Total pages in book: 145
Estimated words: 138775 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 694(@200wpm)___ 555(@250wpm)___ 463(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 138775 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 694(@200wpm)___ 555(@250wpm)___ 463(@300wpm)
The internet chef’s smiling face came alive as I pressed play, but that wasn’t what caught my attention. Hailey had told me about this guy’s cooking channel, but she’d neglected to tell me that his trademark was cooking while bare-chested, sometimes with an apron and sometimes not.
Despite that distracting feature, he was pretty good at explaining things in simple steps. I only had to pause the video twice as I shaped the wonton wrappers into the cups of the muffin tin. The flimsy sheets were so thin that three of them tore, but at last, I got them all more or less in place.
Ready for the next step, I unpaused the video. But then a shadow fell across the screen. The warmth against my back announced the arrival of one of my roommates, and from the tantalizing, woodsy scented cologne, I knew it was Jayden.
He moved closer, peering over my shoulder at the screen. “Kyle’s not shirtless often enough for you?”
I blushed. “He’s a good teacher. The chef, I mean, not Kyle.”
Jayden shifted around, leaning against the sink with his hands folded. “What is the shirtless dude teaching you to make? Dehydrated muffins?”
“Mini taco cups.”
He raised an eyebrow. “If you say so.” His smirk and the teasing look in his eye made him look as hot as the internet chef. His sleeves were rolled up, and I liked how while his forearms had a light covering of hair, his upper arms and chest were almost bare. It was fascinating—and it made me wonder what the rest of him looked like.
“Do you want to help?”
“Sure.” He straightened up. “What do I do?”
He scooped the seasoned meat into each little wonton cup, and I added black beans. He topped it off with shredded cheddar cheese. “Now what?” he asked.
“We bake it for 10–12 minutes.”
“Sounds good.” He lowered the door of the preheated oven and put one muffin tin in while I put the other two. “Anything else?”
“We can get out the toppings while they’re baking. Are you good at slicing avocados?”
“Passably good, but it’s not like I’m going to major in it.”
I stifled a laugh. Jayden was so easy to be around. I didn’t have to be on my guard, wondering if he was going to say something outrageous like Kyle. Sure, sometimes Jayden pushed at my boundaries a little, but usually he was sending me in a direction I eventually realized I wanted to go in.
He and Lucas were alike in many ways—their intelligence being one of them. But Jayden just seemed to move through life with a little less tension than Lucas did. But maybe that wasn’t a fair assessment. Lucas was a nice man and a good friend. Maybe if Kyle hadn’t blown back into his life like a tornado, he wouldn’t get as upset as he had recently.
Jayden worked on the avocado while I cleaned up. But when I returned from putting the cheese away in the fridge, he met my gaze. “I’m sorry about the other night.”
For a moment, I thought he meant my date with Lucas. Then I realized what he was referring to. “I got my necklace back. That’s all that matters.” We’d both been so busy that we hadn’t had time to catch up yesterday.
“No, it’s not.” His eyes looked serious. “If we’d put that asshole in his place the first time, then you wouldn’t have needed to go back there again.”
None of this was his fault. It was all Todd’s. “I didn’t even know my necklace was missing the night you and Lucas took me there for my journal.”
“I still wish we’d handed him his ass,” Jayden said with a sigh. “I take it that Kyle did?”
“Thoroughly.” I hadn’t seen Todd afterwards, but I’d watched the way Kyle threw him around in the entryway. “I think I’ve finally seen the last of him, thank god.”
“You don’t think he’ll call the police on Kyle?” Jayden looked concerned. “Though I guess if he was going to, he would have already.”
“I don’t think so. I think he’s scared. With good reason,” I added.
Jayden folded his arms, lost in thought. Then his lips twisted into a smirk. “He probably thinks that you have an endless supply of men to send to his house.”
My eyebrows raised as I thought it over. “Yeah. You three, and Hailey’s roommates.” At his questioning look, I elaborated. “They came to pick me up when I first found the camera. So that’s six guys.”
“Seven,” Jayden said. “Don’t forget about Roger.”
“Oh yeah.” I couldn’t help grinning. “No wonder Todd didn’t call the police. He probably thinks you all will just keep coming.”
“Like your own personal army.” Jayden grinned. “And how was the rest of your evening?”
“It was nice.” I opened the oven door and peeked inside. The cheese wasn’t melted all the way, but it smelled really good.