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He lasts a few more seconds before he fondly rolls his eyes and lets his laughter loose.
I laugh so hard it hurts, tears rolling down my cheeks.
Nolan wipes them away for me, hand lingering thereafter, thumb brushing the line of my jaw. His blue eyes are impossibly big and bright and happy.
His laughter dies, his breath hitching.
I lick my lips.
Don’t. Don’t do it. You’ll ruin it. You ruin everything you touch, Maison.
“I think we have frozen pizzas,” Ace says, breaking the spell.
Nolan and I both flinch away from each other. I quickly avert my gaze toward Ace, my heart a fucking thunderstorm inside my chest. He has an eyebrow raised like he’s waiting for something. “Huh?”
“Frozen pizzas?” He eyes me before turning to Nolan. “Up to you, Chef. I can always try to make something—”
“No!” almost everyone shouts.
Ace’s lip curls into a pout. “I’m not that bad. At least I never started a fire!”
“Hey,” I grumble, starting to come out of my Nolan-trance enough to participate again. “It was one time.”
“This kitchen has seen enough disaster for today,” Nolan declares. “Everyone out. I’ll whip something up.”
Ace shrugs and heads to his office. Travis dumps the roasting pan into the garbage before tying the bag and heaving it out of the bin. He heads toward the sliding doors, which are the closest to where we keep the garbage outside. Matt and Bryce are already gone, bored now that the show is over. Jake follows Travis outside, talking too quietly for me to hear—probably about Casey or Carter since that’s the obsession those two have at the moment. It’s only gotten worse since Casey went quiet on Jake, not answering his texts or calls, and Carter caught Travis spying on him at his new bartending job. I’d be worried if Carter didn’t still call me every night, usually talking my ear off unless he’s too tired. It might be selfish of me, but it seems the space from Travis is doing wonders for not only Carter but his relationship with me too.
“You have to get out too, pyro,” Nolan says, giving my hip a swat.
My jaw drops. “You’re kicking me out?”
“You just ruined a rack of ribs your supplier had to go out of the way to get for us. Ribs with homemade barbecue sauce!” He glares at me, but I can tell it’s forced. “Yes. I am kicking you out. Go read a cookbook or something.”
Before I can be too offended, he sticks his tongue out at me playfully. My heart leaps. Oh no, oh no, oh no.
I don’t just want to kiss him, I realize. It’s so much fucking worse.
We don’t have any cookbooks as far as I know, but I’m going to go order one. Actually, maybe I’ll go for a long drive and find a bookstore instead. I could see if Bryce wants another box of books. Check with Matt to make sure those sign language books that came in are good enough. See if there are any sketchbooks for Travis or a new queer paranormal series for Jake.
Yes. That. I’m going to do all of that.
I am not, under any goddamn circumstances, going to think about the possibility that I may very well be falling in love with Nolan.
That I may very well have already done it.
Chapter Eighteen
Nolan
As terrible as it makes me for thinking it, Maison changes for the better after Carter leaves. I know part of it has to do with their relationship improving after the talk they had when Maison drove him to his new apartment. There’s the fact that Carter now calls him daily to check in with him, too. The fact that he and Travis are basically broken up and not speaking at all is another bonus for Maison’s mood. And there’s the fact that he finally saw a doctor, too. But I think there’s another part of it. The part I’ll never point out to him because he’d never forgive himself.
Maison is free now that Carter is gone.
He walks around with confidence now, shoulders broad, chin up. He smiles easily. Laughs freely—a loud, hearty sound that is so completely him that it had made me grin the first time I heard it. He doesn’t flinch every time he runs into someone, his body preparing him for an emotional attack in case the person is Carter. He doesn’t fall into himself at the slightest provocation, going quiet and dark, sometimes disappearing for hours.
His body is healing. So is his mind.
He eats full meals.
