Hell,hedidn’t want to let her down, either. He wanted to make sure Zach really would be okay, though he seemed to have been doing a good job of taking care of himself so far.
“No problem. I’m not in any kind of hurry,” Flynn said, draining the pasta over the sink. Hopefully this would be good. He hadn’t been expecting company, or he would have made something a little fancier.
Well, no, he would have made exactly this, but he would have paid more attention to what he was doing.
He tossed it through the sauce and then split it between two plates, sprinkling the bacon pieces over both of them.
“That smells amazing,” Zach said as Flynn grabbed the plates to bring them over to the table. “You reallyarea good husband.”
“Yeah, don’t pass judgement until you taste it,” Flynn said, though he was sure it’d be fine. He just hadn’t cooked for anyone in a while.
Stacy had never been all that impressed with his cooking, either. She hadn’t hated it, she’d just… insisted on doing most of it herself. Which had always left Flynn feeling guilty and more than a little useless.
In hindsight, he could see there were a few more problems with their relationship than he’d noticed while he was in the middle of it. So he could see how Zach hadn’t noticed all the ways Aiden was undoubtedly making him miserable.
“Tastes good,” Zach said around his first mouthful, apparently hungry. Hedidseem like the kind of guy who was in the habit of skipping breakfast.
The urge to make sure he ate better suddenly welled up in Flynn’s chest. The feeling that Zach was one ofhispeople now, one of the people he was supposed to look after, hadn’t gone away. Every time he saw him, it came up all over again.
Zach appreciated Flynn’s efforts. Even Aiden had at best called himmomwhen he’d tried to help, and Flynn felt all kinds of complicated ways about that. Zach just accepted his help, more or less without protest, and that…
That was good for Flynn’s soul. He wanted to be helpful. He wanted to have a big extended family of people who he could look after, because his biological family was now down to Aiden, who’d moved more or less as far away as he could without leaving the country, and…
And he was lonely, and needy, and Zach made those feelings lift for a little while.
If he didn’t know better, Flynn would have thought he had a crush on the guy.
“Glad you’re enjoying it,” he said a moment later. “I should have offered you a beer or something. You want one?”
“Water would be fine,” Zach said. “I can get it.”
Flynn shook his head, standing again. “You’re my guest. Let me treat you like one.”
Zach gave him a soft look, his big brown eyes reminding Flynn of the Labrador puppy he’d befriended at the café a few days ago. “You do too much for everyone and you should take a break,” he said.
Flynn swallowed. Callie said that to him a lot.
It was strange to hear it from someone who hadn’t known him all that long. Zach seemed togethim, though, and maybe that was because they seemed to be similar people.
After all, Aiden had thembothconned at one point. They probably had a lot in common.
Flynn got two glasses and filled them from the jug in the fridge, anyway, because he didn’t really want to think about the way Zach just seemed toseehim. Really see him. Understand him, the way Callie did.
He didn’t have a lot of friends like that.
Two, apparently. Ten minutes ago, he thought he only had one.
So this was a nice surprise.
“I didn’t meanyoucouldn’t have a beer,” Zach said as Flynn sat back down.
Flynn shrugged. “I know, but it’s probably better for me if Idon’t. Especially since I’m still mad at this client.”
“You maybe wanna talk about it instead?” Zach asked, looking up at him, clearly ready to listen.
“I… it’s just… they want me to set up their marketing opt-outs so that users have trouble actually opting out, and that’s… not right. You can’t run a business like that,” Flynn said. “Maybe I’m being stupid. Maybe that’s just what people do and they’ll just find someone else to do it and all I’ve done is talk myself out of a job.”
“Are you having trouble finding work?” Zach asked, concern in his voice.
