Page 30 of Make Me Swoon

“Yeah, that would sell it for me too. I always dreamed about falling asleep with the windows open, the sound of waves lulling me to sleep,” I say with a sigh and Hudson grins at me.

“I haven’t done that yet. Maybe I’ll have to try it one of these nights.”

“I bet it’s relaxing.”

“Me too,” he says as I take a seat and he leans down, kissing me before he heads over to the deep copper sink to wash his hands.

“So, what are we eating for dinner?” I ask him as he starts to pull some vegetables and other ingredients out of the fridge.

“I thought I’d make us some chicken since we had fish the other night.”

“Can I help with anything?”

“Sure,” he says as he pulls out a cutting board and a knife.

“I should warn you that I’m not great in the kitchen,” I say as I slide off of the stool and go to wash my hands.

“It will be okay. I’ll show you a few tips.”

I wash my hands and move to join him at the counter. He passes me some carrots and a peeler and I get to work. He’s ten times faster than me, but he doesn’t complain about the wait. We finish peeling and he shows me how to cut them. I’m sure that he could cut them in no time, but it takes me almost ten minutes.

He’s so patient with me. He shows me how to prepare the chicken and tells me about marinades and different spices. We’re doing blackened chicken and he tells me about the different spices as we mix them together.

“Then we dip them in the olive oil, making sure that they’re coated before we cover them in the spice mix.”

I nod, grabbing a chicken tenderloin and doing as he says. We line them up on a plate and he explains how we’ll fry them for a few minutes on each side before we put them in the oven to finish cooking.

“Now for the carrots,” he says.

We melt butter and add garlic, stirring it together before we dump it over the cut-up carrots and toss them so that they’re all evenly coated.

“And we just bake these?” I ask as he spreads them across the parchment-covered pan.

“Yep. I’ll put them in now since they’ll take longer than the chicken and the broccoli.”

I nod, watching as he slides them in.

“Want something to drink?” he asks as he sprinkles some spices on top of the broccoli.

He cut that up while I was doing the carrots, so I don’t think that there is much left for me to do.

“Sure. What are you having?”

“How about a beer? Or I have wine here?”

“A beer sounds great,” I say as I reclaim my stool.

He grabs two from the fridge and pops the top off of them before he passes me one.

“Can I ask you something?” I ask as he flips the first batch of chicken in the pan.

“Of course.”

“Why do you always leave your car at Prim + Proper? I mean, I get that it isn’t a very long walk, but you have to be tired of being on your feet all day, so why walk home at all?”

He smiles as he takes the chicken from the pan and lines them up on the baking sheet.

“I was hoping that you would finally reply to one of my messages.”

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