"You came over to cook for me?” I blurt out.
I see a flash of discomfort—possibly even a blush—on her face. She even shrugs her shoulders as much as she can with the weight of everything in her arms.
"I just figured food would be a good way to get you to let me in."
"You think I need a reason to let you in?" I ask in utter confusion.
Another, self-conscious shrug.
With a curse, I dart forward to grab the bags from her hands. She mutters a quietthank youand then follows me inside.
With both of us standing quietly in the kitchen, I'm now feeling a little self-conscious myself. I feel like the past two interactions we’ve had have put us into this weird limbo, where all of a sudden our usual fun, sexy times together have somehow morphed into nerves and uncertainty.
I hate it.
I glance at her from beneath my eyelashes, trying to study her without her noticing. She’s obviously here to cook for me, but that’s so out of character for her that I don’t know how to act. I’ve cooked for her plenty of times—mostly because I’m used to cooking for myself—but Dani is typically a bigger fan of trying new restaurants on food delivery apps.
Her cooking for me now is almost… caretaking.
Fuck, this is so different from anything we’ve ever done.
I'm knocked out of my introspection when Dani slides a water bottle across the counter to me. Without meeting my eyes, she says, "I'll throw the chicken on. Should only take me about twenty minutes to make everything."
I nod mutely. "Sounds good."
She hesitates before opening up her own water. As I watch her out of the corner of my eye, she finally turns to me and asks, "How's your dad doing?"
That's what she had to work up the courage for? To ask how my dad is?
And that's the moment I realize just how much Dani distances herself from others. How hard it is for her to open up.
I mean, I obviously knew before this, just based on all the conversations we’ve had about not getting close to people, but watching her now and seeing how hard it was for her to ask a simple question, it fully hits me in the chest.
I can't meet her eyes as I fidget with my water bottle on the counter. "He's good," I admit woodenly. For some reason my throat tightens and I can't get anything else out.
"Yeah?" Dani asks, her voice so full of hope that I can't help but lift my gaze to hers.
It makes me smile. My first genuine smile since everything happened. "Yeah, he's good. He's been home for a week, resting on doctor's orders, and we've talked about cutting out anything that may have contributed to the heart attack. So we feel confident we can reduce the risk of it happening again."
"That's great," she breathes out. Like she's relieved, like she's been worrying about this since we last talked.
Fuck, has she? Should I have given her more of an update?
The thought seriously fucks with my head. I don't know how to deal with an overly thoughtful and caring Dani, because I’ve never seen her before.
So I take a big gulp of my water before forcing out, "Thank you for this. You didn't have to."
She's already started unpacking the groceries, not looking my way when she shrugs and says, "It's no big deal. It was too much to cook for myself, so I figured you wouldn't mind helping me eat it all. You know, growing boy and all."
I let out a breathless chuckle. "Yeah, I can definitely help with eating. Can I help with anything else?"
We spend the next twenty minutes quietly moving around each other in the kitchen, Dani making the chicken while I set the counter and throw a salad together. I put some fights on in the background to combat the silence, because after a few minutes it becomes apparent that neither of us really knows what to say. She seems slightly uncomfortable, like she's out of her element here, and I still can't figure out how to act.
Because Ilikeher here like this. I like that it doesn’t always have to be playful or sex-filled. I never would’ve wished a heart attack upon my dad to create this kind of serious environment, but I’m realizing now that I want more heartfelt conversations with her. Iwantto know her through more than just the fun stuff.
But I can’t tell if she wants the same, so I’m just… left in limbo.
When we finally sit down and start to eat, the act seems to settle Dani enough that the tension goes out of her shoulders. With food between us, the sounds of men yelling and punches flying in the air, it feels a little more casual than it did ten minutes ago.