Page 34 of Rush

She refused to think about how much she missed it by instead concentrating on gathering ingredients and piling them on the counter.

“Anything I can do to help?”

He asked that every night and she always gave him something to do to keep him in the kitchen. “You can dice the tomatoes and shred the lettuce.”

He pulled a knife from the drawer and the chopping block from behind the sink and got to work while she put the meat in a fry pan, moving it around with a wooden spatula and watching it brown.

She was just adding the seasoning packet to the meat when she felt his eyes on her.

Again.

She’d had enough. Time to call him out. “Why do you do that?”

He looked down at the lettuce he was tearing then back at her, a small line now between his eyes. “Do what?”

“Act as though we’re more than we really are.”

He tossed the last bit of lettuce into the bowl then turned to lean his hip against the counter, crossing his arms in a relaxed pose. “You’re gonna have to walk me through that.”

It would be so much easier if she knew how to explain. On the surface, to the casual observer, it would seem like he was doing nothing wrong while in actuality what he did made her feel hot and bothered. But she couldn’t very well tell him that.

“You’re always looking at me.”

His brows rose. “I’m not supposed to look at you?”

Well, when he said it like that, it did sound ridiculous. “It’s notthatyou look, buthowyou look while looking.” She stirred the meat—maybe a bit too aggressively because a chunk flew out of the pan to land under the back burner. She’d need to remember to wipe that up later.

He uncrossed his arms, standing up straighter. “Andhowexactly do I look?”

She flicked the knob on the burner, turning it off and threw down the spatula. It made a mess on the stainless-steel surface that she’d need to clean up later too, but at that moment, she didn’t care.

Taking a page from his playbook, she leaned a hip against the counter next to the stove and crossed her arms over her chest—only her pose wasn’t relaxed. “Like you’re hungry and I’m dinner.”

He tipped his head back and laughed. And man, was it a beautiful sight. So much so, she almost forgot what they were talking about.

Almost, but not quite.

“This isn’t a joke. You don’t have the right to look at me like that or invade my personal space like you constantly do. I’m your employee.Onlyyour employee. It’s whatyouwanted. You can’t have it both ways. Either you want things strictly platonic, or you want us to be more.” Her heart pounded as adrenaline coursed through her veins. It felt good sticking up for herself. “What we’re doing here isn’t some game you can play to your advantage and totally disregard my feelings. If you can’t follow your own rules, maybe I need to leave and go back to Oz’s.”

That instantly sobered him. “No.” He pushed from the counter, taking a step toward her but then stopped as if just remembering not to get too close. “You can’t leave.”

Her back stiffened. His expression looked panicked, but that couldn’t be right. “Why?” Her heart pounded harder in her chest, waiting on his answer.

“Because.”

When after a few seconds he didn’t elaborate, she prompted, “Because why?”

“Because…” He ran a frustrated palm over his close-cropped hair. “Because Sophie likes you here.”

“And that’s the only reason?”

He turned back to the counter, practically giving her his back, and picked up the knife, slicing through a tomato. “Of course. Why else?”

Why else indeed. Heart deflating even though she had no business feeling disappointed just because she didn’t like his answer, she turned back to the stove. Then she mentally added another layer of bricks to the wall surrounding her heart. That sucker was getting so tall, pretty soon not even a professional mountain climber would be able to scale it, let alone a six-foot-three football player.

***

Nora opened her eyes, blinking away their rough, sandpaper quality after a restless night. It was Saturday so she wasn’t officially on duty, but after her disappearing act the night before, she wanted to check on Sophie.

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