Page 21 of Third Wheel

Somehow, it made her feel even worse. She kind of wished he’d yelled at her instead for being bratty. Or chastised her. Something.

Him being nice to her after she’d just gotten mouthy with him felt wrong.

She felt on edge, waiting for the back end, waiting for the rest of whatever he was going to say.

Instead, there was just silence, like he was waiting for her.

“No problem,” she said after an excruciatingly long moment. “I’m, um, gonna go take a shower.”

“Okay. I’ll make dinner.” A ghost of a smile flitted around his mouth, but Amy barely took notice of it as she fled the room.

What was wrong with her? What had she been waiting for? Her skin still felt too tight, like her body was buzzing and humming beneath it, vibrating with extra energy as she waited for… something.

Something hurtful.

Something that she was bracing herself against.

Jeremy would have said something mean in the same situation. Well, if he’d even noticed that she’d cleaned the house. Or made him dinner. Or any of the other things Kincaid had both noted and listed.

God, was she really that used to being invisible? Taken for granted?

Knowing Kincaid was making dinner rather than letting her do it made her want to run back to the kitchen to help, but she’d already said she was going to take a shower. Plus, as he’d pointed out, she’d already made dinner every night that week.

He and Zach had been incredibly grateful every night and insisted on doing the dishes. The first night, they’d had to practically kick her out of the kitchen.

Okay, so maybe he had a point that it’s been a little excessive.

Sighing, Amy closed her bathroom door behind her and pulled her phone out of her pocket rather than getting straight to undressing. She had the group text, but she didn’t want to talk toeveryone. So, she called Sam, who answered after only one ring.

“Hey, girlfriend.”

“Hey, got a minute?” She’d picked up quickly, which meant probably yes, but Amy always wanted to check.

“Sure.” Sam’s tone was overly cheerful and encouraging, and Amy had the feeling that even if Sam didn’t actually have the time, she’d make the time. Which meant Amy would have to be quick because she didn’t want to hold Sam back in case she was doing something important.

“If I was living with you and I made dinner every night, would you think that’s going overboard?” Ugh. Saying the words out loud made her cringe because she could hear how that might be a little overboard now that she’d said it.

Sam’s brief silence in answer spoke volumes.

“Um… did we discuss you making dinner every night?”

“Well… no.”

“Am I ever helping? Or doing the dishes?”

“You do the dishes every night.” Amy decided not to mention that she’d tried to fight Kincaid and Zach on that. Sam had only asked about what was being done, not whether or not she’d tried to do that, too.

“Well… I guess that seems fair. I probably would have wanted to talk about it first or make a schedule. Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, I just… Kincaid seems to think I’ve been doing too much around the house.” Which made her grumpy, but Sam laughed.

“I kind of wondered if this was going to happen,” she said.

“If what was going to happen?” Some of Amy’s frustration was starting to leak into her voice, but she really didn’t know what Sam was talking about.

“You and Kincaid are both caretakers. Put two caretakers in a house and you’re both going to try to take care of each other. I kind of wish I was Zach, just so I could watch you two dance around, trying to be the one to do the caretaking.”

Amy opened her mouth, then closed it.

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