Page 19 of Finding You

Although…maybe she needed some time to herself since they’d been nearly inseparable ever since he found her on the side of the road yesterday.

With a curt nod, he agreed. “Okay then. I’ll be out in the garage if you need me.”

But he already knew she wouldn’t.

“I seriously can’t thank you enough.”

“Would you stop?” Devin said with a laugh. “I told you it wasn’t a big deal.”

“Maybe not to you, but to me, it’s huge. So…thank you. Again.”

When the shop closed, they moved all of her personal belongings from the Mustang to his truck. But as they were walking out to his truck, a small group of people stopped and stared.

At her.

And it was weird.

As soon as they were in the truck, she had politely requested to not go shopping with him and luckily, he agreed. So he drove her back to his place, where she wrote up a list of things she needed and tried to give him the cash to cover it.

After several minutes of light arguing, he’d finally accepted it and left.

While he was gone, MacKenzie had taken a shower because all the work she did made her feel gross. Then she did her best to organize all her stuff in the guest room without looking like she was completely making herself at home. By the time Devin got back, she felt like she had all her essentials set up where she needed them and quickly went to help him unload the groceries.

And now, as they were putting everything away, she couldn’t help but keep thanking him.

“I know you said it wasn’t a big deal and you don’t want me to keep saying thank you, so how about I make dinner for us?”

Devin’s eyes went a little wide. “Um…”

“I know how to cook, if that’s what you’re worried about,” she quickly interrupted. “And I see that your kitchen is impressively stocked. With all the stuff you just bought and what you already have, I can whip us up a quick batch of chicken parm with spaghetti.”

If possible, his eyes went even wider. “Really? Isn’t it kind of late for that? I just figured we’d have some pasta and maybe a salad. I don’t expect you to cook something crazy for us.”

Unable to help herself, she laughed. “It’s not really fancy and I can have everything ready in thirty minutes. Why don’t you grab a shower, and I’ll get dinner started.”

“MacKenzie, I…”

“Oh, my God! Stop arguing with me!” she said with another laugh. “I get that you’re the guy who likes to take care of everything and everyone, but…can you please just let me do this?” When he didn’t respond right away, she added, “Please?”

“Thank you,” he said gruffly, before turning and leaving the room.

Rubbing her hands together, MacKenzie got to work.

Cooking was something she always loved to do–which was fortunate because after her mother left, she realized she needed to learn since her father was completely helpless in the kitchen. She wasn’t like some highly skilled chef, but she knew how to take simple ingredients and turn them into something delicious.

Like jarred marinara sauce.

Normally she would have preferred to make her sauce from scratch, but she knew how to doctor the jarred stuff up to make it taste homemade.

The oven was preheating, the pot of water was heating up, and she was egging and breading the chicken cutlets in preparation to fry them up. Devin’s kitchen really was impressive–not only in what he stocked in his pantry, but in overall layout and design. From what she could tell, it was newly renovated. The counters were granite, the appliances were stainless steel, the stove was gas and the oven was convection and all looked to be top of the line.

“This is way better than eating crappy food and sleeping in my car,” she murmured as she cooked. Once the chicken was in the oven and the pasta was boiling, she set the small kitchen table and cleaned up after herself. And thanks to the dishwasher, that part was a breeze.

She was getting ready to drain the pasta a few minutes later when Devin walked back into the room. His dark hair was damp and he smelled fresh and clean and completely yummy.

And with that thought, she immediately went back to stirring the spaghetti.

“Wow, it smells great in here,” he commented as he came to stand beside her. “And I can’t believe you cleaned up as you went! Normally it looks like a bomb went off in here when I cook.”

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