“I’m done at Timber Ridge. Thought I’d take the day off.”
“For me?” She batted her eyelashes at hm.
He carried the skillet with their bacon and eggs over to the table. She’d already set out the plates and forks. They made a good team in the kitchen.
“For you. If you want me. If you don’t want me...” He took a step back, taking the bacon and eggs with him.
“I want you,” she said. “I want you so much. And your bacon. All your bacon.”
“You can have half my bacon. I get the other half.”
“This is fair. I can accept this.” She held up her plate and he scooped breakfast onto it. “You know, I’m only sleeping with you because you cook me breakfast every morning. I don’t want you to think I actually like you or something.”
“You’re just using me for my bacon?”
“I am,” she said, picking up a thick, crisp slice.
“That hurts.” He sat down at the table across from her. “I’m hurt by that.”
“Okay, maybe I’m not using you exclusively for your bacon.”
“You can’t just take something like that back,” he said. “I’m wounded. To the core. I feel so...so used.”
Joey leaned forward and rested her chin on her hand and stared at him across the table.
Then she held out her bacon to him.
“A gift?” he asked.
“Peace offering. And proof I’m not just using you for your bacon. Not exclusively.”
He opened his mouth and she fed it to him.
“Good?” she asked.
“Tastes like love.”
“Lust for sure,” she said, wagging her eyebrows at him before taking another slice of bacon off her plate and stirring hot sauce into her eggs.
Chris picked up his fork and focused on his eating and tried to ignore that Joey had brushed aside his use of the L-word with a quick joke. Not that he blamed her. She’d gotten out of a two-year-long relationship last week. In her shoes he wouldn’t even be dating someone else, much less considering a future with them. But he wasn’t in her shoes. He was in his shoes. And the man in his shoes was quickly falling in love with the woman in Joey’s shoes. Well, socks. Wait, were those his socks, too?
“So...there’s this thing in the sky today,” Chris said. “Have you seen it?”
“What is it?”
“It’s big and it’s yellow and it’s very bright.”
“Big Bird?”
“Not quite.”
“A very large honeydew melon?”
“Hotter. I think it might be the sun.”
“No way.”
“Way.”