Page 32 of Naughty Nicky

“Cookies are done.”

I skip over to the oven hoping this next batch is better than the first—a.k.a. not burned. But when I pull out the cookie sheet,they look flat as hell. Defeat shoots through me. Is there really nothing that I can do?

Nick looks over at the cookie sheet. “At least they aren’t burned.”

I pick up an overly hot cookie and hold it up. “Yeah, but they are flatter than my chest was when I was in middle school.”

Nick bites back a laugh. “Did you skip any ingredients?”

“You didn’t have any baking powder, and it said it needed like half a teaspoon. Didn’t sound important.”

Nick walks over to me and grabs the cookie out of my hand. “Obviously you weren’t very good at chemistry either.”

“Why do you say that?”

He takes a bite of the cookie, and I swear he fights to chew it and swallow it down. “No reason.”

I’m assuming my lack of knowledge of baking has something to do with chemistry but just ignore his comment. “Are they any good?”

He takes another bite of the cookie. “I mean, they aren’t terrible. But they are chewy as hell. I don’t know what you did.”

I punch him in the arm and rip the cookie out of his hand. “You don’t deserve this, you dick.”

I take a large bite of the cookie, and I immediately know what he means. It’s like chewing Playdough. I have no idea what the hell I did, but obviously it wasn’t right.

I spit the cookie out into my hand. “Oh god. These are awful.”

“Thank you for trying, though,” he says with a smile.

“I just wanted to do something nice for you since, you know, you rescued me and let me stay here.”

Nick tosses the plate of burned cookies into the trash. “It was the least I could do.”

I dump the rest of the cookies into the garbage since I know there is no way either of us will eat them.

“So what do you want to do today?”

“I’m not sure.”

“We’re not playing any more stupid games.”

“That’s fair.” I shrug. Besides there are other things I would like to see Nick do besides some stupid dares.

“I don’t like that look on your face, Pen.”

I raise a brow at him. “What look?”

He frowns. “Just say it.”

I bite my lip, knowing that he’s going to turn this down, but I am going to try anyway. “You should paint.”

“And what? You’re going to just watch? No thanks.”

I shake my head. “No, I was going to say you should paint me.”

I swear his jaw drops open. “No.”

“Why not?”

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