I let out a sigh. “Here.” I gave her the bowl.
“Whoa. Are we going to eat all of these?” She goggled at the bowl.
“I only cracked eight. There’s still four left in that one carton,” I pointed out.
“That’s a lot.”
“How many do you usually cook?”
She looked up from the bowl. “I don’t cook. Ever. It scares me.”
I sighed again. “All right, just pick out the egg shells.”
She scrunched her nose at the bowl. “You’re not very good at cracking. I don’t think I am either, but I can fix this. I’m an expert at picking out eggshells.”
But she just made it worse. She punctured the yolks, making it hard to find the eggshells. She laughed, giggling like a little girl messing up her chores and unapologetically having fun with it.
“Let’s just cook it like this!” She threw her hands up in defeat. “This is a hard job and these eggs are rude.”
I shook my head at her, chuckling because she was so damn adorable. “Watch this for me. I’m going to make toast for your sandwich.”
“Don’t leave me here. I’ll burn this place down! Cam!”
“Calm down. I’m just right here.”
“Didn’t you attend Nice Guy Class 101? You don’t tell a girl to calm down.”
“I’m not a nice guy.”
I opened the fridge, searching for condiments for her sandwich. I had nothing here but water bottles and a box of leftover pizza I’d had last week.
I spotted my cooler sitting on the floor. How…caring and thoughtful and just damned sweet was she? I knew I was smiling as I opened it, grabbed a sandwich, and scarfed it down. Then I sniffed something in the air.
Something burning.
“Holy shit, Kara, what the hell?”
I hurried to the stove and turned it off.
“Did you turn the burner on high?”
She lifted her head from the bowl to glower at me. “Do you see anyone else here? Of course it was me!”
“Well, you don’t turn the stove on that high!”
“It was taking too long! And you left me here! I told you I can’t cook!”
“For a minute! Jesus.”
“Stop yelling at me!”
“You’re yelling at me too! Fuck!”
We looked at each other. Stopped. She laughed first. A big, boisterous laugh that shook her shoulders. She doubled over, holding her stomach. I laughed with her, gathering her in my arms because I couldn’t help it.
The pan was still smoking. Soon the fire alarm was going to blare if I didn’t do something. Blowing out a breath, I lifted the pan from the stove and yelped. Cursed continuously when I burned my hand.
“Shit, shit, shit!”