Chapter 13
“How hard can it be to cook dinner? I can stare down insurgents.” ~ Caleb’s famous last words
Caleb
T he smoke alarm goes off and I swear. What’s wrong now?
I scan the kitchen. The counter is a mess of vegetables, dishes, and knives. On the stove are two pots. The tomato sauce from one pot has erupted over the side but there’s no smoke. It can’t be the cause of the alarm.
Shit. There’s smoke coming out of the oven. I open it and smoke blasts me. I wave a hand in front of my face as I cough.
I grab a towel and remove the smoking garlic bread. I dump it in the sink and pour water over it to stop it from smoking. The loaf has blackened, burnt edges and now it’s soggy, too.
Spaghetti with garlic bread is supposed to be an easy dinner to make. My mom claimed an idiot can make it. I guess I’m worse than an idiot because the entire meal is ruined. Except the salad.
My nose wrinkles. Although I don’t think the dressing turned out right since it’s all clumpy .
I can’t feed this to Maya. With my luck, I’ll poison her and we’ll end up at the hospital where everyone will laugh and point fingers at me. I shiver. The idea of being in public again after my panic attack at the restaurant makes it difficult to catch my breath.
I push down the panic. I’m in my cabin. Alone. No one’s here to attack me. Once I can breathe again, I switch off the stove and oven before digging out my phone.
“Hey,” Hudson answers the phone on the first ring. “What’s up?”
I hear a baby cry in the background. Shit. I totally forgot Nova gave birth.
“Sorry. I shouldn’t be bothering you.”
“Bullshit. What do you need?”
“I ruined dinner. Any chance I can order from your restaurant and have it delivered here?”
“Is this for your dinner with Maya?”
I scowl. “She told you?”
“No. She told Nova. And before you get your panties in a twist about it, you should know Nova begged her. She even promised Maya could be the first person to babysit Iliana.”
Damn. I can’t complain now. I know how much Maya loves babies. She used to babysit all the time in high school. I’m surprised she hasn’t had a baby of her own yet. I growl at the thought of her having a baby with anyone other than me.
“What do you want to eat?” Hudson asks. “The restaurant can make anything you want. ”
I check the time. Maya will be here in less than an hour. “I don’t care what it is as long as it’s here before Maya arrives.”
“Steak and potatoes it is. I’ll have the restaurant deliver it to the cabin in forty-five minutes.”
“Thanks, man. I owe you.”
“I’ll add the cost to your monthly rent,” he says and rings off.
I throw the phone on the kitchen table. I need to get this mess cleaned up before Maya gets here. I’m carrying the garbage outside when a golf cart arrives in front of the cabin. The man hands me a large bag. I sniff. The steak smells delicious.
“If you put it in the oven on low heat, it’ll stay nice and warm,” the man says before driving away.
I carry the food to the kitchen but hesitate to put it in the oven. The garlic bread didn’t fair too well in there.
Light flashes against the kitchen window. No time to warm anything up now. I remove the food from the bags and put everything on our plates. I barely have time to throw the restaurant bags away before there’s a knock on the door.
I scan the kitchen to make sure there’s no evidence of my earlier attempt at cooking dinner before opening the door. Maya smiles up at me.
“Hi, Caleb.”
“Hi, Bunny.”
Her whiskey-colored eyes warm at my use of the nickname. Those eyes reel me in. I want to watch them heat up when I touch her skin, when I strip her clothes off of her, when I sink into her warm heat .
My cock hardens and lengthens at the vision of Maya naked and laid out on the bed for me. Her honey-blonde hair sprawled across my pillow.
I grit my teeth and wrangle my libido under control. Since I now know my bunny can handle my panic attacks, I can’t help but wonder if she can handle me the man and all the dirty things I want to do to her in bed.
Maya giggles. “Are you going to invite me in?”
Damn. How long have I been standing here staring at her? It’s cold outside. I usher her inside.
“Let me take your coat.”
She shrugs out of her coat and I bite back a moan. She’s wearing a red sweater that shows off her perky breasts and a pair of jeans that hug her curves. She looks more delicious than the food.
“What smells so good?” She walks over to the kitchen table. “Mmm… steak and potatoes.”
