Page 65 of Time to Shine

“Race ya,” Casey challenged.

“Seriously? You have a bit of an advantage.”

“Coward.”

Landon huffed. “Fine. Go.”

Their shift was ninety minutes, which had seemed like a long time when they’d started, but the time passed quickly. Landon found he was having fun, smiling and laughing more than he had in a long time. It was nice meeting fans too. He wasn’t the best conversationalist, but being flanked by Casey and Clint—two absolute chatterboxes—had helped.

What the day hadn’t helped was Landon’s crush on Casey. Listening to him charm every person who approached the table, all while wearing a Santa hat and flashing dimples all over the place, had been a lot to deal with.

“You wanna do some shopping?” Casey asked when they were done.

“The mall is super busy.”

“Yeah, it’s nuts. But we’re already here, and...” He trailed off as he must have noticed something in Landon’s expression. “You know what? Let’s go home. That was a lot of people and I’m beat.”

Landon knew Casey was saying that for his benefit, and he was grateful. He needed some air and to get away from these crowds. “Okay. Thanks.”

“You hungry?” Casey asked. “Gonna guess yes.”

“Yeah. I can make dinner.”

“Cool. Do you maybe wanna...teach me?”

Landon’s brow furrowed. “You want me to teach you how to cook?”

“Yeah. Not, like, everything. But maybe one thing?”

Oh no. Cooking together was not going to help squash this crush. “How about spaghetti with meat sauce? That’s easy.”

Casey grinned. “Fuck yeah! Let’s get Italian up in here.”

“Cooking is easy!” Casey declared an hour after they got home. Landon nearly rolled his eyes because in that time he’d narrowly prevented Casey from doing four things that would have either poisoned them both or started a fire.

He didn’t want to point that out because Casey looked so damn happy pointlessly stirring the sauce with a wooden spoon. It had truly been the simplest meal Landon could think of: a package of ground beef and some jarred tomato sauce with a few herbs and seasonings added. It was the sort of thing his own parents used to throw together for dinner between work and driving Landon to hockey.

They certainly hadn’t had this top-of-the-line stove and cookware, though.

“So the water is boiling now,” Landon said, keeping up the educational component of the activity so he wouldn’t focus too hard on how cute Casey was. “We can put the pasta in.”

“On it.”

Before Landon could stop him, Casey dumped the contents of the box of dry spaghetti into the pot from much higher than Landon would have recommended. Boiling water splashed everywhere, and dry noodles landed on the stovetop and on the floor.

“Whoops,” Casey said.

“It’s okay,” Landon said as he carefully extracted a noodle from the open flame under the pot. “But maybe closer to the pot next time. And slower.”

“Got it. So how long do these cook for?”

“The box has the recommended time on it,” Landon said. “But about ten minutes.”

Casey studied the empty box. “Hey, it does say the time! That’s helpful. Do other foods tell you how to cook them?”

“Yeah. If you peel a banana there’s a whole recipe for banana bread inside.”

Landon didn’t miss the fact that Casey’s gaze shot to the bananas on the counter before he realized Landon was joking.

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