* * *
Duke
I’d just puta pan of pasta on when the doorbell rang. When I opened the door, I was surprised, and maybe a little too happy, to see Demi. “Hey.”
She leaned against the door jam. “Hey. Can I come in?”
Stepping aside, I let her enter and locked up. “What’s up?”
“Are you sure you’re not busy?” She walked around the living room of the Airbnb. Instead of staying at a hotel, I’d opted for a house because I needed the kitchen to prepare for an event I was catering.
“I’m good.” I motioned toward the back of the house. “Come to the kitchen.”
Demi followed me and took a seat at the breakfast bar. “You’re cooking this late?”
I turned off the stove and spooned the hard-boiled eggs into a bowl of ice water. “Just making tuna macaroni salad for Tyn. She’s craving it. Bishop will be here within the hour to pick it up.”
“Aw, that’s so sweet.”
I peered at her as I cut a white onion. “You’re out late.”
“Actually, I had intended to come here earlier, but I wasn’t sure it was wise.”
Frowning, I set the knife down. “Why wouldn’t it be wise?”
Demi nibbled on her bottom lip as a blush worked its way up her neck to her cheeks. “What happened at lunch was pretty awkward, right?”
Awkwardwas a word. Admittedly, I’d stayed at the restaurant for another twenty minutes, in case she returned and admitted she was punking me. And since then, I’d wracked my brain trying to figure out why she’d flipped out on me today. “You were on one today.”
“I don’t know why either. Well, that’s not entirely true.”
Earlier, Demi had ordered me to stop flirting with her. For years, I’d gone to painful lengths to keep my relationship with her genuine and pure. She’d been through so much, and I needed to be a strong support for her. It was a vow I’d made to myself the moment she’d shown up on our doorstep that fateful night. That meant no flirting, no innuendo, and absolutely no exchanging of bodily fluids. Yet, lately, it seemed that everything I’d done before to stay close but distant wasn’t working anymore. Because Iwantedto be near her in a way that was new for me. Hell, I was mulling my options now, looking for a way to erase the distance between us.
“I don’t really want to talk about the reasons,” she continued. “I just want to forget it happened.”
I stared at her. While I wanted to delve into what happened, I needed to respect her wishes. “Did you eat dinner?”
“I got a sandwich from McDonald’s and threw it away.”
“That was your first mistake,” I told her. I picked up a pair of latex gloves and held them out to her. “Help me peel these eggs. Then, I’ll make you something for dinner.”
She grinned. “Deal.”
We worked in silence, her on the eggs and me on everything else. By the time the pasta was done, I had already diced the onion, green pepper, and celery. Meanwhile, Demi was struggling with her task, cursing the eggs to hell and back as she painstakingly peeled them.
Once I poured the noodles in the strainer and ran cool water over them, I turned my attention to her egg problem. I walked over to her and picked up an egg. “It’s not that hard, Demi.” I inspected the egg. “Keep on and there won’t be any egg left to put in the salad.”
She elbowed me. “Oh, shut up. They’re defective.”
Chuckling, I peeled three eggs while she was stilltryingto finish the one. “Give me that shit.” I snatched it away from her. “Can you grab the relish out of the fridge?”
Demi shuffled over to the refrigerator and peered in. “Damn. There’s so much food in here. Ooo, you have blueberries?” She pulled out a jar of sweet relish and handed it to me. “Do you have an extra strainer?”
I told her to look in my case, which was sitting on a bench near the kitchen table. “While you’re at it, can you wash the strawberries too?”
“I’ve been thinking about your proposal.” She dumped the blueberries into a strainer and rinsed them off. “I say we do it.”
Eyeing her, I asked, “Why the change of heart?”
