She watched him for a moment.“If it were me and my friends, we would play Animal Crossing or Stardew Valley, but your friends will probably play something different, maybe GTA or Red Dead.”
“Those mean nothing to me.”
She smiled at him, but not in a way that made him feel stupid.
“You can play with other people through the game.”She nodded toward the bag she’d put on the coffee table next to the pillow where his foot rested.“I put my headset in there.I thought you probably didn’t have one.”
That would be a lot easier than juggling the phone and the controller.
“How long you planning on staying today?”he asked after scrolling through games for a few minutes.He didn’t know anything about any of them and that made him feel like an idiot.
“I have all evening.I called Marci and planned to crash at her place tonight.So unless you’ve got something to do, I can stay as long as you like.”
“I have nothing planned and I’d like nothing better than for you to stay the rest of the day.But right now, I need to use the restroom.”
“Oh!”She sat up straighter.“Do you need help?What can I do?”
“I don’t need help, but it takes me a while.”He carefully lowered his cast leg to the floor then used his hands to shift his weight on the sofa until he could reach his wheelchair and pull it close enough he could transfer himself into it.“I wouldn’t turn down something to eat when I get back, though.There’s lasagna and I don’t know what else in the fridge.See what you can find to heat up for us, if you don’t mind.”
“Not at all.”She got up and headed for the kitchen while he continued with what he was doing.
****
“That was really good,” Jordon said as she set down her fork and leaned back in her chair.
“It is.It’s even better today than it was last night.I don’t know how that works, but it does.”Spider leaned back in his wheelchair and watched her for a moment.“Dax has been learning from one of the old ladies at the clubhouse and it shows.I hadn’t had much of her cooking before all this happened but if this is what she’s teaching him, I can’t wait to get home and see how good hers is.”
“That makes sense.”She watched him for a moment.Something about the look on her face made him think she had something on her mind.
“What are you thinking?”
“I was just wondering if you’d let me cook for you.”
“You cook?”he asked.They’d done a lot of talking over the last several weeks.She’d told him about growing up on the ranch, her brothers, the horses, her short stint as a barrel rider when she’d been in high school, but she’d never mentioned cooking.
“Some.”She shrugged.“Mama does most of our cooking, but she made sure we all learned to make at least a few things, even the boys.”She reached over and picked up his plate and stacked it under hers.“She said that everyone needed to be able to feed themselves.She also made everyone learn at least one ‘nice’ dinner.”She made finger quotes as she spoke.“She told the boys that eggs and waffles weren’t enough.What would they do to impress their date if they were tight on money?None of them came up with anything other than boy shit, like roping, riding or some smart-ass comments about their trucks.That didn’t go over as well as they’d thought it would.Anyway, we’ve all taken turns in the kitchen over the last few years.It started out as learning the basics, but now we do it to give Mama a break, whether for the night or when Daddy takes her out of town for a couple of days.”She finished with a shrug.
Spider watched her for a moment.“I’d love to have you cook for me.”
Her smile was blinding.“Good.I’ll talk to Dax later and figure out when.Then I’ll figure out what I’m going to make.”She stood, then gathered their plates and flatware and took them into the kitchen.He watched her go, wondering where all this was going.He knew where he wanted it to go but didn’t know how she felt.
He shook his head and pushed those thoughts away.This was possibly the worst time to start a relationship.He had so much to deal with right now.No woman would want to take all that on.He could only hope.
