Page 71 of IOU

I need some fucking Zen. I need a poker game.

There’s just one problem.

“I made you something to eat,” Ainsley says, bursting through the door without knocking.

Please note Exhibit A—her bursting into my room without permission. She’s too comfortable around me now. She knows my secret and knows I’m not the big bad bully she once thought.

“Don’t you need to go to work?” I ask, hoping for a little privacy and some time to think.

Her face scrunches up. “No. I told Tucker myfriendneeded me.” She says the word friend like she knows it gets on my nerves.

I groan. “We’re not friends. I’ll be fine. Go to work.”

She turns to leave, ignoring me. “Your food is on the kitchen counter.”

My food is on the fucking counter.

I shake my head, watching her ass sway down the hallway.

My stomach growls, and my dick twitches. Apparently, we want everything this girl has to offer.

Tossing the cigarette, I shuffle down the hall, following her to the kitchen, where a plate of raw vegetables and a glass of water sit.

“This is mine?” I point to the food. I felt sure I was walking in for a bowl of macaroni and cheese.

“Yep,” she manages between bites of—

“Is that pizza?”

She nods. “A frozen one, but yes.”

I look around the kitchen for the rest of it.

“Don’t look around like I’m some kind of greedy pig, eating all the food in here. It was a single serving size. You, with your heart issues, clearly did not need to eat it.”

“But it was mine,” I argue, plucking a carrot from the tray and biting down hard enough the crunch echoes between us.

“Did you not just get discharged from the hospital?”

“Did you not just root through my freezer and eat my pizza? What if I was saving it for a special day?”

Total bullshit. I don’t really care, but I like to give her a hard time. It helps with the awkwardness I feel at her taking care of me.

“You weren’t.”

The TV is on and playing her aquarium show.

I moan. “Can we please watch something else tonight?”

Her lips flatten, and she gives me the side-eye like how dare I request to watch something on my own TV.

“Maverick, I need calm right now. You scared the shit out of me, and only a sea lion can fix it. Sit down and eat.”

This bossy thing she has going is ... refreshing.

“You would think you were the one who almost died,” I mumble, sitting alongside her.

I didn’t almost die, but since she’s being all dramatic, I figure I will too.

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