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“Jude, please tell me you’re a meat eater,” Andrei said.
Jude grinned at the other man. “Total carnivore.” Shoving his hands in the front pockets of his jeans, he strolled a little farther into the kitchen, while Snow took a moment to appreciate the way his jeans molded to his ass.
“How do you like it?”
“Rare.”
“Snow?”
Snow’s head jerked up and Lucas snickered. Yeah, he’d been caught by his best friend ogling the sexy man in front of him. It wasn’t like he hadn’t caught Lucas a dozen times doing the same damn thing with Andrei. “Still mooing,” he growled back.
“Got it.” Andrei pressed a kiss to Lucas’s jaw. “Why don’t you set the table and get the salad out of the fridge. I can handle this.”
Wordlessly, Lucas turned toward the cabinets and started gathered together the necessary plates and silverware. Snow watched as the domestic scene played out, the two of them moving easily around the kitchen. There was the occasional murmured word or lingering touch, as if they were dancing together. As if they had been dancing together for years and not just a few months.
A familiar stab of jealousy hit Snow, but the pain was blunted this time as his eyes strayed to Jude, who was also watching them with an odd, almost wistful expression on his face that he was quick to wipe away when Lucas turned toward them on his way to the dining room table.
“Can I help?” Jude said, holding out his hands for the stack of plates and silverware.
Lucas grunted and handed it over. Now that the teasing had ended, Lucas was closing up before Snow’s eyes, his gaze becoming assessing as he weighed Jude and his association with Snow. Before Snow could bark at Lucas, his friend turned back to the fridge and pulled out two bags of pre-made salad.
“Where the hell did these come from?”
“Picked them up two days ago after your last doctor’s visit,” Andrei replied, lifting his voice above the sizzling of the steaks in the skillet. “You need more greens in your diet.” Lucas growled in warning, but it didn’t faze Andrei.
“What did the doctor say?” Snow demanded.
“Nothing. I’m fine,” Lucas practically shouted, his hands tightening on the bags until it looked like they were about to explode in a storm of lettuce bits and carrot shavings.
“His blood pressure is up,” Andrei corrected.
“It’s fine. I’m just stressed.”
“Aren’t we all?” Snow snidely interjected, snagging Lucas’s gaze. His friend was horrible about taking care of his health. He had it stuck in his head that he was impervious and that he could simply keep going because he willed it to be so. “Cholesterol?”
“Ha!” Lucas dropped the bags on the counter and smirked at Snow. “It’s down.”
“Two whole points,” Andrei added and Jude snickered from across the room.
“Fuck you, it’s moving in the right direction. It’s a slow process,” Lucas growled, smacking Andrei’s ass before digging in the cabinet for a bowl to put the salad in.
Snow felt a ghost of a smile tugging at his lips as he walked over to the table with seating for six and dropped into one of the chairs. Jude hesitated, looking as if wanted to do something else to help, but there really wasn’t anything he could do. Snow patted the chair next to him. “Sit and enjoy the show.”
Jude grinned at him as he dropped into the seat. “They been together long?” he inquired in a low voice.
Snow shook his head. “Few months.”
“Seems longer.”
Snow couldn’t argue with that.
Conversation fell into an easy lull as they watched Lucas and Andrei finishing up dinner. They had to wait only a few minutes before the men loaded the table with steaks, vegetables, salad and even a basket of rolls. The silence grew a little uncomfortable when Lucas and Andrei joined them at the table. It was clear that no one quite knew what to say and Snow had a feeling it was because of Jude. He’d never had someone in his life, someone from outside the group, and Snow had no doubt that Lucas didn’t have clue as to how he should handle it. Luckily, Jude was the first to break the ice.
“Wow!” He flashed Andrei a grin. “When Snow made the comment about cooking, I was little worried, but this is great!”
Andrei flushed, ducking his head for a second before lifting dark eyes to Jude. “You obviously haven’t had Ian’s cooking. This is passable.”
“No, he’s right,” Snow said. “This is really good.”
Andrei stared at Snow for a couple seconds, his face completely blank, but Snow could almost see the thoughts whizzing through Andrei’s expressive eyes. He nodded once. “Thanks,” he murmured, his voice barely above a whisper and then he turned back to his food. The uncomfortable tension slammed back onto the table, but then that happened every time Snow and Andrei tried to talk directly to each other. It was always better when Lucas was physically between them as if he could act as a filter, smoothing everything out. Otherwise, something hung in the air between them, a cloud of unspoken words that neither of them dared to say.
