Why does everything she does have to be so cute?I shook my head at myself.Nope. Not thinking about that. Focus on cooking, Carter.
“So, does that head shake mean I’mnotsupposed to do whatever you say?”
Shit. Busted.Panic rose up inside of me since I couldn’t admit why I actually shook my head. “No. I mean yes. I mean no. Ugh.” I threw my hand on my forehead. “You’re infuriating. You know that, right?”
Jax simpered as if she knew exactly what was going on inside my head, which Ireallyhoped she didn’t. “I have been told that a time or two. But back to my question. Should I or should I not do what you say?”
I crossed my arms in front of my chest and tried my best to appear tough, which was almost impossible for me. “You need to do everything I say.”
Jax licked her lips before biting the bottom one. “Yes, ma’am. This is going to be fun.”
We are two roommates cooking together. That is all.I took a deep breath and tried to ignore the way it quivered when I let it out. “So much fun.”
It turned out we were right. Teaching Jax how to cook was a lot of fun. It was actually more fun than I expected it to be. We started with the easiest meal which was prepackaged ravioli and marinara sauce.
After convincing Jax there was really no way she could mess up boiling water, she filled a pot, turned on the stove, and placed it on the burner.
“You’re right. I’m a pro at this,” Jax said before attempting to lean cockily against the kitchen counter. The problem was that her hand wasn’t going in the direction of the counter at all.
“Jax! Watch out!” My eyes widened and my heart raced as I reached out to grab Jax’s hand before it landed on the hot stove.
Luckily, I grabbed it just in time, and Jax’s eyes went just as wide as mine when she realized what almost happened. “Shit. That was close.” She stared down at our intertwined fingers. “I can’t believe I almost lost my hand.”
I tried to hold back my laugh, but it was no use. It burst out of me before I could stop it. “That’s a bit dramatic. It would have hurt like hell and could have been badly burned, but chances are you wouldn’t have lost it.”
Jax’s eyebrows turned in as if she was trying to glare at me, but her lips quickly twitched into a smile. “At least I had my knightess in shining armor to save me.”
She lifted our still interlocked hands and kissed my knuckles. The sensation it sent through my body shot from my hand all the way down to my toes and caused me to gasp.
Jax quickly dropped my hand and looked away from me. “So, how do I know when the water is boiling?”
Her question snapped me out of my stupor. “Please tell me that’s a joke.”
When Jax looked at me once again, her mouth was open in a wide grin. “Yes. That was a joke.”
She was able to get the ravioli into the water, drain the water after they finished cooking, and add the marinara sauce without another near-burning incident.Thank god.
After the ravioli, we made chicken and rice, also on the stove. Jax had no trouble setting the temperature or preparing the pan, but did have an oddly hard time flipping the chicken. After watching two failed attempts, I slipped my hand over hers on the spatula. A warmth spread through my body, and no matter how much I tried to convince myself it did, I knew it had nothing to do with the heat of the stove.
The third and fourth meals we worked on were also pasta dishes, so I let Jax handle those mostly on her own while I watched over her to make sure she didn’t burn herself (or let water boil over onto the stove, which was one of my pet peeves). This was when I learned that Jax stuck out her tongue whenever she was really focused on something.Add that to the list of things that are cute about her. Fuuuck.
The last meal we worked on together was the one that I considered the hardest, which was steak and potatoes. The potatoes only needed to be seasoned and put in the oven, but Jax acted as though setting the oven was literal rocket science. “We can’t all be as smart as you,” she said with a giggle as she pressed all of the buttons until she found the correct one.
“Steak is a tough one,” I told her as we took out another pan to make it on the stove. I preferred it grilled, but that wasn’t a possibility in this tiny New York City apartment. “I feel likeI haven’t really perfected this yet. How do you like your steak done?”
“Barely,” Jax answered confidently. “I like it cooked just enough to not kill me.”
I had to hold back a gag, because that was the complete opposite of how I liked mine. If I saw even a hint of red juice, it was too much, and I couldn’t finish it. “That’s good. It’ll give you a chance to practice making it two different ways since I like mine on the edge of being crispy.”
Jax didn’t try to hide her distaste for my steak preference at all. She brought a finger to her mouth and fake-gagged. “Might as well just have a hamburger if you’re going to ruin it like that.”
“Whatever.” I splashed her with water from the sink. “At least I don’t enjoy my steak the same way as a serial killer.”
“Hey, that’s not very nice.” Jax pushed her bottom lip into a frown and wiped a hand over her apron where water got on it. As soon as her frown turned into a smile, she dashed around me and grabbed the sink faucet hose.
Right when I realized what she was doing, I tried to run away, but I was too late. A cold stream of water hit me square in the back.
I turned around and fought her for the hose, causing water to fly all around our apartment. This normally would have caused my anxiety to skyrocket, but it wasn’t like that with Jax. All I could focus on was the way she laughed every time I lunged for the hose and how my heart beat faster each time we accidentally touched. When I finally gained control of the hose, I turned it on Jax, soaking her from head to toe.
