by Jae
“Kind of, but when you’re doing a lab, you’d better not…”
“…lick the spoon,” they finished the sentence together.
An easy silence fell, interrupted only by the hum of the oven. That was another advantage of hanging out with her best friend: Regan never felt as if she had to make conversation, which was a wonderful change of pace after having to talk all day.
“Oh, I nearly forgot.” Ky padded to the door, where she’d left her backpack. “I brought the salami you like. Want to put some on your sandwich?” She appeared in the U-shaped kitchen area and held up her offering.
“Where did you get it? It looks like the soppressata my parents buy for the restaurant.” Regan took the salami, sliced off a bit, and popped it into her mouth. “Mmm. Tastes like it too.”
Ky chuckled. “That’s because it is. Your parents sent me a package of goodies last week.”
Regan leaned against one of the honey-colored kitchen cabinets and stuck out her bottom lip in a pretend pout. “Why are they sending you all my favorite food stuff?”
“Probably because they know I’m the cook in the family.” Ky paused and swiped her bangs from her wide forehead with the back of her hand while lowering her gaze to the tiles. “Uh, I mean…”
“Hey.” Regan put the knife and the salami down and gently bumped her with one hip, but since Ky was taller and heavier, she didn’t manage to move her even an inch. “Of course you’re family.”
Ky was like a sister.
She considered it for a moment. No, that wasn’t quite true. Their relationship was different from the one she had with Mackenzie or Robbie, her older siblings, although Regan couldn’t explain what made it different. It just…was.
Regan wrapped one arm around Ky and leaned against her. Pain and longing radiated off Ky like heat from a pizza oven. She returned the half-embrace more tightly than she probably realized. Regan cradled her carefully and tried not to stiffen up as she gritted her teeth. She could have killed Ky’s parents for doing this to her.
Ugh. Good thing she hadn’t said that out loud. It would have only reminded Ky that her mother was dead…and her father might as well be. Ky had barely spoken to him since he’d gone to prison when she’d been sixteen, not even after he’d been released.
Softly, she squeezed Ky’s shoulder. “You know my parents consider you the daughter they never had, right?”
Ky peered up from the floor. “They have two daughters.”
“They have three. And some days, I think you’re their favorite.”
“Am not,” Ky grumbled, but a hint of a smile played around her lips.
“Are too, and you know it. Come on. Help me get these sandwiches into the oven, or I’ll never get around to telling you about my brilliant idea.”
Preparing food always seemed to cheer Ky up, and Regan hoped it would work this time too.
Ky squeezed back, then let go.
They worked together, shredding lettuce and slicing mozzarella and soppressata without getting in each other’s way, even though the kitchen in Regan’s apartment was tiny.
Maybe Ky had been right. Cooking could be just as much fun as chemistry—at least with the right lab partner.
* * *
By the time they settled down on the couch with their sandwiches, Ky had nearly forgotten her moment of weakness. With anyone else, she would have been embarrassed, but Regan had lived through all of the low points of her life with her. She’d been there when Ky’s father had been caught embezzling money their junior year of high school, when Ky’s mom had filed for a divorce shortly after and moved them halfway across the state, and when her mother had overdosed on Xanax and alcohol the day before Ky’s twenty-first birthday.
Not once had Regan’s support wavered, not even during the years they’d spent apart, with them finishing high school in different places, then Regan going to college while Ky had worked in fast-food joints and stocked shelves in supermarkets. She had always found a way to be there for Ky.
Regan bounced up and down on the couch next to her as if to jostle Ky out of her contemplative mood. “Stop thinking broody thoughts and eat. Your sandwich’s getting cold.”
“How do you know I’m thinking broody thoughts?”
“You get this deep wrinkle right here.” Regan tapped Ky’s forehead right above her eyebrow scar.
Ky reached up and touched the spot. She had a wrinkle there? “Really?”
Regan grinned and took a bite of her sandwich. “No,” she said after barely having swallowed. “I just…know. Now eat, or I’ll steal your sandwich as soon as I finish mine.”
