Page 78 of Third Wheel

The hitch in his breath made him rub his chest.

He would tell them. By the end of the month. Just like he’d promised Krista. Maybe he’d see if Julie, one of the mistresses at the club and also a therapist, could work him in for a session. Give him some perspective. Maybe help him figure out how to talk to his parents about it. Couldn’t hurt.

Yeah, he’d call her later today and see if he could get an appointment.

Yawning, he stretched and made himself get up. Might as well get moving.

By the time he made it into the kitchen, Amy was also up and sipping coffee as she watched Kincaid make breakfast. She twitched a little when Zach bumped Kincaid out of the way with his hip and took over. Though he didn’t feel like cooking all the time, sometimes he wanted to make something a little special.

Today felt like a crepe day. Especially since Kincaid had most of the ingredients out. He’d been about to make pancakes, but Zach was in the mood for something fancier.

“Any plans for the day?” Kincaid asked Amy, obviously unbothered by being bumped out of the way.

She shook her head, though she wasn’t looking at him; she was watching Zach. He’d started dicing the strawberries Kincaid had pulled out.

More importantly, he was dicing them correctly.

“Aren’t you scared of cutting yourself?” she asked, watching in fascination.

“No.” He glanced up at her, grinning as the knife continued to move, and she winced. “I’ve had a lot of practice at this. I worked in a restaurant through college and for a few years after. Kincaid loves cooking more than I do, but sometimes, I get in a mood. I can show you how to dice correctly, if you want.”

Cocking her head, Amy watched him as he pulled another strawberry his way and got to work.

“Or you could just dice for me?”

Zach and Kincaid both laughed.

“I could do that, too, although you won’t be able to do it this quickly at first.”

“Can you dice some cucumber for me? I want to make tzatziki later.”

“You sure you don’t want to use your patented dicing technique?” he teased.

“Oh, no, that only works on zucchini, not cucumbers.”

Zach froze as his brain blanked out becausethey were basically the same damn thing,and he didn’t know how to respond to that. The knife hovered in the air as his thoughts bounced incoherently around his head, trying to come together in a way that made sense, except that it madenosense and…

And Kincaid and Amy were laughing at him.

He scowled.

“Your face!” Amy pressed her hand against her chest, gasping for air. “I’m sorry… I’m sorry… I couldn’t help it… but oh my God, yourface!”

“You are in so much trouble,” he said, wagging the knife at her. That just made her laugh harder.

So much for being a threatening sadist. He couldn’t help but smile, though he hid it, shaking his head and ducking his head back down to look at the strawberry he was dicing.

Kincaid high-fived her, which didn’t help.

“I saw that,” Zach said without looking up, making both of them laugh again.

Everything just felt so damn right…

He needed to call Julie later and talk to her about more than his feelings about his parents.

Amy

After breakfast, which was amazing, mad that Zach didn’t cook more often and determined to change that, Amy decided to join Zach for some yard work. Kincaid was going to help, too, but he wanted to go for a run first.

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