He turned around with a half-smile tilting his lips. “When I was out in the garage, I checked out your car. When’s the last time you had the oil changed?”
I swallowed again, but for completely different reasons. “The oil?” Oops. He was going to be so pissed. “I think it was probably last month.”
He raised his eyebrows in challenge. “Last month?”
“Maybe it was the month before that…?”
“Or maybe it was when I changed it last spring?”
I pressed my lips together and tried not to look guilty. “Is it bad?”
He let out a patient sigh. I expected him to lecture me or rip into me about how I break everything I touch, but he didn’t. Instead, he put his wrench down and said, “Do you want me to change it while I’m here?”
“No, that’s okay,” I rushed to say. “I can take it in tomorrow.”
“Take it in where?”
I hoped he didn’t notice the weighted pause while I struggled to come up with, “The… oil change place.”
“The oil change place?”
I cleared my throat. “Sure. The place… with all the oil.”
“How about I just do it now, so you don’t have to figure out where the place with all the oil is.”
I blinked rapidly and tried to figure out how to get out of this. I couldn’t let him change my oil. The sink was one thing. His name was on the mortgage so he had a vested interest in the house not falling apart. But my car was something else. It was my responsibility. He had forfeited his right to help when he moved out.
Why did we get married so young? I should know how to do these stupid things on my own!
Except I moved straight from a college dorm into an apartment with him and I had never learned how to be a grown up on my own. Nick had always taken care of everything.
He’d always taken care of me.
“Let me do it, Kate. I’ll feel better and your car will feel better.”
I looked at the counter where he’d set his ice cream bowl while he worked on the sink. “Then let me at least order dinner. As a thank you.”
His blue eyes lit up with something I couldn’t describe. Happiness? Satisfaction?
Hunger?
“Really?” He was hesitant, but I could tell he was interested.
“We’re both hungry, right? Consider it a thank you for keeping me from falling into disrepair.”
His mouth spread in a wide smile. “Alright, yeah. That sounds good.”
“Pizza?
“You pick. I’ll be happy with whatever.”
“Okay, sure. You change my oil. I’ll get us dinner.”
“Sounds good.”
“Sounds good.”
He walked out of the kitchen and my stomach ignited with nerves.
What had I just done?
Chapter Nine
16. He’s a bad habit I can’t shake.
I waited to order the pizza until Nick came in from the garage. In the meantime, I had cut up some cheese and laid it on a plate with crackers. I didn’t have much for food, but I always had cheese and crackers.
I survived on cheese and crackers.
Good cheese, though, like white cheddar and smoked Gouda. Not Kraft Singles-much to Nick’s dismay.
He grabbed a few slices from the plate and smiled at me. “This is nice.”
“I figured you’d be starving by now.”
He nodded his head and took another slice of pepper jack. “Do you mind if I shower before we eat?”
I ignored everything that buzzed through me. A thousand emotions mingled together and made me hot and cold all at the same time. I was frustrated with him for spending so much time over here, mad that he even stopped by, hurt from our past, heartbroken from our present, but something else too. Something I couldn’t name.
Something I wouldn’t name.
I swallowed thickly and jerked my chin. “Do you still have some clothes here?”
Nick’s cerulean eyes swept over me, “I’m sure I can find something.”
My thoughts continued to tangle together and suddenly my heart took off in a gallop. I cleared my dry throat and said, “I’ll order the pizza.”