Ky knew it wasn’t an empty threat. Regan might not have inherited her grandmother’s or her father’s cooking skills, but she definitely had their appetite. Ky held on to her sandwich more firmly and lifted it to her mouth. The melted cheese, the crispy bread, and the spicy pepper spread harmonized into a perfect symphony of flavors and textures on her tongue. “Oh my God.” She let her head fall back against the couch and moaned. “Forget what I said about you not knowing how to cook. I’d choose this over dinner at a Michelin-star-worthy restaurant any time.”
Regan swallowed another bite of her own sandwich. “I bet you say that to all the women who cook for you.”
“Women? What women? It’s been ages since I went on a date.” She had Regan, so her life felt complete, even without her dating.
“Um, yeah, that’s kinda what I wanted to talk to you about.” Regan put her ciabatta bun down and wiped her hands on a napkin. “I hate to admit it, but Heather was right about what she said.”
Ky paused with her sandwich hovering in front of her lips and squinted over at Regan. She couldn’t possibly mean…? Did Regan honestly think there could be any chemistry between them? Despite the warm sandwich in her hands, cold crept through her body, forming a lump of ice in her belly. Regan couldn’t suspect that once, many years ago, Ky had had a bit of a crush on her…could she?
Regan laughed. “Now you’ve really got a wrinkle there.” She rubbed at it with her index finger.
Phew. Ky slowly exhaled and batted her hand away. She was imagining things. Regan didn’t know. There was nothing to know. It had been just a silly teenage thing, and clueless adolescent fantasies aside, she had never seriously considered acting on it. Back then, she hadn’t even known Regan liked girls as well as boys. Hell, Regan hadn’t figured it out either.
And then Ky’s father had been arrested, and her whole world had collapsed, with only one constant remaining: Regan and her family.
Thank God she had been clever enough, even at sixteen, to never blurt out her feelings and risk her sanctuary.
Now that childish infatuation no longer mattered. She had gotten over it many years ago.
“I don’t have any wrinkles.” Scowling, she tugged her bangs down over her forehead.
“Well, you’re older than me, so…”
Ky snorted. “By one month and sixteen days.” She took a bite of her sandwich to settle her queasy stomach. “So,” she finally said, “what is it that you think Heather was right about?”
“It’s been longer than I care to admit since I…both of us…have been in a relationship.”
As far as Ky was concerned, relationships were overrated. None of them had ever lived up to her expectations—and she certainly never seemed to live up to her girlfriends’ expectations either. “And that’s a problem why?” At least while they were both single, there was no one to nag them about how much time they spent with each other.
“It’s not,” Regan said. “Other than it’s making our friends think we should go out with each other.”
Ky stared at her across the length of her sandwich. “You want to get involved with someone just so they finally shut up about us?”
Regan jabbed her with her shoulder. “God, no. But when I set up the lab for my kids this morning, I had an idea.”
“Does it involve poison ivy?”
Regan flicked a bit of bread at her. “You
’ll never let me live that one down, will you?”
“Nope.” Ky popped the piece of ciabatta into her mouth. “After all, I had a rash for weeks. Fran had to put me on bread duty, telling me to stay in the back, so the kids would stop staring.”
“It’s not like that this time. This idea really is brilliant. I think I know how we can get everyone to shut up about us once and for all.”
“All right, let’s hear it.”
Instead of blurting it out, Regan stuffed the remainder of her sandwich into her mouth and chewed it thoroughly.
What was going on? Regan wasn’t normally one to hold back. Ky waited none too patiently.
“You know what we do in science to prove that two substances don’t react with each other?”
“You’re asking me?” Ky tapped her chest. “I barely managed a passing grade in chemistry, despite all your tutoring.”
“Okay, I’ll tell you. We conduct an experiment.”
Ky nearly choked on her last bite of sandwich. What on earth was Regan suggesting?
Regan’s booming laughter filled the one-bedroom apartment. “Get your mind out of the gutter, Kylie Wells. Not that kind of experiment. In my chem class, we put two substances together and watch for indications of a chemical reaction. If there’s no heat, odor, gas bubbles, or any other sign, we conclude that there’s—”
“No chemistry,” Ky finished for her.
