Something Worth Fighting For Read Online Free PDF Page B

this?”
    “These are vegetables,” Tisha said slowly. “Veg-et-ables.”
    “Thanks, smartass. I meant, where did they come from?”
    “Not your refrigerator,” she teased.
    The urge to pull Tisha over his lap and give her the spanking of a lifetime rose inside him. “Obviously.”
    “Tisha grabbed them from her house when I told her we didn’t have salad stuff.”
    “Actually,” Tisha picked up a damp cucumber and placed it on the cutting board. “I believe her exact words were. Salad? You mean lettuce and ranch.”
    “She’s had salads before,” he protested. Maybe not at the house, but when they went out to restaurants he always ordered the house salad for her.
    Unfortunately for him, Tisha was quick on her feet. “The question is, has she had them here?”
    “Well, she hasn’t lived in this house for too long.” He didn’t want to seem as if he was a bad guardian for Cami.
    “He’s right. We’ve only been here a couple of months. You can’t have expected me to eat any salads in that short of time.”
    Tisha pressed her lips together, but he noticed she couldn’t quite suppress her smile. “Hmm, I see. Well then, isn’t it lucky I happened to have the salad fixings to remedy that sadly lacking situation?”
    “Yeah, it’s about time we started having more salads.” He was sure the grocery stores sold those in bags. Of course this meant he’d have to remember to actually buy it once in a while, and maybe some of the stuff to go with it.
    There really should be a store for single dads where they sold things boxed and ready to go so all he had to do was ask for a week’s worth of groceries and the box would be handed over to him, with clear-cut directions on how to cook it. Jonah didn’t think he was asking for too much. “We’re still having the dogs though, right?” He could eat salad, but he had to have something to go with it. He was a man. Not a rabbit.
    “Yes.” Tisha glanced at the clock behind him on the wall. “I should probably put those on. I started the fries already, so they should be done by the time the dogs are.”
    Fries in the oven first. Interesting. “Good plan.”
    “Eww,” Cami crinkled her nose and gave him an odd look.
    “What?”
    “You stink.”
    “Gee, you think so?” He lifted his arm and sniffed. “You know what, I think I do.”
    Cami giggled and then the little brat had the gall to add, “And you’re all dirty and sweaty too.”
    “Wow, I didn’t notice. Are you sure?” He stepped closer, pretending he was going to touch her and she screamed and stepped back.
    “Yuck. You need a shower.”
    “Nah…I think I smell good.”
    “Your nose must be broken.”
    Jonah brought his finger to his nose and wiggled it. “Nope, feels fine to me.”
    “Tisha, tell him.”
    “I don’t know.” Tisha tilted her head to the side and studied him. “I don’t think he stinks.”
    “You don’t?” Cami’s surprised voice matched Johan’s thoughts.
    “No. He smells…manly. It’s kind of nice.”
    “What’s manly?”
    “Manly means like a man, or having qualities a man would and should have.”
    “You think my uncle has qualities men should have?”
    Jonah wanted to hear the answer to this himself.
    “Most definitely.” Tisha looked up at him as she answered. Her response surprised and delighted him.
    “See.” Cami turned to face him. “She doesn’t think you’re a jerk.”
    The moment was lost as Tisha turned confused brown eyes his way. “What?”
    “Nothing.” Jonah could feel his face heating from embarrassment as a conversation he and Cami had a few days back came roaring back to haunt him.
    Of course “nothing” to Cami was code for “please talk more”. “I was telling Uncle J I thought you were pretty and he should ask you out on a date, but he said you’d probably say no because you thought he was a jerk.”
    “Did he now?”
    “Yes, and he said it was really a shame because he thought you were very prett—” Jonah