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Teagan shot him a look. “Only if you’re also detecting delusion because that’s the only way I’d be jealous is if you’re also deluded.”
“Don’t worry, Teags. Britt isn’t my type. You’re the only girl for me. In a fake sort of capacity.”
“Is she the kind you’d like in a real sort of capacity?” she found herself asking.
“No,” he replied sincerely. “She’s not the sort I drift towards, Teags.”
She had to stop herself from asking what sort hediddrift towards because she didn’t want to know. She didn’t want to know the sort she was keeping him from with this facade. She just didn’t want to know any of it.
“What do you want for dinner?” she asked instead.
“Oh, you don’t have to cook,” he started. “We can order in.”
“Really? I was thinking of making pasta.”
“Are you good at making pasta?” he asked, a laugh barely dancing there in his eyes. He kicked off his shoes by the front door, padding over to her sofa in his socks.
“I usually do for family dinners at Mom and Dad’s,” she replied. “I just need to make sure I only make enough for two. That’s a hard lesson to learn.”
“Wait, you make the pasta for the family dinners at Blacktown? Are you talking about boiling water and dropping in dried noodles, or do you make the sauce also?”
“I make the whole dish, asshole,” she teased. “Sauce and pasta, and salad.”
“Wow.”
“What?”
“I just never expected you to do something without flaunting it for praise.”
“I’m not as hungry for praise as you think I am,” she replied. “Plus, I figured you lot would just make fun of me.”
He knelt down in front of the sofa and tugged the cushions off, reaching down into the dark corners of the couch and fishing around for something. “Why would I make fun of you for cooking?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. I have to protect myself from you, Dave, and Brad though. A ruthless lot, all of you.”
“We’re only ruthless because you and Shea cornered the market on quips and teasing years ago. It’s self-defense, truly.” He chuckled and slid his hand from the sofa empty-handed. “Alright, so you cook and I’ll search around out here for something else he might have left.”
Teagan noted how he absolutely did not bring up Eric’s name. That was fine with her.
She ventured out to the kitchen and opened the fridge. She found the chicken, cream, and vegetables and decided on some sort of cream sauce.
It went by quickly, chopping the vegetables and sautéing the chicken. She made too much pasta, but she supposed that was better than not enough. She was bringing the food out to the table when he finished up with his search.
“I don’t think he left anything else here, but I wasn’t expecting to find anything either,” he replied. “He was probably just bluffing.”
“Yeah,” she agreed, turning back to go get plates. Jaxon followed her.
“Where’s your silverware?” he asked. Teagan pointed out the drawer for him, half expecting him to rummage around in there for something of Eric’s as well, but he didn’t. He just pulled out forks and knives and followed her out to the dining area again. He slid the forks and knives onto the table around the plates. “This smells good,” he said. “Sorry if I didn’t believe you before about the cooking.”
She shrugged. “How could you have known?”
“I don’t know. Maybe I could have paid you some attention instead of having my head stuck up my own ass?”
She laughed softly. “Not much chance of that, is there?”
“You’d be surprised,” he replied.
The vagueness of the conversation was getting to her, so she decided just to serve herself and eat.
