him.
“Too bad. I’ll make something easy and quick. Sit here in the comfy chair.” I maneuvered him to the overstuffed chair in the sitting area of the kitchen before moving to the big Sub-Zero fridge.
“This is your chair.”
“Actually, it’s yours. I just use it.”
He shook his head and closed his eyes. “Nah. It’s yours. Can’t imagine anyone else sitting in it. I love coming home and seeing you curled up here. Makes me happy.”
“Stop being so sweet. Go back to being whatever stupid nickname your teammates use. Raine of fire? Raine down hell? Raine it in? Purple Raine?”
He snorted but didn’t open his eyes. “Purple Raine. Nice one. No sweet Raine?”
I shook my head emphatically even though he couldn’t see it. “Never. Not possible.”
“What’re you making me?”
I flicked on the gas stove and filled the pot from the built-in faucet over the range. “Protein spaghetti with garlic marinara.”
He didn’t say anything for a few moments. “I think food is how you love people.”
God dammit.
I bit the hell out of my lip before responding. “Nah. It’s just how I make my living.”
Tiller snorted. “I got a bridge to sell you.”
I got busy making enough spaghetti for both of us and then doubled it to make leftovers since it was another one of Tiller’s favorites.
If feeding people was my love language, Tiller was the most beloved human on earth. And I was in big fucking trouble.
Because I wanted him. I wanted him so fucking badly.
3
Tiller
“I will not watch one more episode of this bullshit,” I grumbled. “Benson should know by now to steel her heart against this shit. And if Peter doesn’t stop lecturing her like a child…”
Sam groaned.
“Where’s Mikey?” I asked, trying to haul my ass out of the recliner with only one good hand. “He promised we could get sushi tonight if I made it through five more episodes.”
Sam laughed. “Not sure it counts if you bitch about it the whole time.”
“Mike!” I called out.
“He’s not going to answer you if you yell for him like that. You know how much he hates being summoned with a raised voice. Don’t you think he had enough of that growing up?”
He played the guilt card. Jerk. It was bad enough I’d had to spend the afternoon trying hard not to picture the two of them kissing, but he’d also assisted me so much over the past couple of weeks, I couldn’t help but remember what a nice guy he was. And he was protective as hell of Mikey which I had to appreciate.
I shuffled into the kitchen from the theater room and found Mikey sitting at the island scribbling in a notebook. His dark-framed glasses had slipped down his nose, and his eyebrows were furrowed in concentration.
“What’re you working on?” I asked, going to the fridge to get out the pitcher of lemonade.
He stood up and pushed me toward a chair. “Sit. I’ll get it.”
“I’m not an invalid, you know,” I said with annoyance. “I can pour it with one hand.”
“Yes. Yes, you can. And you can spill it like you did the jelly beans you must have had someone sneak in behind my back. We’re going to be stepping on those fuckers for weeks.”
“Never mind that. Can we please have sushi?”
He slid a menu over to me. “Take this in and ask Sam what he wants. His boyfriend is going to pick it up on his way over.”
“Boyfriend? Sam? Who? Not you.” Why did I sound like a Dr. Seuss book all of a sudden?
Mikey craned his neck to make sure Sam was still safely locked away in the theater room. “He’s been seeing someone a couple of weeks. We don’t like him,” he whispered. “He’s high-maintenance and a total dick.”
I looked down the hall again before turning to Mikey and matching his whisper. “Why is he with him? And why is he coming to our house if we don’t like him?”
Mikey shot me a look. “Because we like Sam, and Sam likes Rico.”
“Rico?” I asked way too loudly. Mikey waved his hands through the air as he shushed me. “Rico Moreno? The guy who cleans our fucking pool? Sam’s dating the pool boy?”
Mikey rolled his eyes. “Apparently he gives good head. Drop it. Let the poor guy get past his dry spell before encouraging him to brush the guy off.”
“How do you know about his dry spell and how good the pool boy sucks dick?”
Suddenly I imagined Mikey and Rico out behind the pool maintenance shed with Rico on his