Page 58 of Skate the Line

“With pizza!” he finishes for her.

I breathe a sigh of relief.Oh, thank god.I wasn’t sure I was going to survive with just me, Ellie, and Mr. Hot-And-Cold.

I get up from the couch and slip into the kitchen to get plates ready for the three of them.

I listen closely to their conversation.

Ellie: What are youuuu doing here?

Malaki: I thought you requested my attendance?

Ellie: Huh? No, I didn’t.

Malaki: Oh, how interesting.

Rhodes: *makes grunt noise like a caveman*

When they enter the kitchen, I smooth my face and place three plates out onto the counter. Malaki snags my eye, and something flashes across his face. He has boyish features that show every thought going on in his head.

He’s surprised to see me, and if the dimples on the sides of his mouth have anything to say, he’s also a little amused.

“Ellie invited me,” I add, trying to get whatever he’s thinking out of his head.

His smile lights up the room. “Funny, she invited me too…”

It seems like he wants to say something else, with the obvious twinkle in his eye, but Rhodes plops the pizza boxes onto the counter right in front of him, and he decides not to say whatever remark was brewing.

I open the box and grab a slice for Ellie to keep myself busy.

This isn’t weird. I’m just making it weird because of a past that has nothing to do with Rhodes or Ellie.

Before I realize it, I’m serving Ellie her pizza and dishing some for Rhodes and Malaki too. My boss stares at me from across the counter with a hitched brow that makes him look even more attractive than usual.

“Oh,” I blurt. “Sorry, I’m just used to?—”

“Don’t be,” Malaki interrupts. “You can come to my place and serve me pizza anytime.” It’s obvious he’s joking, with the wiggling of his eyebrows, so I laugh quietly to appease him.

He takes his plate and follows after Ellie, leaving Rhodes and me alone in his expansive kitchen. For a room so large, it’s annoyingly difficult to hide from his piercing gaze.

“Here you go.” I slide a plate over to him. He catches it with a catlike reflex that I try not to notice.

I turn around and busy myself with yesterday’s half-eaten salad, pulling it out of the fridge along with the vegetables I picked up at the store. The cool air of the fridge lessens the heat on my face, and I exhale slowly. I pray he’s gone by the time I turn around, but he’s still standing on the other side of the island, watching my every move with a slice of pizza in his hand.

My coping mechanism is to pretend he isn’t there.

Rhodes who?

My teeth sink into my bottom lip. I pour the salad mix into a bowl and move around the kitchen like it’s my own. I grab a cucumber with a firm grip and place it on the cutting board and slowly begin slicing.

“You can eat the pizza, you know.”

I pause my slicing and peek at him before going back to what I’m doing. “Oh, no. It’s fine. I don’t expect you to feed me dinner.”

His loud sigh crawls over the glossy counter and hits my ears. “I got you the cauliflower crust.”

I stop what I’m doing and glance at him again. This time, he’s staring directly at me with a knowing glint in his eye, as if he knows that I’m wondering how he knows I like cauliflower crust.

My mouth waters. “You did?”

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