“Exactly. So if you and I go on a date and there’s no—”
“Odor or gas?” Ky threw in with a grin.
Regan glared, but with her pink cheeks, cute nose, and petite frame, she was the least intimidating person Ky knew. “If there’s no heat or any other changes…” She swept her arm as if presenting a magic trick.
Ky dabbed at a splash of pepper spread on her empty plate while she thought about it. Somehow, it didn’t sound like a brilliant idea. If something went wrong, it would burn much more than the poison ivy rash. “I don’t know, Regan.”
“Why not? The results of that experiment are totally predictable. We’ve had more sleepovers than I can count. We’ve bathed together naked several times.”
“In an inflatable pool when we were five!”
Regan waved her protest aside. “Hell, we even kissed!”
They both wrinkled their noses.
Okay, that one definitely wasn’t going down in history as the world’s hottest kiss. Mostly, it had been sticky, awkward, and kinda cute. “What did you expect? We were in first grade.”
“My point is that there’s never been any chemistry between us before. Why would that suddenly change just because we share a candlelight dinner or something?”
Yeah, why would that change? An unrequited crush that had long ago faded didn’t mean a thing. Ky was probably worrying about nothing.
Regan turned on the couch to face her more fully and studied her closely. “Unless you think it’s—”
“No, it’s fine. We’ve gone out to dinner a thousand times before. Nothing to it, right?”
“Right.”
It wouldn’t be a real date. They were only doing this to get their friends to shut up about them. It would simply be a pleasant evening with her best friend. Regan had seen her at her worst. Ky could relax and just be herself, not the carefully presented version she showed her regular dates. No airs. No pretense.
“So, we’re going to do it?” Regan asked.
Ky grimaced. “Yes, we’ll do it. Although that might not be the best choice of words.”
“Haha. I’ll have you know I’m not that easy.” Regan lifted her chin and playfully brushed her shoulder-length locks back over her shoulder. “It takes more than a little wining and dining to seduce me.”
With any other woman, Ky would have taken it as a challenge, but Regan wasn’t just any woman. Besides, she was only joking around. “Well, you’ll be wining and dining me anyway.”
“Oh, I am?”
“You asked me out, remember?” God. Of all the words she’d been sure she would never say, these topped the list.
Regan tapped one finger to the elegant Cupid’s bow of her upper lip—the one Ky had been fascinated with as a teen. “Hmm, you did say you prefer my sandwiches to a Michelin-star-worthy restaurant.”
“No, no, no. You think I’m that easy? Nope. You’re going to take me to a proper restaurant with a table that I didn’t help you put together after the longest, most embarrassing trip to Ikea in the history of womankind.”
Regan let out a groan. “You’re never going to let me live that down either, are you?”
“Nope. Never,” Ky said cheerfully. “So you’d better make sure you don’t do anything embarrassing during our no-chemistry date that I’d have to add to the already long list of stories I’m going to tell your kids one day.”
“Me?” Regan batted her big, brown eyes. “Don’t worry. It’s going to be the most uneventful date ever.”
Right. Completely uneventful. Nothing to break out into a sweat about. Ky wiped her brow. “So, Rizzoli and Isles?”
Regan reached for the remote and swung her feet up onto Ky’s lap. “I thought you’d never ask.”
Chapter 3
“Oh my God, that’s so cute!” Regan lifted the polymer clay charm off the table to study it. The tiny pizza looked amazingly lifelike, and the scent from a nearby food cart drifted over, adding to the illusion. “This is perfect for my dad’s birthday. How much do you want for it?”
Eliza took the charm from her and wrapped it in a piece of tissue paper. “I’ll give it to you at mate’s rates. Which means you get it for free.”
“No, no, no. Art shouldn’t be free. Even you and Denny can’t just live off love and air.” Regan looked around until she spotted a sign in the back of Eliza’s Saturday Market booth, saying Small figurines and charms: $5. She pulled a five-dollar bill from her wallet, but her friend refused to take it.
