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“Well then, I’ll have to show you.”

“Okay…”

He grinned at my obvious confusion. “But later.” He walked into the house without explaining what he meant.

Sometimes, it felt like Aiden loved nothing more than keeping me guessing.

18

Aiden

Clary was cooking dinner tonight, so when it started to grow dark, I decided to wait in the kitchen for her. Mom had been in bed all afternoon, and Elliot was still holed up in his bedroom playing video games. So, when Clary entered the kitchen, it was just the two of us.

“Hey,” she said, giving me a curious smile. “What are you doing in here?”

I was sitting at the kitchen counter, trying to gather the courage to tell her how I felt. I’d been trying to figure out a way to say the words all day, but I’d chickened out at every opportunity I was given. I just needed to spit it out already.

I’d thought that maybe catching her before dinner would be a good time to get it over with. Now that she was standing in front of me though, I was seizing up. Telling her in the kitchen? What was I thinking?

“Aiden?” she prompted.

I blurted out the first thing I could think of. “I’m here to help cook dinner.”

“What?” The total shock on her face wasn’t all that surprising, considering what happened last time I tried to cook. I’d almost burned the house down with a pizza. Me helping with dinner was just about the silliest explanation I could have come up with. It wasn’t what I’d intended to say. Not even close. But,hell, I was running with it.

“I’m here to cook dinner,” I repeated. “Remember how you told me I needed an iso-hobby? Well, I’ve decided it should be cooking.”

Clary grimaced at the thought. “I don’t think cooking is a good hobby for you…”

“Why not?”

“Because I live with you, and I don’t want to end up poisoned.”

I laughed and jumped up from my stool. “You won’t end up poisoned because I’m going to have the best cooking teacher ever showing me what to do.”

“You have a cooking teacher? Who?”

“You, of course.”

Clary backed away, holding her hands up in front of her. “No way. Nuh-uh. Not going to happen.”

“Come on, Clary.Please.”

“Aiden, you ruined frozen pizza. I didn’t even know that was possible.”

I shrugged. “What can I say? I like to dream big and shoot for the impossible.”

“Come on, Aiden. You don’t actually want to learn how to cook.”

“Sure, I do. I happen to love food, so it seems like the perfect iso-hobby to me.”

She let out a long groan, and the moment the sound escaped her lips, I knew she was going to cave. “I don’t know what I’m going to do with you.”

“I can think of a few ideas…”

Her eyes flashed with irritation, and I immediately clamped my mouth shut.I really needed to stop with the flirting. I was supposed to be opening up and telling her how I felt, but instead, my mouth seemed to have a mind of its own. I couldn’t seem to help it around Clary though. Maybe being a terrible flirt was just who I was. It was as much a part of me as my blue-green eyes or my tanned skin. Seth would be so disappointed.

“So, what are we making, Chef?” I quickly tried to get Clary back on task before she decided I was far more trouble than I was worth.