“You hungry? I made some garlic chicken and asparagus.” Her voice is soft, and I cock my eyebrow. Even though I didn’t know what to expect, I didn’t expect her to turn into Paula Deen.

She turns back around and uses a pink oven mitt to take out the food while I park my ass on the leather barstool and fold my arms across my chest.

We don’t speak for a while as she slaps food on my plate and sets it in front of me. I stare at it like she poisoned it. For all I know, she could have.

“What kind of food do you like? So I can buy it,” she says.

Instead of answering her question, I cut off a piece of the meat and shove it in her face.

“What?” she asks, arching her thin brow.

“I want you to eat it first.”

She scrunches up her nose, studying my face like she’s trying to piece a puzzle together. “Why?”

“To make sure you’re not poisoning me.”

“Really? Gunner!” Shock colors her face.

I’m serious as a heart attack. She glares at me like I killed her cat, but I don’t want to end up on The First 48.

“Yeah,” I deadpan.

“Just because I don’t like you doesn’t mean I can’t be nice.” She crosses her arms.

Reluctantly, I bite into the chicken. It’s not too dry and not too moist, and then I dig into the asparagus, and it tastes like heaven in my mouth.

Little Miss Rainbow can cook just as good as my ma.

Gia clicks her nails on the granite counter. “Did you taste it?”

“Taste what?” I say, separating the meat from the veggie. It irks my nerves when my food touches—if it does I have to throw the whole plate away. Don’t know why I’m like that. I just am.

“The bleach and peroxide I put in it. I can’t believe you’re still standing after the amount of chemicals I mixed with the garlic and oil,” she says with a straight face.

What. The. Fuck.

I spit out the food. It flies everywhere, and she jumps out of the way while bursting out laughing like a hyena. I tear a paper towel from the holder and wipe my mouth.

“I kid. I would never do that. But it’s funny you actually believe me. I don’t hate you enough to kill you.”

“That shit is not funny.”

“Then why am I laughing?”