Page 48 of Frosting and Flames

And there’s that almost-familiar dip in my belly again. Even knowing she didn’t mean it in anything other than a friendly way, my body still reacts, physically swaying toward her before I catch myself.

She shows me how to break the cloves of garlic apart and peel, then mince them. I should pay more attention to the cooking lesson, especially since I don’t want to embarrass myself during the cookoff, but my brain is stuck on watching her instead.

The way her hair shines under the kitchen light like silk, a few stray strands brushing her cheek. The way her dress hugsher waist. The way she looks over to catch my eye, making sure I’m watching what she’s doing as she dices a bell pepper and jalapeno.

“Do you want to try?” she asks, holding the knife and half-cut bell pepper out to me.

“Uh, sure.”

Her fingers linger on mine for half a second too long as she hands me the items, and I would swear she didn’t mean anything by it, but when I look at her, the tops of her cheeks are pink.

“I’ll finish up the jalapeno,” she says, avoiding my eye.

I can’t figure out exactly what’s up with her, but the cooking lesson continues on, regardless. She shows me how to saute everything, drain the fat in the beef, then add the rest of the ingredients into the pot to bring to a boil and let it simmer.

“You want it to simmer at least half an hour so it can thicken, but longer is better if you have the time, so the flavors can meld together and the meat becomes tender.”

“Okay, so now what?”

She shrugs. “You just let it cook. Some people make rice to go with it. I like to have it with cornbread.”

“Yeah, let’s do cornbread.” I open the pantry, then realize I have no idea what I’m looking for.

She’s smirking when I look over at her.

“I don’t have the ingredients for cornbread, do I?”

“I highly doubt it.”

“I could run out and grab what we need.”

She holds a hand out. “Actually, maybe we could go to my house to make it? And I kind of have a favor to go along with it.”

“Yeah, of course.”

She gives me a soft smile. “You don’t even know what the favor is.”

I’d do anything she asked.

“You hardly ask for anything,” I say instead of that. “I can’t imagine it’s bad.”

Her gaze flicks over me, so quick I almost miss it. “It’s related to what Jae and I called you about the other night.”

I cross my arms over my chest, leaning against the counter. “Right. The prank. How’d that go?”

I can’t believe I forgot about that. Why did she want to tell him she went on a date with me? To make him jealous?

There’s a sinking sensation in my stomach. If she wants to do that, it might mean she still has feelings for him.

“It went fine.” She shakes her head, a smile on her lips. “Jae talks me into the most ridiculous things.”

“And how’d Kyle take it?” I can’t imagine he’d be pleased, even if he felt nothing for Rachel anymore.

“I don’t know, actually. I haven’t seen him since the pancake breakfast. But he texted me last week, after you left my house.”

She goes on to tell me about her and Jae’s theory regarding her video doorbell and Kyle’s access to it. “So the prank was really just us talking about the fake date on my front porch so the camera would pick it up. I have no idea if he even saw it or not.”

“But chances are he did if he saw me leave your house that quickly?”

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