Chapter 14
14
Kincaid
Sharing dinner duty with Amy made things a little easier for both of them. This way, neither of them felt like they were uselessly sitting back and not contributing. Plus, she was fun to cook with. He really needed Zach to see her cooking techniques because he would flip out.
“What are you doing?” He asked, watching her stack zucchini slices on top of each other on the cutting board.
“Dicing the zucchini.” She took one of the little stacks and made all the slices line up and then started slicing it one way… and then the other while Kincaid watched in utter bafflement. Yup, he really needed Zach to see this.
While Kincaid was cooking, he usually kicked Zach out of the kitchen because Zach had very strict ideas about how things were ‘supposed to be done’ in the kitchen. Amy’s way of dicing would not pass muster.
“So, why are you dicing the zucchini?” he asked, leaning his hip against the counter as he watched her. Since he was done breading the chicken and had just popped it in the oven, there wasn’t much else for him to do but wait.
“Well, I don’t really love vegetables that much, so I try to sneak extra ones into everything I eat. I don’t notice diced zucchini and shredded carrots when I simmer them in chili or spaghetti sauce for long enough that they go soft.” She smiled sheepishly, glancing at him before she started on another stack of zucchini slices. “I know it’s weird.”
“Hey, whatever works. It’s good that you’ve figured out ways to get more of what you need. So, broccoli, cauliflower, and green beans are all okay on their own?” Those were all vegetables she’d made for dinners last week, and now he made a little mental note in his head.
“Yeah. I actually like carrots and zucchini on their own, too, but I’m not a huge fan of salad. I eat it, but…”
“But just the lettuce and carrots. No peppers, celery, tomatoes, or radish.” That was something else he’d noted last week. She’d made them a salad, but hers had been in a separate bowl that she’d put to the side ahead of time.
“Yeah.” She shrugged, still sheepish. “So this is how I sneak extra veggies into my diet because sometimes I don’t eat what I should at breakfast or lunch.”
“Smart.” He didn’t get a chance to say anything else—or ask anything else—because the front door opened, and Zach was finally there. “Hey honey, you’re home… a little later than expected.” He said it teasingly because it wasn’t a big deal; sometimes, Zach’s work ran long.
Today, though, Zach didn’t smile the way he normally did. Instead, he ducked his head.
“Yeah, I had to run by my parents after work to pick up something my mom got me.” He lifted a plastic store bag in his hand. “She wanted to chat for a bit. Sorry.”
“No problem.” Kincaid studied him. Yeah, Zach hadn’t told his parents, and he was feeling the guilt of having seen them again but not telling them. Kincaid wasn’t sure what to do. On one hand, he really didn’t want to live his entire life in the closet. On the other, he didn’t feel right pushing Zach before he was ready.
What he did know was that he didn’t want to fight about it again right now. Zach had told his sister. Yeah, it had been several months since then, but that had been a big step. He just had to hope that Zach would take the next big step sometime this year.
How long would he be willing to wait? He didn’t know. But now that Zach had told at least one family member and had promised to talk to his parents—eventually—that was enough for now.
“Whatever you’re making smells good.” Zach smiled as he put down his bag and came over to look at what Amy was doing at the counter. Kincaid stifled his laughter as Zach realized what was happening, his expression going from interested to horrified.
“Um… Amy? Are you… dicing those zucchini? Like that?” Zach asked, his voice strained like he was in pain. It was starting to physically pain Kincaid to keep his laughter inside. Zach was trying so hard not to sound judgmental, but it was clearly difficult for him.
“Yes.” She didn’t bother to look up, just moved the little pieces she’d finished to the side, then grabbed the next pile of slices.
“You know there’s an easier way, right?” The strain in Zach’s voice was much more intense now, and Kincaid practically choked on holding back his laughter.
Leaning back against the counter, he moved his hand up to cover his mouth. Not that Zach was paying attention to him. The other man was too distressed by the atrocity of Amy’s dicing technique—or lack thereof.
“If you cut it in long slices and then?—”
“This is easier for me.” Amy cut him off.
Zach’s nostrils flared as he clamped his mouth shut, taking in a deep breath. Then he forced a smile onto his face, which also looked painful.
“Okay, great. Well… I’m gonna go change into something more comfortable.”
“You do that.” As Zach moved away from the counter, Amy peeked over at Kincaid, and when she saw him looking at her, she winked.
He doubled over laughing, no longer able to hold it back, even if Zach could hear him.
Amy
Sitting down to dinner with Zach and Kincaid was really nice. They were both appreciative of what she made. Then again, Jeremy had been, too, in the beginning. But Zach was also appreciative to Kincaid, and they’d been living together for a while, so apparently, that appreciation didn’t disappear for everyone. Jeremy had stopped appreciating and started expecting her to make meals for him as soon as they’d moved in together.
