“I’m the boss, as you keep reminding me, and I’m hungry.”
He saw that pissed her off.
Astrid annoyed was so damn cute.There was a tension in her jaw, not from clenching her teeth but from controlling her temper, which was adorable.He wondered if she even realized how she looked.
“You’re hungry?”she asked.
“Starving, and don’t bother getting me that cereal I’ve seen you pick up.Not interested in any of that.”
Again, there was a flare to her nostrils.She was going to try and pacify him with stuff out of a cardboard box, and that was just unacceptable.He sat and waited.
She went to the fridge and he didn’t see what she pulled out, until she turned around.In her hands were eggs, bacon, cheese, and some white grains he assumed was rice.
The dishes were left on the counter, as she got to work making him breakfast.
“How did you sleep?”he asked.He had been talking with Blake, who advised that he pick up the habit of small talk.He had a lot to make up for, and this was all new territory to him.
Astrid glanced toward him.“We’re not doing this.”
“What?”
“Talking.We’re not doing the small talk.I’m going to make you breakfast because I have to.We’re not friends.”
“Do you want to be friends?”he asked.
“No, I don’t.”
She got the bacon on to fry, and she also put a little knob of butter into the pan, melting it down and heating through the rice.In another pan, she had multiple slices of bacon on the go, getting all lovely and crispy.He watched her, enthralled as she worked.
“I think you do want to be friends.”
“I don’t.”
“I think you and I would make real good friends.”
She paused and then turned to look at him.“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
This made him smile.
“Do you remember when you were younger and I pulled you out of the way of a moving car?”he asked.
Astrid paused and that caught her attention.“Why?”
“Because, I think that should grant me a little leeway.”
“You’re going to bargain with the act of saving me?”
“You had your head in a book rather than looking straight in front of you.It was rather silly of you, don’t you think?”he asked.
“Are you calling me stupid?”
“Nope, I’m calling you not very observant.You’re not stupid at all,” he said.Blake had warned him about the insults he might imply.
Lord had never been good at small talk.
He looked at Astrid as she cooked his breakfast.
Mine.That one word never seemed to want to let up when it came to her.