“I hope my food choice is okay.”
She rubs her hands together. “You won’t hear me complaining. My hips, on the other hand, they’ll hate me tomorrow.”
“Your hips? Why would your hips hate you?”
She rolls her eyes. “Duh. Because they’re too big and I’m not helping to make them smaller by eating this.”
My gaze drops to her hips in those jeans. I want to dig my fingers into the soft flesh. “I think your hips are perfect.”
“You’re sweet. But there’s no need to lie. ”
“No one’s ever accused me of being sweet before.” I prowl toward her and her eyes flare. My cock twitches in response but I stop before I invade her personal space.
“Liar. Ms. Simmons in kindergarten said you were a sweet boy when you helped pick up the crayons.”
I snort. “Since you had to dig all the way back to kindergarten to find an example, I think you proved my point.”
“I have more examples. I thought it was sweet when you called my bullies limp dicks who would never have girlfriends.”
“Eighth grade. Also, a long ass time ago.”
She motions to the table. “You made me dinner. Also, sweet.”
I want to tell her I didn’t cook. But how can I? She thinks I’m sweet. She’s wrong. But it warms my chest, nonetheless.
“Shall we eat?”
She glances around the room. “Is there anything I can do?”
“Sit your sweet ass down and let me feed you.”
“If you’re not sweet, my ass isn’t sweet.”
Oh, her ass is definitely sweet. But I don’t tell her as much. Maya can handle my panic attacks but I’m still not certain I’m the man for her. I left the island to prove I could be the man she needs but all I proved is I’m a screw-up who doesn’t deserve friends.
I shove those memories away. I’m not spoiling my time with Maya with ghosts of the past.
“Sit,” I order. “What do you want to drink? I have wine.”
I didn’t think of buying wine but Hudson included a bottle of red with the food .
“I brought beer.”
She moves toward the bag she left at the door but I stop her with a hand in the air. “I got it.”
I pour us each a beer before joining her at the table. She lifts her glass in the air.
“To friends.”
I bite my tongue to stop myself from confessing how crappy a friend I can be – I don’t plan for her to ever find out how I messed up my friend in the worst way – and nod.
She clinks her glass to mine before digging into her steak.
“How did you prepare the steak? Did you do some kind of rub?”
Rub? What the hell is she talking about?
“Um, yeah.”
“Did you grill them outside? Or in the oven?”
She moans as she chews on her bite and my cock perks up. It wants to hear her moan when she’s naked and in my bed. Skip dinner and go straight to the bedroom.
I adjust myself before cutting myself a piece of meat. “This is good.”
Maya giggles. “You sound surprised. Didn’t you try a piece while you were cooking?”
“No.”
She unwraps her baked potato. “Wow. This is utter perfection. I love it when the outside is nice and crisp. How did you manage it without burning the skin? ”
“Um…”
She leans down and sniffs the potato. “It smells as if you used some kind of herbs. What did you use?”
“Um…”
She bursts into laughter. “Your face.” She points at me. She doubles over laughing until she’s snorting. It shouldn’t be attractive but her happiness makes my chest warm.
I cross my arms over my chest and feign annoyance. “What’s funny?”
She wipes tears of laughter from her eyes and gulps in air before she calms down enough to answer.
“You pretending you made this food. With every question I asked, you got more and more flustered.”
“Pretending?”
She waves a hand in the air. “You can stop. I saw the golf cart driving away from the cabin. I waited on the road for a few minutes to give you a chance to set up.”
“You’re sneaky.”
“Hello.” She taps her chest. “I’m a smuggler. It’s in my blood.”
“I did try to make dinner myself.”
She giggles. “When you offered to cook for me, I did wonder if you’d somehow learned to cook in the past decade while you were away.”
I shrug. “Why learn to cook when you can eat at the mess hall?”
She shoves a piece of steak in her mouth. “I bet the food in the mess hall wasn’t as good as this.”
I pick up my fork and knife. “I won’t argue with you there. ”
“You shouldn’t argue with me ever. I’m always right.”
She winks at me and my heart pounds in my chest. Maya has me wrapped around her little finger and she doesn’t even realize it.
I’m not the man for her but I sure as hell wish I was.