“I just remembered,” said a deep, male voice from behind her, “Home Economics is the only class you ever failed.”
“I didn’t fail,” Kylee insisted. “I got a B.”
“Only because I was your partner and my A carried you through.”
Ron stepped in front of Kylee. He shoved his hand into a pink oven mitt and grabbed the handle of the pan. Moving quickly, he doused the fiery fare in the sink by turning the faucet on full blast.
With the pan contained, Ron returned to the scene of the crime to look for other victims. He turned the oven off where the chicken tenders weren’t doing too bad. Frozen dinners that just needed reheating, Kylee could handle. But anything fresh from the ground or the slaughterhouse typically ended up wishing it had been buried six feet under than in her kitchen.
Ron turned to her with a raised eyebrow, a look of admonishment on his face. Kylee couldn’t feel chagrined. She was too busy trying to manage the onset of lightheadedness. Not from the smell of smoke. It was from the smell of him.
The spicy smell of Ron cut through the burnt smell of the drenched veggies. Had his jawline always been that sharp? She wondered what the flesh under his chin tasted like? Ron glanced down at her lips as though he were ready to let her nibble.
Kylee jerked her gaze away. What was wrong with her? Ron was her friend, he’d once been her best friend. And she’d just sized him up like he was dinner.
“I’m so sorry dinner’s ruined,” she said.
“Of course, it’s not. I was a Boy Scout, remember.”
Kylee glanced behind him at the sink of burnt food. She had no hope anything could be saved. Nothing good to eat was coming out of that fire.
“I came prepared.” Ron pointed to the takeout cartons sitting on the breakfast table. He must have deposited them there just before he came to her rescue.
“Really?”
“Really,” he snorted. “Don’t forget, I know you.”
Why did that statement make Kylee feel all warm and tingly inside? But not just warm, also cozy, like she wanted to curl up with Ron on the couch and watch old episodes of Saved by the Bell like when they were kids. But this time with a glass of champagne paired with takeout.
She shook herself. That was not what tonight was about. They would be catching up, and then she’d planned to work in a pitch for Thrive. There would be no cozying and no more tingling. Luckily, there would be a buffer between Ron, Kylee, and Kylee’s confusing feelings towards her old bestie.
“Molly,” Kylee called. “Dinner’s ready.”
“I’m going to April Tanner’s house down the street,” said Molly, poking her head into the kitchen but not crossing the threshold into what was still a disaster area. “She asked me over to dinner.”
“What? You didn’t tell me this?”
“You wanted me to start making friends. I made a friend. She invited me to dinner.”
“You remember the Tanners?” said Ron. “Jessie, the track star was their son. April is Jessie’s daughter. She’s a good kid.”
“See,” said Molly. But her smile was too broad, her eyes too filled with sparkles as she looked from Ron to Kylee. “I’m just down the street and I’ll be back before bedtime.”
Before Kylee could think of a protest, her little girl turned on her heel. She was out the door just as Kylee regained her wits. She turned back to Ron who was moving the take-out to the living room out of the danger zone.
“I think my kid is trying to set us up,” Kylee said trailing him.
Her back was to Ron as she spoke. She expected him to chuckle. Or to shoot down the idea. Or maybe, possibly, to confirm it might be something worth considering.
He said nothing.
Kylee sat in the corner of the sofa. It was the same couch from their youth. Though the television was no longer a box. Her dad had upgraded to a flat screen.
“Ron? Did you hear what I said?”
“About Molly? Yeah.”
“It’s ridiculous… isn’t it?”