What If You & Me (Say Everything #2) - Roni Loren Page 0,55

let me cook. Prepare for splatters.”

He smirked. “I’m prepared for anything.”

The words landed and sank in. She believed him. Whatever she wanted to happen tonight, he’d let her lead—whether that was nothing at all or kissing or more than that. “So,” she said, going to one of the bags and pulling a few items out. “What’s on the menu?”

“Steak tacos with homemade salsa and guacamole.”

“Ooh, yum,” she said, her mouth already watering at the thought. “What made you choose that? Besides the fact that tacos are the best.”

Hill started unloading the other bag and spreading the ingredients out on the counter. Tortillas, steak, jalapeños. “One of the first skills you need to learn if you’re going to cook for yourself is how to use a knife the right way. This meal will give you lots of chopping opportunities.”

She set a bundle of cilantro on the counter. “Or opportunities to end up at urgent care.”

He laughed and pulled a box out of the sack. “Let’s hope not. I brought you a new set of knives. The best way not to get hurt is to have good, sharp knives.”

“Ooh, thanks for that, but that logic doesn’t track, Hill,” she said, taking the box from him and eyeing it. “Sharp knives are less dangerous?”

“Dull knives make you push down with more force and fight the knife, which can make things slip out from beneath it. I learned that the hard way when I first started cooking at the fire station. They had a crappy set of old knives that made everything challenging.” He set a red onion and limes on the counter. “I nearly took a fingertip off one Thanksgiving shift, trying to cut through a butternut squash.”

“Ouch.” She took the wooden knife block out of the package, examining the shiny silver handles of the knives, making note that she needed to hide this in a cabinet. If someone broke in, these were too at-the-ready for handy murder weapons. “You need to tell me how much I owe you for this. You agreed to teach me how to cook, not outfit my kitchen.”

“You don’t owe me anything even if I had bought them, but I didn’t. I had an extra set at my place.” He cleared his throat and focused on the groceries. “They were an engagement party gift. I’d rather someone be using them than have them sitting in my hall closet.”

Andi frowned and set down the knives. He could’ve lied to her that he’d bought them, but she appreciated that he’d gone for the awkward truth instead. “How close were y’all to getting married?”

He looked over at her as he flattened the grocery sack. “My accident happened a little less than three months before the wedding date.”

Andi leaned back against the counter, considering him. “Wow, that close.”

“Yeah.” He started organizing the ingredients, dropping the eye contact. “After that, we kept pushing the date back, waiting for me to fully recover. But then…everything else happened.”

Everything else. Meaning, Officer Christina had slept with someone else. “I’m sorry.”

He glanced over at her and gave a tight shrug. “It is what it is. Neither of us held up our end of the deal. I thought I was marrying someone who took the in-sickness-and-health thing seriously. She thought she was marrying the invincible firefighter. We were both wrong.”

Andi’s jaw clenched at that. “That’s bullshit, though.”

“What?”

“If you marry a firefighter, you know there’s an inherent risk in that job. If you love that person, you’re taking on that risk with them. You don’t get to bail when they need you most because it’s hard or upsetting.”

“I wasn’t the easiest patient.”

She scoffed. “Who would be? You’d been through major physical and mental trauma. No one else gets to dictate to you what the proper way to respond to trauma is. Screw that.”

He eyed her, his gaze holding hers. “Did someone try to do that to you?”

She sighed. “Some people in my family would argue that what I went through wasn’t a trauma at all. So yeah, been there.”

He frowned, deep lines cutting in around his mouth. “That’s… I’m sorry. You know if you ever want to talk about what happened, I’m a pretty good listener.”

She nodded, the offer hitting her in a tender spot. “Thanks. I’ll let you know.” She forced a smile. “But enough about all that. I was promised tacos.”

His eyes crinkled at the corners. “And tacos the lady shall have.” He held out a container of grape tomatoes. “After she learns how to cook them