Which had made sense at the time, since he hadn’t been much of a cook. He’d also always had trouble remembering what she would and wouldn’t eat. So it had been easier to just make dinner for both of them. That way, he was happy, if not appreciative, and she got to eat things she liked.
Which was why it had been a little surprising to realize that after one week, Kincaid had already noticed and remembered what vegetables she’d made. She hadn’t expected him to. Why would she, when she and Jeremy had been together for years and yet the one time she’d asked him to make dinner in the past year—because she’d been sick—he’d made peppers and onions as the side? She didn’t eat either and never had. Sure, she’d made them for him sometimes because she knew he liked them, but somehow, it had escaped him that she’d never eaten them.
The more she remembered about their relationship, the more she contrasted it to just living with Kincaid and Zach, who weren’t even romantically interested in her, and the angrier she got at Jeremy… and at herself for putting up with him.
“How was being back at work?” Zach asked as he finished telling them about the swim trunks his mother had bought for him. And how adorable was that, that his mother still did that? Especially for someone like Zach, who, unlike Jeremy, was incredibly independent.
“It was okay.” She smiled, though it felt more like a grimace. “I think today was probably the hardest. By tomorrow, hopefully, my canceled wedding will be old news. Everyone was very sympathetic. I did run out during the afternoon to go to the doctor, though… for a test.” She made a face. “Our receptionist asked if I had gotten tested, and I realized it hadn’t even occurred to me.”
“That’s a nosy question.” Kincaid frowned, putting his fork down on the side of his plate and straightening up with a protective air that would have made her heart flutter if he’d been single.
“Yes, but I’m glad she asked. It hadn’t occurred to me that I should go get tested. If Jeremy was cheating on me with one person, he could have been cheating with more than one. And even if he wasn’t…”
“Yeah, no, it’s best to go get tested.” Zach shook his head. “That sucks. How long until you hear back?”
“By the end of the week, she said, which is good because I’m meeting Sam and Morgan at Stronghold on Saturday. Not that I’m planning to hook up with anyone, but at least it would be an option if I wanted to.” Amy stabbed at a piece of chicken on her plate, perhaps a little harder than necessary, and ignored the look that she saw Kincaid and Zach exchange out of the corner of her eye.
“You never really seemed like a hook-up kind of person to me,” Zach said gently.
That was true, but at the same time, it made her hackles rise.
“Well, being the relationship kind of person put me in a position where I stuck it out with a guy who did the bare minimum, if that, while I ignored red flag after red flag and then was about to marry him despite all that because I thought that’s what I was supposed to do.” The bitterness that coated her voice was so thick she could taste it, and she hated that Kincaid and Zach were hearing it, too, but once the words started, she couldn’t stop them.
“I’m not even sure I loved him by the wedding day or if I was just there because I couldn’t bear to admit that I’d wasted years with him. And then he left me anyway, in the most humiliating way possible, so you’ll have to excuse me if I think maybe being a hook-up person sounds a little better right now.”
Panting by the time all of it had spilled out of her, Amy stared down at her plate; she couldn’t bear to look at either of them. They hadn’t done anything wrong. If anything, they’d done everything right. She was starting to open her mouth to apologize when Zach reached over and put his hand atop hers, which she hadn’t even realized was clenched in a fist.
“You deserved a lot better than him,” Zach said gently. “It’s not your fault that he turned out to be shitty.”
“It’s my fault for putting up with it for so long. I just…” Her voice trailed off… because what was she supposed to say?
That part of her had liked that he’d needed her to do things for him, even as she’d resented him for making her do everything?
That she hadn’t thought she could do any better?
That she’d rather have been miserable with him than face the uncertainty of being single?
Pathetic. There wasn’t a thing she could say about why she’d stayed with Jeremy for so long that didn’t make her sound utterly pathetic.
“And now you won’t again. Sometimes, you get into a rut, and it’s hard to get yourself out of it, and the longer it goes on, the deeper it gets.” Kincaid’s voice was firm, gentle, yet somehow distant, as though he wasn’t really talking about her but about himself, as if he really did understand, which made her feel a little better. “And when you’re in the rut, it’s hard to see what’s outside of it. But it doesn’t really matter how you got out; the important thing is that you did, and now you know what to avoid.”
Amy took a deep breath.
“That sounds a lot better than ‘man, I’m stupid,’” she confessed, causing both men to focus their attention on her in a way that made her squirm in her seat. Holy crap. One Dom giving her ‘the look’ was bad enough… having it doubled?
Scary.
Also hot.
It made her think of what her friends had said about them having threesomes.
Which was such a bad idea.
Stay out of the gutter, brain.
Easier said than done.
Because now her thoughts were in a rut.
“So, how was your day, Kincaid?” she asked, doing her best to change the topic of conversation and the direction her thoughts were going in.
It worked for the conversation, at least.