Doctor Dash

Chapter 23

"What's wrong?" Dash frowned over at his friend while he poured the macaroni into a large glass pan to bake it in the oven once he added some breadcrumbs sprinkled on top of it.

Kwan sighed tiredly as he scooped up and dumped the freshly chopped lettuce for the salad into the large ceramic bowl. He tossed a glance over at Xander, who was sitting on the floor behind them as he doodled on paper with his crayons. "I was just thinking about last weekend."

Dash's brow knitted as he looked over his friend's body language, spying some tension in those broad shoulders. "Do I need to hunt someone down and make them pay?" he asked quietly in a very serious tone.

Kwan shook his head as he grabbed a tomato and started slicing it up for the salad. "It's fine." But the frown and look in his aqua green eyes worried his friend. "It's just-" He sighed again, setting down the knife as he turned to face Dash. "Dan visited me on Sunday."

"What?" Dash growled, painfully at the mention of Fenton's cousin. "I warned him to leave you alone."

"Dash, you don't always have to play protector to me. It's fine," Kwan insisted. "I just wasn't expecting him to show up like that." Picking up the knife again, he returned to slicing the tomato. "And he kissed me again."

"Kwan, you're not making me want to go have words with him any less." Dash grabbed the container of breadcrumbs, struggling not to crush it in his hand.

"And by words, you actually mean with your fists." Kwan rolled his eyes with a ghost of a smile. "The thing is," he shook his head as he added the tomato slices into the bowl, "I should be pissed at him, angry at him for kissing me like that, and yet," he shrugged a shoulder as he frowned in uncertainty, "I don't hate him."

"I don't like him." Dash opened the oven door then slid the glass pan onto the rack inside the oven. Dan rubbed him the wrong way after their first meeting, and his opinion didn't improve the morning after Xander slept over at Fenton's house. "You've been avoiding men ever since college. I get that. You want a family of your own, and for that, you'd need a woman. But I think you're just running away from whom you really are. And maybe," he closed the oven door as he stood up again, "you're not as angry at Dan as you think you should be because on some level you realize you like him."

"I barely even know him," Kwan argued as he started slicing up mushrooms.

Dash rolled his dark blue eyes. "That's why people dating: to better get to know each other. And if you push him away on that flimsy excuse, you're going to end up alone. Kwan, I want you to be happy. Even if I don't really like the guy you're attracted to. But as long as he treats you right, I won't have a reason to have my fist meet his face. Multiple times."

"So you're saying that I should start him?"

"Yes. I'm saying you should give him the chance." Dash huffed out a breath, not believing that he was actually encouraging his friend to date Fenton's cousin. "Do you really want to pass this up when you might regret letting him get away later?"

"But-"

"No," Dash said firmly as he caught Kwan's arm. "Stop trying to look for an excuse. You're going to make yourself miserable like this. Stop listening to that annoying little voice that I know is yakking away in your brain right now that's telling you Dan is just going to be like that guy back in college. Has he done anything beyond kissing you yet?"

Kwan frowned as his aqua green eyes slid away from his friend. "No," he answered, "and he did promise that he wouldn't do anything if I wasn't ready."

"Then stop trying to sabotage yourself. If he's willing to wait for you to be ready, then I say that makes him sound like a pretty good catch." Dash wiped his hands cleaned when the sound of the doorbell echoed through the house.