Page 57 of The Ruse

A kiss that was supposed to be pretty passionate—more passionate than the one between Christine and The Phantom, anyway.

“Well, it’s all I’ve been thinking about since our kiss last night.” He winked.

Okay, so now we were back to flirty Asher.

Which I guess was fine. Definitely better than the serial killer version of Asher that I’d been imagining.

But since I was too on edge to banter back right now, I just said, “I think we might wait to practice that one during rehearsal.” I felt around my back pocket for my phone, only to remember that I’d left it upstairs on the charger. “Hey, I’m actually going to call Ava really quick just to let her know where I am.”

“Okay,” he said, not seeming to notice how weird I was being. “I’ll start digging through the fridge to see what our options are for dinner.”

I finishedmy call with Ava and sent a quick text to my mom who was currently in London and probably already asleep for the night. Then, after giving myself a little pep talk, I headed back down to Asher.

Ava had reassured me that I would be fine. She’d even had Carter get on the phone to reassure me as well since they were currently snowed in at his grandma’s house together. Carter, who had known Asher for ten years, said that he was sure Asher had nothing to do with Bailee’s disappearance and that the only thing I should worry about was the jealousy that Nash was sure to feel when he heard I was stuck in a cabin with his enemy. I felt a lot better.

I just needed to stay out of my head and try to relax. I was safe. I was warm. I had food.

I should be fine staying here for one night.

Down in the kitchen, I found Asher bent over, looking through the contents of the fridge. He stood up when he heard me. “Called your family to tell them you’re alive?”

“Yep,” I said. “So now I guess the only thing left to do is watch how high the snow gets tonight.”

“That and eat,” Asher said with a smile.

“Did you find anything good?” I asked, moving farther into the kitchen to take a look around.

“I found a bunch of ingredients that would make that stew Miss Simmons and her husband were bragging about making tonight,” he said. “But since I’ve never made stew before and don’t know if they left their recipe here, I was thinking of skipping over tonight’s dinner and just have the breakfast burritos we were supposed to have tomorrow.”

“Are those pretty easy to make?” I asked. I was taking a culinary arts class at school, but we hadn’t made breakfast burritos yet.

“They’re super simple,” he said. “Especially since the bacon crumbles are already pre-cooked.”

“Is there any salsa?” I took a few steps closer to look in the fridge. “I can’t eat eggs unless they’re drowned in salsa.”

He rooted around the various condiments in the fridge door and pulled out a jar of red salsa. “Right here.”

“Great. Breakfast burritos for dinner, it is.” I took the salsa from him and set it on the counter while he grabbed a carton of eggs.

While he cracked the eggs in a bowl, I went and got the shredded cheese, bacon crumbles, and the Ziplock bag full of pre-chopped green peppers.

“Do you like your eggs cheesy and scrambled?” I asked, showing him the huge bag of shredded cheese that Miss Crawley had brought.

He looked over his shoulder at me as he tossed an eggshell into the garbage can. “The cheesier, the better.”

“Great! That’s how I like them, too.” I set everything on the counter next to where he was working and went to find a skillet.

“Do you want me to mix these in right now, or do you want to add them separately?” Asher gestured at the ingredients as I turned on the stove to warm the skillet.

“Mixed in is my preference, if you’re okay with that.” Growing up, I’d never been a fan of eggs, but I had recently learned that if I could cover up the egg taste with all the extras, I could stomach them.

“Fine by me.” A minute later, he poured the egg mixture into the prepared skillet.

With a wooden spoon, I started stirring the eggs. I was much calmer now than I’d been before my chat with Ava and Carter.

So far, Asher was acting as normal as ever. And we were even working to create a yummy meal together.

Since we didn’t have to chop any of the ingredients up, I didn’t witness him holding a sharp knife or anything. But none of my alarm bells were going off anymore, and the energy around him was laidback and calm.

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