Page 46 of Absolutely Pucked
Grabbing my keys, I snagged the groceries I’d picked up on my break, then headed out the door. My hip was aching fiercely. I’d been on my feet a bit too much that afternoon, and all I wanted was to slather on a thick layer of Tiger Balm and drink a cup of tea so hot it burned the top layer off the roof of my mouth.
I made a mental plan to have exactly that on thedrive home, and when I walked through the door, my plans were thrown out the window. The whole house smelled amazing, and Killian poked his head around the corner a moment later, his eyes crinkled at the edges when he saw me.
“Hi.” His voice sounded a little less meek than it had over the last few days. “I cooked.”
“I can smell that.” Walking into the kitchen, I dropped the bags on the table and stared at the kitchen. It was immaculate. The man cooked, then cleaned up his mess before dinner was even served?
Who was he, and why had his ex been so shitty to him?
Maybe this was his new leaf. Maybe this was not the man he had been, so I could easily hate the monster but appreciate the new creature that had sprung up from his ashes.
Uhg, no. This was way too complicated for my tired brain.
“What did you cook?” I asked, flopping into the rickety kitchen chair that was going to need to be replaced soon. The legs were already weak, and Nugget had made it her personal mission to shred the wood down to splinters. As though summoned, she appeared and rubbed herself around my leg, then hopped up on the counter and mewed at Killian until he put down his spatula and opened his arms.
She leapt into them as though she’d always been a cat who liked to be cradled. Never mind I had a scar on my jaw from the one time I tried to hold her like that.
Fucking.Wow.
“It’s nothing special. I felt like making a comfortmeal, and I got paid, so I can actually afford food,” he murmured, speaking into her fur.
My chest constricted at the thought of him going hungry. How long had it been since he’d had regular meals? He was way skinnier than he had been the night we hooked up, which told me it was probably the whole time he was gone.
Christ, I could not think about that right now.
“So, it’s a surprise?”
He laughed and nuzzled Nugget once more before letting her drop from his arms, and she disappeared around the corner. “No. I made it up. When Tucker and I were younger, we were alone a lot. Um.” His gaze was trained down at his feet. “Tucker was not great in the kitchen.”
I couldn’t help a laugh. “Yeah, that hasn’t changed.”
Killian’s mouth lifted into a fond, almost anguished smile. “Yeah. He burned everything. When we were nine, I got the chicken pox really bad. My vaccine didn’t work, I guess. When it was obvious he wasn’t going to get it, my parents made him take care of me, and they drove to the Grand Canyon and stayed for a week.”
My eyes widened. “A week? You werenine.”
My parents were pretty shitty, but goddamn.
He shrugged. “They did that a lot. They had a neighbor look in on us. But yeah, he tried to make me oatmeal, and it was so thick and congealed I could lift the whole thing out of the bowl with my spoon.”
“Yikes.”
Killian snorted. “Yeah. He ended up walking to the gas station at the entrance to our neighborhood everyafternoon to get the dollar-fifty nachos and soda combo. We lived on that while they were gone.”
“Well.” I had no idea what to say to that. “You survived?”
Killian smiled again and shrugged. “I did. Anyway, I started feeling better once my fever broke, and I couldn’t stand another bite of shitty gas station nacho cheese, so I went through the fridge and came up with this. It’s like…I guess a sort of chicken and dumplings, but I would never serve it to anyone who knows how to make them properly.”
Getting up, I leaned heavily on the counter, trying not to wince as I made my way toward the pot on the stove. I could see canned peas and carrots floating in a thick, opaque sort of soup. “It smells good.”
“It is good. It’s cheap and easy, and it fed us for days.” Killian dipped a spoon in, blew on it, then held it to my mouth.
My heart jumped in my chest. Holy fuck, him feeding me was going to make me so hard I wouldn’t be able to function. But in that moment, I couldn’t care. I opened my mouth and tasted it. It was nothing like chicken and dumplings, but it was the taste of his childhood, so I loved it anyway.
“Amazing. Fantastic. Give me fourteen of them.”
He frowned. “That’s…going to be a lot.”
“No, it’s from…” I started, then waved him off. Prior to this whole mess, he’d been a busy lawyer. He didn’t have time to be chronically online the way I was when I got bored. “Never mind. Anyway, yes, please. If you want to share.”