“Why don’t you and Kylie come over tonight and bring a bottle of red, and we’ll call it even?”
Regan opened her mouth to agree, but then she remembered their plans for tonight. “Uh…” She glanced at Ky, who was at the other end of the stall with Denny, holding up a pair of Real Pockets jeans. “Actually, we’ve already got plans.”
“Book club?” Eliza asked.
“No. We, um…” Regan gave herself a mental kick. Why was she suddenly reluctant to admit it, as if it were a private thing she needed to protect? They were doing this to get their friends off their backs, so telling the gang was essential. “We’re going on a date.”
“I knew it!” Eliza threw her girlfriend a triumphant look. “Didn’t I tell you that waitress was flirting with Kylie?”
“Uh, no… I mean, yes, she was totally flirting, but that’s not what I’m trying to say.”
Eliza probably hadn’t even heard her since she’d been busy grinning at Denny and getting lost in her eyes. Now she tore herself away and turned back toward Regan.
“Ky and I…” Regan tightened her grip on the tissue-wrapped pizza charm. “We’re going on a date.”
Even the hustle and bustle of the busy market around them seemed to fade away, and silence descended on them.
Then Eliza laughed. “Jeez, for a moment, I thought you meant you two were dating. Each other.” She held up her hands. “I know, I know. You’ve told us a thousand times. No chemistry. So, you’re talking about going on a double date, right?”
“Oh God, no,” Regan and Ky said at the same time. “It’s not a double date.”
“There’s nothing wrong with double dates,” Eliza said. “Denny and I go out with her sister and Matt all the time.”
Regan scrunched up her nose. “No, thanks. No double dates for us. I’m still not over our one and only triple D.”
“Triple D?” Eliza asked.
“Double date disaster,” Regan and Ky answered in unison.
Ky groaned. “My date went on and on about her root canal for at least an hour.”
“And the weirdest thing was that
my date seemed totally interested. He hung on her every word. They ended up ditching us before dessert and left together.” Regan laughed. “They’re probably married and have three kids by now.”
“Maybe we should do that as a side gig during summer break: the DDD Matchmaking Agency,” Ky said.
They looked at each other, then shook their heads. “Nah.”
“So you’re going on separate dates?” Eliza asked. “Who are you going out with, Regan? Let me guess…the PE teacher at your school?”
“No.” Regan grinned at Ky. “My date is way hotter.”
A sound halfway between a laugh, a cough, and strangled choking escaped Ky. The pants she had held up against her hips slid from her grasp and would have ended up on the ground if not for Denny’s quick reaction. “You’re such a bullshitter, Regan Romano,” Ky finally gasped out. “I’ve met the PE teacher, remember? I bet she even has a six-pack, while I’ve got more of a keg!”
Regan reached over and playfully backhanded her across the belly. In her job, Ky had to lift thirty-pound cases of French fries and giant cans of beans all the time, so Regan encountered exactly what she’d known she would: a firm core under just the right amount of cuddly softness. “Nonsense. You look great. Besides, she’s got more like a four-pack.”
“She showed you her abs?” Ky let out a whistle. “The teachers’ lounge is a lot more interesting than the cafeteria. The only four-packs my colleagues are flashing at me are packages of—”
“Wait!” Eliza thrust out one hand so forcefully that even the woman selling sea glass jewelry in the stall next to theirs looked over. “Are you saying…? You two are going on a date…with each other?”
“Don’t look so baffled. You’re the one who suggested it.”
“I did? I mean, right. I did. I just didn’t think you were listening.” A pleased smile spread over Eliza’s face. She let out a cheer and leaned across the table to high-five Denny. “Hey, maybe we should open a matchmaking agency! We’ve got our first successful match right here.”
“Whoa!” Regan held up a hand. “You might not want to print your business cards yet. I said we’re going on one date, not renting a U-Haul. Think of it as a science experiment. We’re doing it to prove that there’s no potential for a chemical reaction between us.”
