Page 99 of When The Rain Falls

As I snort at that, movement in the corner of my eye catches my attention. Vivian is using this moment to try to slip more cookies off the tray.

"Hey!" I shout to her. "I see that." She holds her contraband protectively behind her back.

"I live with goddamn animals," I mutter.

"Whatever. Animals are cute," Vivian backtalks.

"Cute? Have you ever seen a raccoon?"

"Yeah, actually," she quips back. "Every time you're digging around the kitchen for a midnight snack." Aimee laughs and reaches across the corner to give Vivian a fist bump.

"Whose side are you on?" I ask her. “And why are you holding a saute pan like a weapon?” I turn to Aimee who’s standing over the oven, one hand wrapped around the handle of a pan that’s pointed straight into the air.

“I’m making you dinner,” she explains. Put the woman who can't identify a single goddam vegetable in charge of dinner?

"Why?"

"You don't think I can cook?"

"Aimee.Ican barely cook. AndIknow what a vegetable is." She laughs and tosses a tablespoon of butter into the pan as she sets the range to medium heat. She begins to hum happily to herself as she slides a plate of diced onions into the pan. A sizzle rises into the air on contact. Fuck. I must have some kind of domestic fetish because I’m half-way to hard at the scene playing out in front of me. Her sexy body in front of my fucking stove. Goddamn.

“Oh, shoot. I forgot to dice the bell peppers!” Aimee turns and begins to frantically search the cluttered counter for, what we’ve now established to be, fruit.

“You mind the onions. I’ll do that,” I say, directing her back towards the hot pan. She gives me a smile of gratitude and resumes her task pushing onion bits across the pan.

I reach down into a drawer and pull out the heart apron. Then I come up behind her, putting the apron over her head. I pull her hair away from her neck. When I see that Vivian and Ruby are studying their phones, I plant a quick kiss on her bare neck before I let her hair fall back down over the apron string. She leans her head back against my shoulder as I grip the ties and cinch it tight around her waist. My legs are brushing up against the back of her thighs and my groin is suddenly on fire. I slide my fingers up to her waist and give her a gentle squeeze.

“You look great in that,” I murmur in her ear.

“Not as great as you,” she teases with a wink. I reluctantly pull away from her to search for the bell peppers. I find them under a box of Oreos. Don’t ask me how the fuck they got there, but that’s where I find them. I pull out a chopping board and get to work. The sound of Aimee’s humming fills my head as we chat about nonsense.

“Look at you, bear,” Aimee says in a lull in the conversation. “All it took was one cookie for the beast to turn into a man,” she teases.

"I can still be a beast," I say, bumping her with my hip. “Or,” I add with a wink, “you can just give me another cookie.”

"Daaaaaad!" Ruby whines from across the room where she's setting the table. "Get a room. Pick one. There's plenty."

"These areallmy rooms," I scold as I slice into a pepper. “You get a room.” Aimee rolls her eyes, but smiles at the same time.

“You know, you have some serious Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde issues," she says. “Lucky for you, both of them,” now Aimee brings her voice into a low whisper, “melt my panties.’

“Aimeeeeee!” Ruby scolds, covering her ears and walking angrily out of the kitchen.

35SOMEWHERE SAFE

AIMEE

"How was your day, Ruby?"Finn asks from across the dining table, where we are all seated around what’s left of dinner.

Ruby shrugs and pushes her last baby carrot around with a fork.

"How was the movie? What did you and Rocky see last night?” Finn has one hand propped on his hip, the other resting around a can of sparkling water. I can feel the tension in the air running between Finn and Ruby like an invisible game of tug-of-war.

"Fine," she says quickly.

"That's all I get? Fine?"

"What? You want me to give you details so you can criticize me?"

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