Final update before the weekend! Enjoy everyone ;-)

I bought a couch today... I feel super adult right now! xD

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The Morning After

When I woke up I was lying in my own bed, by myself. There was sunlight coming through the blinds so it had to be morning and a glance at the alarm told me it was in fact nearly eleven AM. There was no sign of Matt in my room, no evidence that he'd stayed here after he'd carried me up so he must have gone to the guest bedroom afterward.

I felt a little hot just thinking about how I'd gone and fallen asleep so easily on the couch with him. It had been exactly what I needed to get my mind to slow down and my body to feel safe and relaxed. Was he still here? Or had he left by now?

After I'd washed up in the bathroom (I had the ten second rinse and evaporate trick down pat now), I dressed in shorts and shirt and after a little hesitation pulled on the sweater I'd borrowed from Matt. I'd worn it more than I should have, especially the last two weeks when he hadn't been around and I'd had to wash it so it no longer held his scent. Still it comforted me to wear and I needed that today.

A look in the guestroom told me the bed was a rumpled mess, Matt had clearly been tossing and turning a lot. His duffel lay open at the foot which meant he was still here didn't it? Heart beating wildly in my throat I headed down the stairs and smelled before I saw that he was in the kitchen making breakfast and coffee.

When I turned the corner I saw him standing at the stove flipping pancakes, wearing just those sweats which hung dangerously low on his lean hips. I loved the difference between his sleek left arm and his inked right arm and shoulder, it gave him just the right amount of bad boy vibe. From the back I could see that he had shallow claw marks running from both sides on his back. As if Gavin or maybe Clay had had him around the middle and scored him good with their nails. But it didn't look as bad as I would have expected from an injury that had happened yesterday.

He turned around and caught me looking at him from the doorway. The patch with the bandage was gone from his chest to show the cut with the butterfly strips; that injury too looked like it might almost be a few days old. "Morning darling, how you feeling?" he asked me with his head canted a little to the side. He did however have what looked like a faded black eye and a pretty bruised up belly.

"Hey Matt, I'm glad you stuck around... You're looking better," I pointed at his chest and he grinned, "It's a perk. I heal fast." Now he gestured at my nose, "I think you're all healed yourself." It was true, two nights of sleep had done wonders for my busted nose and though the bruises on my hip were still faint shadows under my skin they hardly hurt anymore.

We sat down at the breakfast nook to eat the food he'd prepared and talked for a while as if nothing had changed at all. As if he hadn't been gone two weeks and we were just being friends that sometimes flirted but nothing had happened. When we were both done Matt reached out and folded one of his big hands around mine, looking me intently in the eye he said: "You doing okay Dani?"

I shrugged, "I feel like it's happened in another life time, or to another person... I don't know. Is that strange?" "No that's okay, it's your mind trying to distance you from it," he assured me. I bit my lip while I thought about it some more and in the end told him that I'd probably be okay. I was never seriously hurt and though I felt a little shaken up, he'd saved me in time. I thought all in all that I might have been more freaked out about being lost in the water.

"We'll work on that okay? I can teach you several tricks that will help you with that, don't worry, you'll do fine." After that he leaned in a little more to brush his fingers over my cheek and with an almost flirty tone to his voice he said: "If you feel up to it I can teach you that later today."

"I don't think so!" a male voice interjected angrily at that moment. Startled I jerked away from Matt and raised my eyes to find my dad standing in the doorway glaring furiously at us. "What's going on in here Dan?"

Matt didn't even flinch but let go of my hand to easily rise to his full height and meet my dad's angry eyes head on. "I was just promising to teach Dani some diving tricks Sir. Name's Matt McLaren, I'm the older brother of one of Dani's classmates." He stuck out his hand for my dad to shake but my father didn't move from the doorway or uncrossed his arms; just kept right on glaring.

When the offered hand clearly wasn't going to be accepted Matt dropped it and shrugged, "I'm sorry to meet you like this Sir. I don't believe you've been home enough that we've run into each other before." That was a barb from Matt I hadn't seen coming, he'd clearly been extremely aware of how little my dad was home.

