Drumming his fingers on the steering wheel, he was silent for a moment. Finally, he blew out a breath. “I want to. Evita—Evie—is different and makes me laugh without meaning to, but I don’t know if she wants to. She’s just gone through a world full of hurt and has a teenage son who seems to have experienced his own version of it. Would I make it worse for them?”
“You’ve been through hurt, too,” I pointed out. “And seems to me that, even with the loss of his mom at a young age, you did okay by DB.”
“Can’t say I did when I took that case on, though.”
“Don’t be dumb,” I snapped, shocking him. “You did your job and probably saved young kids from the trauma of what that group was doing. Wrecking marriages and stealing the money from them led to men committing suicide, Alex, you know that. Someone had to help stop them and feed the Feds the details. DB didn’t hold it against you, and he’s the one who you were most concerned about.”
Alex let this sink in for a moment. “I’ll think on it.”
Realizing there wasn’t much more I could say on the subject, I decided to lighten things up. “Well, aren’t we modern men, talking about our feelings and women and shit.”
“If I get an embroidered apron and start asking for recipes, punch me, will you?”
“I think Tony would burst out crying with happiness if that day comes.”
Shaking his head, Alex sighed. “He does have the best recipes, and I swear he makes food that just isn’t possible to do in real life.”
I’d heard the rumors, but I’d never experienced his cooking for myself. “So I’ve heard. I just hope h
e doesn’t plan on ever trying to teach Bex how to cook.”
He looked at me in surprise. “That bad?”
“She burned water two days ago,” I told him, expecting the laughter that came out of him. “I shit you not, she put it on to boil eggs, forgot about it, and only remembered when the smoke alarm went off, and she found nothing but a brown residue inside the pan that was almost on fire.”
“What was the brown residue?”
“She seasoned the fucking water to boil the eggs in, thinking it would make its way through the shell, so it was salt, pepper, Worcestershire Sauce, and soya sauce.”
The whole vehicle jerked as he looked at me, accidentally yanking the steering wheel with the sudden movement.
“I don’t even know what to say to that.”
“She also tried to make herself mac ‘n cheese out of the box and burned it. That time she forgot to boil water or even add water, just put the milk and butter in the pan.”
Grimacing, he mumbled, “Don’t let her meet Tony, man. It’s not safe.”
Rubbing my face with my hands, I groaned into them. “They’ve already met and become friends.”
After a moment’s silence, during which I kept my face in my hands, he said what I’m sure everyone would think when they heard about her kitchen and culinary issues. “You’re screwed.”
I had good health insurance. That might be what ended up saving me one day.
Chapter Sixteen
Bexley
I’d cooked dinner.
Those words might not mean much to most people who could actually cook, but for me, they were huge.
Tony had spent all afternoon teaching me how to make meatloaf. It’d only taken three trips to the store and two failed attempts, and now I was staring at something that looked good—made by my own hands. Tomorrow he was teaching me how to make something else, seeing as how the school was closed for one more day, and I was excited about it.
I couldn’t go all out with candles and a beautiful table, but I’d managed to make a makeshift platform out of some of the old wooden panels from the walls that still needed to be taken away, and it looked cute.
All it needed now was Logan.
“Sorry, buds,” I told Doyle and Prince as they stared at me. “I need him to see the whole thing, so you can’t have any. If he sees pieces missing, it’ll ruin the visual effect of my culinary masterpiece.”