Page 37 of Sawyer
“While I love Spanish music, I’m not very proficient in the dance moves.” He tried to do a salsa step, which only made the containers shift awkwardly in his hands. “Besides, I’m so hungry I could eat for the next hour.”
Madison turned to him, a clear challenge in her eyes. “What about you, Kyle? We could stick to merengue if you’re like Doc.”
He couldn’t salsa dance. His cotillion back in Austin hadn’t covered it. Merengue was a possibility from what he knew. As for all three of them going? He couldn’t handle seeing Madison dancing with Rico. That he knew. And Rico was standing like a rooster about ready to rip him to death with his razor-sharp claws if he even stepped in that direction.
“Maybe another night,” he made himself say.
The light went out of her eyes.
Part of him wanted to die.
His answer had hurt her, and dammit, he didn’t know what to do. Did she want him to go? Stop Rico from putting his hands on her?
“Unless you want me to go,” he quickly added.
Her mouth twisted. It was the wrong thing to say, and he wanted to kick himself. She’d never admit to something like that.
“No, you hang with Doc and make sure his human shell gets full up. Rico, let’s go.”
“You don’t want to change?” Rico asked, that damn smarmy smile on his face again as he basked in his victory.
“What?” She crossed her arms over her black chef outfit and lifted her badass chin. “Would me going out like this embarrass you, Rico?”
Kyle almost laughed. He knew what Madison was trying to do. She was trying to get Rico to beg off. But the smarmy-smiling son of a bitch only shook his head. “You know I’ll take you as you are, Madison. I always have.”
She shot the obnoxious chef a look before grabbing her coat and tugging it on.“Mentiroso.”
Rico heaved out a breath before shrugging into his coat as well. “Shall we go?”
Madison didn’t stalk toward the door. Only Kyle knew from the way the corners of her eyes crinkled that she was feeling indecisive. It happened once in a blue moon, but he remembered the first time he’d seen it. Four dishes into recipe testing her duck with cherries dish. When she doubted her choices and couldn’t see a clear path forward.
“Fine, but I can’t stay out too late,” she told Rico. “I have a restaurant to run tomorrow night.”
She flicked Kyle a glance as she walked by, her combat boots stomping toward the door. He knew the bravado was a coping mechanism, even as he admired it. He had his own methods of dealing with stress and emotional upheaval.
“I’ll see you later,” he told her before she left with Rico.
Her swift, unemotional nod was enough to leave cold lead in his stomach as the door closed. Silence filled the kitchen. The contrasting scents of cleaning products and onions and roasted meat filled his nose. He fisted his hands to his sides. Dammit!
“She didn’t want to go.” Sawyer was staring at the dooralong with him. “That last word she said in Spanish…it means liar.”
He swallowed thickly. He’d wondered. So she hadn’t bought Rico’s lines. There was some comfort there.
“Hey, I know we’re not supposed to talk about it, but you two are starting to hurt each other. I don’t think either one of you wants that.”
He gripped the edge of the stainless steel counter. “Dammit, I know that. I just don’t know what the hell to do. Being her friend means more to me than anything. But I want more. And I can’t have it, Doc.”
Sawyer took off his glasses and cleaned them with his handkerchief, taking his time. Kyle wanted to?—
He didn’t know. He certainly couldn’t run after Madison and tell her not to go dancing with Rico.
When Sawyer put his glasses back on and glanced up, his smile was gentle. “Look, you’re both my friends. So I’m going to tell you how I see it. You don’t feel what you feel for nothing. It matters. It means something.”
The intensity in his voice touched a chord in Kyle. His heart thudded heavily in his chest. Because yeah, it fucking mattered. It was everything.
“It might mess things up. It might not.” Sawyer heaved out a sigh. “But the status quo between you is collapsing. Things already feel a bit ruined between you two. I remember when you guys used to sneak off and research things and laugh with your heads tipped close together.”
He did too, and his heart thumped painfully as the memories flashed through his mind.
