“You hungry? I’ll order some pizza and wings. No, fuck wings, let’s get those spicy boneless things.”
I pulled out my phone and pulled up my favorite pizza place.
“Address,” I said, snapping my fingers at her and risking the health of my balls and my brain.
She rattled it off and then tossed a pillow at my head. “Jackass.”
“We’ve got about forty minutes until the food arrives, so why don’t you burn some calories by flapping that jaw?”
I dropped back down and crossed my legs on her wooden coffee table, while she glared a hole in the side of my head.
“Why are you doing this?” She stepped over my legs, giving me plenty of time to stare at her shapely legs.
“Seriously. What could you possibly get out of this?”
“I get a chance to fill a hole in my education, namely what you’ve been up to since I last saw you.”
She stared, eyes all squinty and hard, but the way her hair stood up straight everywhere lessened the effect.
“Why don’t you stop trying to figure out my motives and just tell me?”
Mandy was a stubborn thing, but she had nothing on me.
“Nothing to tell, really. I worked and then I hopped on a bus headed for the east coast. A little while later I started culinary school.”
“Did you always want to be a chef?”
I realized I knew nothing about her, aside from those care packages she used to send Ammo. “I knew you baked one hell of a cookie but Ammo never said you wanted to do it professionally.”
She shrugged but I saw the smile tug on the corners of her pouty mouth.
“I never really thought about it, but things weren’t how I wanted them to be here and I knew I had to get away before it was too late. I went to the library and applied for scholarships, but after taking an online aptitude test that said I could run a kitchen, that’s what I decided to do.”
She tried to make light of it, but I could tell it meant something to her.
“You love it.”
This time her smile was genuine as she nodded.
“I do. Food makes people happy and so does art, I get to do both every day.”
“The food you made for the engagement party was delicious. Best triple chocolate chunk cupcakes ever.”
A blush spread over her pale skin.
“Yeah, thanks.”
“What did you mean you had to get away before it was too late?” Her shoulders slumped, like I could forget something like that. The doorbell rang and she hopped up with a smile.
“I’ll get that,” she said, relief in her voice.
“I already paid,” I told her and smiled at the growl she let out. It was kind of sexy. I never had a woman growl at me before. Just like that my mind went to all the ways I could make Mandy growl some more.
“Did you invite people over?”
“No, why?”
Green eyes bugged way out, clearly telling me that I was an idiot, but again, the effect was ruined by her hair standing up everywhere.