Page 13 of Breaking All The Rules

“I’ll eat some crackers or something later.” She tried to brush me off as she turned her attention to the TV to avoid looking at me.

I got up and sat on the coffee table, blocking her view as I forced her to look at me.

“Eva,” I warned. “You will eat dinner one way or another. I’m not leaving here until you do. So you can either make this easy and tell me what you want, or I will decide for you. But one way or another, you will eat. Do I make myself clear?”

Color washed over her face and neck as she looked at me.

“I must really get under your skin if you think you can come into my apartment—uninvited, I might add—and tell me what to do. You might be my boss when we’re at the office, but you sure as hell aren’t the boss right now.”

“I’m not trying to be your boss. I’m trying to make sure you’re okay and that you don’t end up in the emergency room because you’re being too stubborn to let me take care of you,” I growled, leaning forward and resting my elbows on my knees as I stared at her.

“I didn’t ask you to take care of me.” She threw her hands in the air in frustration.

“No. You’re right. You didn’t. But regardless, I’m here, Eva. And believe it or not—I care about you. Which means I can’t walk out of here and leave you alone while you’re sick when the least I can do is help take care of you. Please stop making it so damn difficult.”

“I’m not the one who makes things difficult,” she shot out, then immediately pressed her lips together to keep from talking as her eyes widened.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked, knowing that we were finally going to clear the air between us.

“Nothing.” She folded her arms over her chest and looked away.

“Bullshit. Say what you’ve been wanting to say, Eva.”

“I said it’s nothing,” she objected before she started coughing.

I grabbed the glass of water and waited until she was done before offering it to her. She side-eyed me as she took it, and I had to pretend I didn’t feel the electrical currents running over my skin as her fingers brushed against mine.

“I’ll order some soup and pasta from the Italian place on the corner,” I said, not bothering to wait for her to object to it as I got up and walked into the kitchen to place my order.

Whether she wanted my company or not didn’t matter at this point. She was obviously sick, and I was worried about her well-being, which meant it was my job to stay and make sure she was okay for as long as she needed.

By the time the food got there, Eva was asleep on the couch again. I knew that she needed her rest, but given how restless she was, I didn’t feel bad waking her up to eat.

“Dinner is ready,” I said softly as she glared at me and wiped the sleep from her eyes.

“I told you I would eat later.”

“Yeah, and I told you that you would eat now.”

It wasn’t the most mature response, and it was a little more aggressive than I would have liked, but seeing her so weak made it hard for me to care. I wanted to get her better as fast as possible because knowing she was so sick made my heart ache.

I set a bowl of soup on the table in front of her and then went back to grab the plate with pasta that I had prepared for her. I had no idea what she might like or what might upset her stomach, so I tried to go with light dishes. Overall, the goal was to nourish her body in any way I could.

“This tastes delicious,” she said softly as she lifted the spoon to her mouth and took a sip of the broth. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. I wasn’t sure what you liked, so I went with some of the basics. I was going to cook you dinner but didn’t find much in your freezer other than ice cream and a couple of TV dinners.”

“Yeah, I could’ve told you that you weren’t going to find anything in there,” she said with a laugh as she leaned back against the pillows without spilling the bowl of soup. “I come from a large family of Latin women, and I’m the only one who can’t cook.”

“Really?” I asked, my eyes narrowing as I waited to see if she was messing with me. It wasn’t like I was all that great about keeping my freezer and fridge stocked with food, so I couldn’t blame her for hers being empty. I knew what it was like to be so busy all the time that it was easier to grab takeout instead of trying to cook.

“Yep. While my mom was busy teaching my sisters to cook, I was always up in my room studying. I guess my mom just gave up on trying to domesticate me when I was more interested in school than cooking.”

“Eh, there’s a lot of people who don’t like to cook,” I offered, twirling pasta on my fork before taking a bite.

“Oh, it’s not that I don’tliketo cook. I literallycannotcook. One time, I almost caught our kitchen on fire trying to make toast. I’ve also ruined macaroni and cheese so many times that no one allows me to even look at the box anymore.”

“How did you almost catch the house on fire? Toasters are fairly simple to use.” I quirked a brow, eager to hear how she could have possibly screwed that up.

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