Jessica Conant-Park - Cook the Books

“Yeah, the recipe made a large amount, but it’s good. I actually ran out of lemons to juice, but it’s good anyway.”

I saw Owen’s eyes widen as I dipped a spoon into the bowl and took a taste. Oh God! I puckered my lips. “It’s rather… acidic.”

“You think? I like it. I followed the recipe. Look,” he said as he held out the typed page. “Oh, wait. Oops. I thought it said three cups of lemon juice.”

“That would explain it. It’s supposed to be one- third cup of lemon juice.” I smiled falsely. “No problem. I have a few more lemons in the fridge, so we can make another batch.” I retrieved the lemons and handed them to Owen, hoping that he’d get the hint to keep an eye on Kyle. I laughed inwardly at the idea of putting Owen in charge of anything even remotely related to cooking, but clearly Kyle needed supervision, and even Owen wouldn’t use three cups of lemon juice when a recipe called for a third of a cup. I could hardly believe that anyone, never mind a cookbook writer and Hank Boucher’s son, had failed to notice the overwhelming taste of lemon in the dressing. Worse, Kyle had told me that the dressing was good! What kind of palate did he have? Ugh. Did he have a palate at all?

Despite the dressing mishap, I was having a good time. Adrianna was putting the pork loin into the oven and I was just about to fill the stromboli dough when the phone rang. “Hello, Chaos Central!” I chirped happily.

“Hi.” There was a long pause. “It’s me.”

My stomach tightened and I swallowed hard. It was the call I’d been both longing for and dreading. It was Josh. He must have gotten my new cell number from someone. I strongly suspected Ade or Owen. “Oh. Hi.”

“How you doin’?” The sound of his voice practically knocked the wind out of me.

“Um… fine.” I saw that Adrianna was staring at me. I could feel my cheeks heat up and wondered whether my best friend could hear my heart pounding. “Hold on a second.” I went into the hallway. I couldn’t go to the living room, where Owen and Kyle would overhear, or to the bedroom, where Patrick was sleeping. That left the bathroom. As I stepped onto the tile floor, Kyle let out a sharp cry. “Are you okay?” I called.

“Yeah,” Kyle answered. “Just nicked myself, that’s all.”

“Josh?” I said into the phone.

“Yeah. You’ve obviously got someone there. Sorry to have bothered you,” he said quickly. “I’ll talk to you later.”

“No, wait! Don’t go!” I pleaded uselessly after he’d hung up. I shut my eyes and took a breath before going back to the kitchen.

Adrianna set the timer on the oven and turned to me. “Anything you want to tell me, pal?”

As my eyes started to well up, Ade took me into a tight hug. “That was Josh, wasn’t it?” she asked. I nodded and she squeezed me tighter.

“I saw him on Sunday. At Digger’s.” I gave her a whispered rundown of the surprise encounter. “I’m trying to pretend this isn’t happening.”

“I know it hurts,” she whispered in my ear. “I know how much you love him.”

“Loved him,” I corrected her and pulled away. “He heard Kyle. He probably thinks… well, he heard him.”

“Is that what you want him to think?”

“Yes.” I paused. “No. I shouldn’t play games, and there’s nothing going on with Kyle. Well, not really.” I described my ludicrous attempt to make out with Kyle in his car. “I just don’t think it’s happening with us. I don’t know if I even want it to.”

“Look, for now, let’s get through tonight and enjoy dinner. Whether or not you and Kyle have anything, he’s a nice guy, and we’ll have fun. You can deal with Josh later. Come on, let’s go check on the boys.”

The four of us worked well as a team, especially because Owen and Kyle were willing to follow our orders blindly. The food was fabulous. Because we had two main dishes as well as the stromboli and the fruit salad, the meal was more an uncoordinated tasting experience than it was a dinner, but everyone got into the spirit and lavished praise on the chefs who had created the recipes. I was sure that Digger would have been pleased with our attempts to recreate his dishes. The stromboli was so hot that steam flew out of the dough as I tore off pieces for all of us. After the honey-pineapple-lemon dressing had been remade, we all enjoyed the delicious salad of mango, apple, banana, orange, coconut, dates, and macadamia nuts.

We ate in the living room with our plates on our laps or on the coffee table, but the tight dining quarters didn’t bother us. “With food this great, I don’t care where we eat,” Ade said as she bit into a piece of swordfish. “You’ve got more room here then we do at our place, Chloe, so this feels like a mansion.”

“Yeah, I know we’re cramped right now, hon,” Owen said. “Things will get better.”

Ade shrugged. “We’ll see. This fish business of yours isn’t doing so well, though. How long should we give it?”

Ade had pushed a button with her husband. Owen rarely got irritated, but his face tensed visibly. “Let’s hang on a bit longer. I’m still working to get in good with restaurants and to get the chefs to trust that I’ll bring them the best product.”

“Whatever,” Ade said rather coolly.

Patrick, who’d awakened midway through our meal, was now in the crook of Adrianna’s arm, gazing admiringly at his mother. Adrianna, seated on the floor, leaned back and rested a hand on the rug. “I think this cookbook is going to hit the best-seller list. Keep working, you two, so we can come back and taste test more recipes. I haven’t eaten this well since, well, since Kyle took us out,” she said with a laugh.

“Yeah, how do I get in on this dining-out gig?” Owen asked as he adjusted his striped hat.

“Anytime,” Kyle answered, but he was staring at Patrick. “You two make quite a pair,” he said, looking at Adrianna. “Patrick looks very happy and comfortable.”

“Do you want to have kids?” Owen asked.

“Definitely.” Kyle began clearing dishes. “If I didn’t before, Patrick would have changed my mind.”

“You’re seeing him at his best, though,” Ade said. “You might change your mind if you heard him screaming his brains out at two thirty in the morning.”

“Aw, he’s a great baby,” Kyle said. “I’ll start washing dishes so poor Chloe isn’t stuck with too much to do herself.” He surprised me by tousling my hair as he walked by me.

“Thanks. I’ll start packing up the leftovers. Everyone is going home with food for the rest of the week, I think.”

I scrounged around for whatever storage containers I could find. Since it was pointless to try to find matching lids, most of the containers got covered in plastic wrap. Owen put away pots and pans while Adrianna got Patrick ready to go home. Because they lived only a few blocks away, they’d walked over, but in addition to the baby and all of his gear, they now had leftovers to carry and were laden down.

“Why don’t I drive Owen home, and he can get the car and come back for you and Patrick and all of your stuff?” I suggested.

“Nah, it’s only a few blocks. We’ll be fine,” Ade said, but she glanced at her high heels.

“I’ll walk them back,” Kyle offered. “I’d drive you, except that I assume you need a car seat for the baby. I should get going anyway.” He turned to me. “Chloe, thanks again for hosting this evening. And please bill us for all of the hours you spent preparing for tonight and for this evening. Great work. I’ll talk to you in a few days, and we’ll figure out our next step.”

“Sure.” I tried to look cheery. So much for any romantic intentions on Kyle’s part. I had half expected him to hang around after my friends left, but we were apparently all business. Still, it was thoughtful of him to help Owen and Ade out. “Things are pretty well cleaned up here, and I should be getting to bed. I have another long day at my field placement tomorrow.”