The football player—I’d forgotten to look him up or ask Connie about him—planted his butt against the back of the straw-colored couch and aimed his dark brown eyes at me. “You didn’t use eggs with your banana bread recipe either, and it held up okay in the video at least. It didn’t work for me, but I bet it would hold your ingredients together.”
“It didn’t work for you?”
“I’m no good in the kitchen,” he said, seriously. “You should try bananas.”
How many things had he screwed up before? “I think I will. And I want to try not to use flour either.”
“No flour for brownies?”
I smiled at him. “Everybody uses flour for brownies. I gotta try and make them different somehow.”
“For a reason,” Zac’s roommate stated, sounding skeptical as hell.
“Yeah, but I don’t want to…. Aww, don’t make that face. I was thinking about using peanut butter or maybe almond butter for some healthy fats… but probably peanut butter because more people have that in their pantries.”
“I like peanut butter.” Some of the skepticism fell off his face, and his eyes stopped being so narrowed. “You’re not going to use chocolate chips then?”
I shook my head. “No. I want to keep it to less than four or five ingredients.” All of my recipes were as hassle-free as possible. That was part of my “thing” with my recipes.
He wrinkled his nose, and it made me smile again. “Cacao powder is going to be too bitter if you were thinking about using that.”
Cacao powder. Look at this guy. He was going to make me swoon. “Yeah, I know. Cocoa powder might be all right though, and it’s easier to find.”
CJ gave me a thoughtful and disbelieving face, but he nodded after a moment.
“If they’re decent, I’ll bring them over,” I offered.
“What are you going to bring over?”
I turned to find Zac crossing the living room, freshly showered and smiling at me. He was in his normal outfit, his face clean-shaved. “Flourless brownies, but only if they’re decent.” I slid his roommate a look.
CJ grunted, straightening off the couch he was leaning against. “With bananas and no chocolate chips,” he reminded me, making it seem almost like an accusation.
Zac stopped in front of me, and I only froze for a second before reaching up and putting my arms around his neck, his wrapping around the middle of my back as we hugged each other tight. Taking a step back after a second, I smiled up at Zac’s face even as I told CJ, “Maybe it’ll be pretty good. Who knows?”
That had CJ making a noise with his nose. “Like the first time you tried to make Funyuns?”
I stopped laughing.
The other man cracked a smile. “You smoked out your kitchen the first time, and then the second time, you spit out what you did make.”
I could feel Zac’s gaze on my face as I muttered, “There are some things you should leave to the professionals.” I’d forgotten all about smoking out the damn kitchen. That homemade Funyuns fail had been my first screwup at my apartment. To be fair, even the second time, it had still been pretty disgusting, like sandpaper sprinkled with garlic and onion powder. I’d given up after that. Whatever magic they put into the chips was a secret and should be kept that way.
CJ snickered at the same time that Zac asked in a confused tone, those light blue eyes bouncing between his roommate and me, “You two already knew each other?”
It was CJ who replied. “No.” The pause he took gave me enough time to glance at the other man. “You didn’t watch that video?”
Hadn’t I told CJ I was pretty sure Zac didn’t know about my vlog? Well, it had been bound to happen eventually, especially with how much we’d been seeing each other. I scratched at my cheek and carefully crouched, pretending to tie my sneaker while I gave myself a couple seconds to figure out how the hell I was going to explain this.
“What video?” my old friend asked.
I grimaced at my black tennis shoe, but his roommate beat me to it again. “The Funyuns one.”
“What Funyuns one? Like the chip?”
Yeah, he had no clue.
I took my sweet time finishing the knot that hadn’t needed to be tied in the first place.
“On her vlog,” CJ answered for me. “The Lazy Baker.”
Shit. Well, there was the truth. I stood up straight and instantly caught the blue eyes that had swung toward me.