Page 10 of Home for Nathan
“Yeah, I think we’re both going to have the pot pie.” Zion said, giving him a thumbs-up.
Nathan nodded. “Absolutely, and I think I would like a side of the coleslaw.” That sounded better than the enchiladas suddenly.
“Of course, did you want a side of anything, sir?” she asked Zion.
“I didn’t even think to look at that.” Zion checked out the side dishes on the menu. “I think I’ll go with the green chili mac and cheese. That way if it’s too much carb load, I can just take it home and have it for lunch tomorrow.”
The server chuckled. “That’s what a lot of people say. It’s one of our best dishes.”
“Cool, thanks.” Zion took his menu from him and handed them both over to the server.
“So are you carb watching for real, or would you guys like the artisan bread basket?”
“Bring it on,” Nathan said. He could totally carb load. He was pregnant after all, and sometimes food was the enemy. But bread was good.
Zion laughed a little bit. “I’ll try it, but I have to admit with cobbler and pot pie and mac and cheese, I probably won’t partake too much.”
“How about I bring a half a basket then; is that good?”
“That is probably the safest thing,” Nathan said. “Otherwise, I’ll just sit here and eat bread.”
“Good deal. I’ll get that out as soon as I can.”
“Thanks!” Zion was super kind to the server, and his smile never faded. Nathan’s dad had always said that you could tell a lot about people from how they treated servers, and God knew that had borne out when he was a waiter, working with Saul.
They chatted about food for a while as they waited for the actual meal to come out, things like what kind of ice cream do you like the most or what’s your favorite kind of taco.
Nathan found out that Zion had incredibly particular views about tacos.
“No really, I was on tour for years with this guy from California, and he taught me all about street tacos.” Zion told him. “They have all this crazy stuff. Shrimp tacos. Fish with jalapeno slaw. Asian fusion. And you know tacos el pastor have pineapple in them. So, you know, it goes way beyond the green chili chicken or ground beef tacos I grew up with in Colorado, right?”
Zion could really wax enthusiastic about tacos.
But that was okay, because Nathan had real feelings about breakfast cereal, and he explained those to Zion at length. It was so amazing to just sit and talk with somebody who didn’t seem to have an agenda, who just wanted to be friends. Maybe he wanted it to be more than friends with Zion, but it was probably early in the day to figure that out.
Their cobbler came, and it looked stunning. It was perfectly golden brown on the top crust, the peaches were firm but still cooked well, and the ice cream had little flecks of vanilla bean in it, which told him it was hand churned. Well, homemade. Housemade. Whatever they called it now.
“Oh my God, look at that.” Zion actually licked his lips, which made Nathan stare in that way that was probably a little too intimate. He couldn’t help it; Zion’s mouth was so pretty.
“It lookswow,doesn’t it?” He figured amazing or delicious wasn’t good enough. Wow perfectly expressed how bad Nathan wanted to dig his spoon into that cobbler and take a bite.
“It truly does.” Zion gave him this wild grin that he had seen on the man’s face more than once on TV, right before he dropped into the half pipe.
How fucking sexy was it that Zion felt the same way about eating cobbler that he did about snowboarding?
Nathan would bet he had the same smile when he was having sex, but he really didn’t need to think about that right now or he’d end up embarrassing himself somehow.
So he grabbed his spoon and dug into his cobbler, and he moaned because the ice cream was cold, and the cobbler was warm, and the combination of the two was the most perfect bite he could remember having in a long time. And there was no tuna fish in sight.
Which was just about the best thing he could ask for, so he was simply going to relax and really enjoy the night.
Chapter
Four
Zion whistled as he worked on the floors in the foyer of his house. He wanted to refinish them first and then repaint the walls, because he had that super cool hall tree that needed to go in. He wanted to get it in there so that when people walked in the house they wouldoohandah.
The staircase didn’t need any work right away. Somebody had refinished the newel post and the railings and all not too long ago. Maybe he should call it restored, because they were beautiful dark wood that the grain showed through and were polished to a high shine. The stair runners were less than perfect, but they weren’t so shabby that they weren’t charming, so he was just gonna leave them as is for now.