My dad frowned more and then angrily said: "Did you spend the night here?" His eyes shot to me and I rose to my feet as well, "Yeah he did. But he slept in the guestroom, nothing happened, not that it's any of your business!"

"The hell it is!" he growled and I realized I'd never in my life seen my dad look as angry as he did right now. "You! Get out of my house now! Don't let me see you again!" he pointed at Matt and waved angrily in the direction of the front door. Matt remained as calm and unruffled as a cucumber under the verbal assault and instead of immediately leaving he met my eyes with a silent question, checking if I was okay with him leaving or if I wanted him to stay.

I nodded at him and he cast one more look at my dad who was breathing heavily at the blatant moment of defiance. The way Matt hadn't listened to him but was leaving because I'd told him he should go. Matt didn't seem scared to walk towards my dad to get out of the kitchen either. He held is chin high, his back straight and he kept on staring right at my dad as he passed him on the way out.

There was a moment when they were abreast when you could see the differences between them extremely well. My dad was not a small guy exactly but he was always in meetings and behind computers and carried no extra muscle mass on him. Matt was at least half a head taller and wide in the shoulders and sleek with streamlined muscle that I knew came from all the swimming. My dad looked like Matt could crush him in the blink of an eye but of course that never happened and he just strode past.

There was shortly after the sound of the front door and then the noise of his old truck as it roared to life. The sound faded a little and then cut off again which had me thinking Matt had only moved his car down the road and was waiting to make sure I was okay. My dad was too angry to have noticed it though, he was glaring at me and clearly fighting to get himself under control.

"Nothing happened dad, he just crashed here after he brought me home after a late dive I did with the entire McLaren family..." I tried to explain without mentioning what had really happened last night. My dad shook his head, "Yeah and that's why his back was all scratched up right? That wasn't your handiwork Dan? God damn it! You're still in high school, that guy owns a freaking bar!"

I realized then what conclusion my father had drawn at seeing Matt barely dressed, me in his sweater which covered my shorts so it looked like I was barely wearing anything underneath and Matt's back scratched up like it was. Yeah that did look pretty suspicious.

"I know how much older he is but I'm telling you nothing happened. And it's none of your business regardless! Matt's a good guy and former Combat Diver, he'd never take advantage of me!" My dad rolled his eyes, "Just because he's ex-navy doesn't mean he's any good! And everything is my business cause you're my little girl."

Now I was the one to roll my eyes while I gathered up the dishes and dumped them in the sink. "No dad I'm not. I happened to grow up while you weren't around to see it. Now excuse me I've got other things to do." I left him in the kitchen fuming and headed up stairs to pack my swim stuff and pack up Matt's things which he'd left.

While I did that I got a text from Matt asking if I was okay and if I wanted I could come with him, he was waiting for me down the street. On impulse I threw more clothing in my own duffel and then headed outside without replying to his text. I found his car a little down the road and walked up to it.

He immediately got out and helped take the bags from me. "I take it this means you're coming with me?" he asked while hefting my own duffel which was considerably heavier than his was. "Do you mind?" I asked him and he immediately shook his head and pulled me to him for a hug. "Never. Come on. That neighbor is staring at us since I'm shirtless and shoeless."

That had me laughing while I climbed in the car but though his shoes were with his stuff in the duffel he didn't bother to put them on and drove his truck barefoot. "He jumped to the conclusion we'd slept together because of the scratches on your back," I told him and he snorted, "I wish." His eyes went to my hands where he appraised my nails which I kept neat and short. "Those were courtesy of Clay and he wasn't nice enough to distract me while he did it. Wouldn't have thanked him for it if he had either." We both shared a laugh over that together and it felt good to make light of what happened in such a way.

At the bar Matt took both our bags up to his apartment and took a moment to change into actual clothing. In the mean time I made myself at home at one of the booths with a drink and homework and tried to pretend like today was just a normal day. My phone rang twice, both times my dad calling but I ignored it in favor of texting him I'd not be home that night and that he could find me at the Stonefish if he really wanted to.

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Sooooo what did you guys think of that little moment with Dani's dad?

Hope you all vote and comment and follow and all that stuff ;-) I'd appreciate it a lot!

Much love,

Robin