“So,” Nick rinses a plate before stacking it in the drying rack. “She’s asked you to talk to him?”
Kate wipes the kitchen table, pausing to say, “Uh, no, not exactly.”
Nick concentrates on washing the dishes, careful not to look at his darling wife, whose tendencies he knows all too well. “So. She’s asked you not to say anything to him?”
“Um, no, not really.”
“So. You’re planning on meddling in their lives just for the fun of it?”
“It’s not really meddling, it’s just so obvious that something has to be done. Whenever he’s anywhere around it’s like her radar goes off. She loses all ability to concentrate on anything else. Maybe he’d want to go out with her if he knew.”
“He’d probably ask her out if he wanted to go out with her. It’s none of your business, hon.”
“Mmmm.” Kate says, “Sometimes people just need the teensiest bit of encouragement.”
Kate carries the cloth to the sink, where she slides her arms under Nick’s, encircling his waist with her arms as she wrings out the dish cloth in the soapy water.
“Don’t interfere, woman. If Krystal likes Jose she should just ask the guy out. If she isn’t ready or whatever, that’s her call, babe. Not yours.”
Kate drops the cloth but tightens the casual embrace into a hug, resting her head on his back, he can feel her breath between his shoulder blades.
“She likes him too much. She’d be devastated if he turned her down.”
“Are you trying to distract me?”
Kate giggles into his back. “You ought to know by now I’m not that subtle, babe. If I was trying to distract you I’d do this.”
Nick swallows, applying all of his considerable willpower to focus on the tasks at hand. “Does she even talk to him?” Concentrate on getting the dishes done. “Do they have anything in common at all? I mean from what you’ve told me she doesn’t even know him, it’s just lust.”
Unable to continue in the face of Kate’s ministrations, Nick throws the dish brush in the sink and turns to enfold her. As Kate reaches up for a kiss, she murmurs, “Lust is good.”
