peer over my shoulder as I measured out flour."

"No," I say. "We have to mix the dry ingredients separately, and then the wet ingredients. Why don't you start by preheating the oven?"

Rafe nodded at me, and I watched him make his way to the oven and turn it on. Then, he set the temperature. I continued measuring out ingredients, and we fell into a comfortable silence for a few minutes as we worked.