Joss reaches around me and takes the knife from my hand. “Bread’s fine as it is. Get the dish out of the oven.”
Right. Breakfast.
I step away from where Joss has joined me on the other side of the counter and open the oven. The cheddar-ale dip is bubbly and gold. I take it out and place it on the cutting board. “Wow. This is, like, the ultimate beer food, right?”
Joss grins. “I thought so, but Molly wants it as an appetizer, so that’s where it’s going.”
“She’s a force of nature, huh?’
“I don’t mind. Strong women rule the world.”
“Is your mom like that?”
Joss’s smile shadows. He reaches for a slice of bread and dunks it in his dish of magic, but he doesn’t answer the question, and I get the message.Leave it.
Whatever he needs, man.
We eat breakfast and make more small talk. I discover that he’s from south London, and he has family ties to where Jax is from too. He likes hiking and swimming, and despite the job he’s taken at V&V, loves cooking outdoors far more than being stuck in a kitchen.
Also, that it’s his official day off. “Kitchen’s gonna be closed on Mondays until we build the team, so I’m free as a bird.”
He says this around a yawn, but I sense the energy in him. Feel it, because I like to be outdoors too. I’m not like Tanner used to be—I don’t avoid the wilderness because of what I saw there. I just can’t dothatjob anymore.
Joss washes the dishes. I watch him while my mind ticks over, trying not to stare at his bare back.
Or his chest when he turns to me and wipes his hands.
I do stare, though, and he catches me with a slow grin that I match without thinking. Then I blurt out what I’ve been ruminating over while he’s been busy. “I have no work today either. Wanna hike some trails with me?”
Joss’s face brightens beyond anything I’ve seen from him so far. I mean, he’s smiled. He’s grinned. He’s laughed. But none of that has anything on the light I see in him now. “Where?”
“Winooski. There’s some good trails by the river.”
Joss taps his fingers on the counter behind him. His eye twitches, faint, but I see it because I’mstillstaring. “Trees?”
“Thousands.”
“Bears?”
“Probably not.”
“Just you, eh?”
“Huh?”
His grin widens. “Never mind. I need my shorts.”
He breezes from the kitchen, leaving me blinking in his wake, but I don’t mind. How can I when I’m about to spend the day with the sun in my face and him by my side?
* * *
JOSS
Before we hit the road, we walk through Burlington to where Jax works to borrow a car. Kai doesn’t own a vehicle and he has feelings about Tanner’s Jeep.
“It’s a heap of shit and it smells funky.”
“Mate, you’ve clearly never driven a Peugeot 205.”
