I nodded as I turned to light the cooktop. I didn’t ask Aiden where his dad was. I’d overheard enough of Mom and Jade’s margarita nights to know his parents were separated. His dad was a surgeon like his mom, but he’d moved out of town after their divorce a couple of years back.
I almost felt sorry for Aiden and his brother. Having two parents who worked at hospitals had to be stressful at the best of times, let alone when the world was facing a pandemic. He must be worried about the fact his dad was so far away too. It seemed we had that in common.
I started heating the ingredients in the pan, but I was still struggling to ignore the way Aiden’s eyes watched my every move.
“You can just leave me to it,” I said to him over my shoulder. “I’ll probably be twenty minutes or so, and I’m sure you’ve got better things to do with your time.”
“Nothing better than this.”
I frowned and faced the pan once more. Aiden and I didn’t like spending time with each other at school, so I was surprised he hadn’t jumped at my suggestion to leave. Surely, he’d find it more enjoyable to watch TV or something.
I did my best to ignore him as I continued cooking. I’d had plenty of practice pretending he wasn’t there while at school, and I drew on those skills now. Admittedly, it was far easier to block him out when he wasn’t pestering me with questions, and he’d fallen oddly silent over the last few minutes.
I couldn’t help but sneak a peek over my shoulder to see why he wasn’t talking. His head was bent over his phone, and there was a slight smile on his lips. He seemed happily distracted by whatever he was looking at, and I relaxed. When he’d insisted on staying in the kitchen, I’d been worried he was going to bug me. I was more than happy for him to do his own thing though.
I fell into a happy rhythm now that I knew Aiden wasn’t focused on me. I was tempted to play some music on my phone, as I usually did when I cooked. I decided against it though. I didn’t want to draw Aiden’s attention again.
“Dinner is looking really good,” he said.
I jumped as I realized he’d come to stand next to me. He was just a hairbreadth away as he peered over the stove and studied the pasta sauce. He was far too close for my liking, and while we weren’t quite touching, we might as well have been. My skin was prickling as though he was rubbing against me.
“Aiden, you scared me! Didn’t your mother ever tell you not to sneak up on people?”
He smiled up at me. “You probably would have heard me if you hadn’t been humming.”
“I wasn’t humming.”
“Yeah, you were.” He reached over and dipped a finger in the sauce. It was bubbling hot, but he didn’t seem to notice. He closed his eyes as he slowly put his finger in his mouth and let out a small moan of satisfaction. My stomach tightened at the sound.
His eyes flashed open and looked straight into mine. “Clary James, I think I might love you.”
My eyes widened, and I let out an awkward laugh as I quickly stepped away to search for the bag of pasta—anything to put some distance between us. “So, you like my cooking?”
“You could say that,” Aiden replied. “Like I said, I might never let you go if you cook me Italian. After one taste, I’m thinking I’ll have to keep you.”
I slowly turned to him, hoping he was kidding. There was a hint of mockery in his gaze, but he seemed far more serious than I’d like.
It was a joke. It had to be. He always said crap like this, and I knew he was only saying it to mess with me. Any girl at school would have loved to hear him say those words to her, but not me.
“MJ, that smells amazing,” Elliot said as he returned to the kitchen. I almost felt like thanking him for coming back and saving me from his brother who had completely caught me off guard. Aiden was too much. Far too much. Spending time with him was like dancing over hot coals. If you stayed in one spot for too long you were at risk of getting burned. He enjoyed keeping me on edge.