Rival Dreams (Rival Love #3) by Natalie Decker Read Free Book Online Page A

noise and waves at the boxes. “It’s no biggie. I’m happy for her.”
    Tasha and Kayla have been roommates since freshman year of college. They got the apartment last summer when Kayla and Tasha decided to stay in North Carolina for the summer. I almost moved in with them but decided my mom missed me too much and went home for summer break. “Who’s going to move in?”
    Kayla shrugs. “I haven’t thought that far ahead. So, what are you going to make Caleb tonight?” She smiles and nudges my elbow as I pull out eggs from the bag.
    “Homemade ravioli.”
    She frowns. “Aw, I want some.”
    “I’m making you some too. Did you talk to Lance yet?”
    “Yeah. He’s coming over later on tonight to ‘talk.’” She makes air quotes with her fingers. “Ooh … Can you make extra for him too?”
    I nod. “Sure, but you’re going to help.”
    Kayla bites down on her lower lip, her eyes widening. “I don’t know if that’s a good idea.”
    “Kayla, I’m not going to let you screw it up.”
    “O-okay.” She scrunches up her face. I smile.
    “I’m serious. It’s going to be fine.”
    I tell her some of the things we need and she sets off to gather mixing bowls and pans. She places two large pots onto the stove. I switch sides with her and unwrap the ground sausage, place it in one of the pots, and turn on the stove. Kayla hands me bowls and I give her a long wooden spoon. She looks confused. “You’ll be in charge of mixing and sautéing the veggies.”
    She nods. “Okay.”
    Her eyebrows are still drawn together and she doesn’t exactly appear confident. I smile to try to ease her worry. “It’ll be fine. I’ll be right here. You won’t burn anything.”
    Kayla starts on the veggies, while I work on the dough. This is going to be a new experience for me. Not making the dough so much, I’ve done that a few times, but never by hand. Each time I did it I had my mom’s Kitchen Aid mixer with the awesome pasta-making attachment. The only mixer in Kayla’s apartment is her handheld. So, I’m going to be doing a lot of rolling. Which isn’t necessarily a terrible thing, but it’s a lot more time-consuming. I just hope when this is all done Caleb likes it.
    After the dough is exactly the way I want it to be, trimmed, and ready to be filled, I immediately cover it and work on the next step. I chunk up tomatoes, and add sauce, spices, onions, and garlic to the big pot and set the burner on low.
    “Kayla, go ahead and mix the spinach, ricotta cheese, and herbs together.”
    While she gets to work on that, I throw a bit of Parmesan cheese in the mix. After two minutes of mixing, Kayla and I are ready to make some stuffed-pasta magic. Yay!
    Kayla pulls out two small spoons and hands me one. “So, do you think you’ll forgive Lance?” I ask as I take one from her.
    “Yeah. I think so.” She sighs. “I love him. He makes me mad sometimes and when he ran off to the first available you know.” I don’t say a word just nod. “I felt like he should trust me. But he just …”
    I remove the plastic from the spread-out dough. “I know,” my voice cracks a little. I hope she isn’t paying close enough attention to tell. We scoop dollops of filling on one side of the dough squares.
    Kayla says in a soothing voice, “Sky.” I glance over at her. She observes me for a moment. “What’s wrong?”
    I break eye contact and go back to filling the pasta. “I think Caleb’s going to break up with me. He’s been … God, Kayla, I don’t know. The other night after work, he didn’t stop by. Hell, he didn’t even call me.”
    She digs into her mixture and frowns. “Maybe he got busy studying or something.”
    “That’s the thing, he wasn’t. My mom told me his uncle talked to him. And he was hanging out in his room. Maybe I’m worried because he’s been flaking out. Or maybe I’m making this out to be a bigger deal than it really is, but … I don’t know. It’s just off somehow. You know what