Page 58 of Work It Out
Jake chuckled and went back to his cooldown.
By the time she ripped her eyes off him, most everyone was settled at the island and chatting away as they munched on scones and fruit. Her regular seat was open and waiting for her. Next to Blaine.
He was back.
It shouldn’t have been weird. They basically had assigned seats at these meetings. Samuel couldn’t focus if they weren’t in the right places and nothing got done if Samuel couldn’t focus. They’d never gone more than two days without at least talking. It had been twelve.
He must’ve noticed her hesitation. Leveling a look at her that dared her to protest, he shoved the stool away from the counter with his foot and held out his hand. The stools were made for normal-size humans, which meant Rayah could either vault onto it or accept Blaine’s help. She took his hand, hopped into her seat, and murmured her thanks. Before she could pull her hand away, he gave her fingers a squeeze and slid a plate in front of her. Two scones and a bowl of fruit salad, minus the pineapple.
She hated pineapple. Blaine was the only person in the world who both knew she hated that tropical abomination and cared enough to pluck all the fibrous bastards out of an otherwise perfectly good fruit salad.
When she just blinked, doing her damnedest not to cry—because he was sitting right beside her and she still missed him so freaking bad—he leaned over and bumped his ginormous shoulder against hers. “Geez, woman. It’s just fruit.”
But it wasn’t. This was a peace offering. He was reaching out the only way he knew how—by taking care of her. Maybe he’d missed her, too.
“Eat, sugar. I’ll apologize for bein’ a dickhead later. Pierce is bound to figure out the scones are gone soon.”
As if on cue, Pierce shouted, “Hey! What happened to all the scones?”
Rayah snatched the scones off her plate, one in each hand.
Pierce’s eyes lit up.
She licked one and took a giant bite of the other. She would’ve moaned purely to taunt him, but she didn’t have to fake it. If Vicky ever wanted to step out of the spotlight, she had a promising future as a pastry chef.
Laughter erupted around the room. Rayah’s cheeks puffed out like a squirrel. It made smiling difficult, but she managed.
“Cold.” Pierce flopped onto his stool. “That was ice cold, Ray.”
Mouth still full, she hoisted her bounty high.
“I’m going to hit the showers.” Jake stood in the doorway, scrubbing a towel across his face. “Should I…” His voice trailed off as he lowered the towel and caught sight of Rayah’s hands. His gaze shot to Vicky. “Are those pumpkin cinnamon chip scones?”
“With caramel drizzle.” Blaine twisted the knife, sucking one fingertip as if he still had icing on it, the big liar.
Jake’s pleading gaze shifted to Rayah. “But she only makes the pumpkin cinnamon chip scones once a year.” His eyes locked on the scone she hadn’t taken a bite of and turned hazy with lust. “They’re my favorite.”
Nate popped a grape in his mouth. “Rayah got the last two, and no one taught her to share.”
Rayah stuffed the other half of scone number one in her maw without remorse.
“But…but…” Jake looked ready to weep.
“Sorry, bro. None for you.” Pierce sounded happy his misery had company. “If it makes you feel better, she wouldn’t let you have one if there was a whole plateful. Get your protein shake out of the fridge and go.”
Jake muttered incoherently about hot, greedy tyrants as he crossed the kitchen. Everyone thought that was funny until, on his way back through, Jake snatched the scone from her hand and ran like hell.
“Damn it, Chris!” Pierce sprang off his stool in hot pursuit. “Put that down. You’ll blow your macros all to hell.”
“Make me, fucker!”
Jared jumped up and chased them to the door. “She licked it!”
Jake shouted something that cracked Jared up.
“What did he say?” Vicky asked.
Jared looked at Rayah, eyes twinkling. “Hard to tell. His mouth was full, but I think he said, ‘No wonder it tastes so sweet.’”
