Page 28 of Manny Included
“Great.”Will looked at his phone, then jumped up.“I told them not to ring,” he noted as he jogged to the front door to keep the delivery driver from being tempted by the bell.
“Oh so smart.”He might have literally hit someone in the head if they rang the doorbell and awakened the children.He was at the end of a slew of challenging days, and his attitude was not the best.
He went to clean off the coffee table so they’d have a place to sit and eat that wasn’t the formal dinning room.
Bay returned a moment later, carrying with him several bags.“If you can grab the wineglasses and a corkscrew?I’d do it, but I think it would be faster if you did as you know where everything is.”
“Sure, no problem.”He went to the hutch, that was basically the bar, grabbed two glasses and a corkscrew.
“It was so funny.When they decided to make this,” Pete explained.“They had decided—oh I think it was absolutely between Eric and Merida—that they were going to be the kind of people who gave huge fancy dinner parties.I mean, they had a nanny after all.So they bought this hutch and got all this booze and bar equipment and then never had a single party.”
Bay laughed.“That doesn’t surprise me at all.Tony always did love going to a party, but he never wanted to host.When we were younger, anyway.He liked the freedom of just being a guest.”
“That sounds about right, but it’s a beautiful hutch, and I love that it locks.At some point when the kids get old enough, we’ll have to actually hide the key…”
Pete sat down.The thin stemmed glasses settled on the table, and he handed over the corkscrew.“I’m not very good at opening, so I’ll let you.”
“I’m excellent at it.This is a lovely reisling.And we’ve got a selection of canapés to start along with surf and turf mains from The Keg.I’ve left it all in the take-out boxes.No dishes that way.”
“Oh my god, how fancy!Thank you!I wasn’t expecting all of this.”He didn’t suggest, of course, that Bay shouldn’t have done it because he loved it and he wasn’t going to say that.
“I thought it would be nice to indulge a little as we’re having the wine and some adult time.If you aren’t going to take some actual time off, you deserve at least a break.”Bay held out his wineglass toward Pete.
“Thank you.I—Thank you very much.”His cheeks were burning.
Bay clinked their glasses together, then took a sip of the wine.“Oh, this is nice.”
It was nice—crisp and refreshing and sweet.“It’s lovely.”
“These little mushroom tart thingies have been calling my name since I opened the box.”Bay grabbed one up and took a bite.“Oh yeah.Flaky and creamy and delicious.”
He wasn’t sure if he was supposed to try one or if those were just for Bay.And actually he really wasn’t sure how this was supposed to work.So he smiled.“They smell amazing.”
“Well, help yourself!There’s a bunch of each of the four aps.Hell, who knows, we might wind up spreading the meal out over the next few hours if the kids stay asleep.”
“Oh, okay.Well, thank you.Thank you very much.”He took one, teeth-sinking in, oh it was earthy and crumbly and salty with a little sprinkle of cheese.Delicious.“Uhn.”
Uh-oh, was that a sex noise?
“See?I told you it was good.”Bay looked smug as he grabbed another one and ate it up.
“Delicious, I mean it.”He looked at the other things and grabbed a little fried risotto ball.Oh, he’d bet when he bit down, he’d find cheese in the center.It actually made him bounce a little bit.
Bay laughed softly.“Someone likes their arancini.Go on, see if this one lives up to your expectations.”
He felt Bay’s eyes on him as he tasted the appetizer.
It was cheesy, creamy, crunchy heaven, and he shivered, it was so tasty.
“Now I have to taste it,” Bay said softly.He leaned in and grabbed one of the balls, popping it into his mouth.“Mmm.Not bad.”
“I think they’re delicious!I can’t wait until the kids are old enough to try different flavors like parmesan.Right now, they all think it tastes like stinky feet smell.”
Bay chuckled.“I like lots of stuff I remember hating as a kid.Do Belle and Eric help at all with making meals?”
“Belle does.Eric’s still in the ‘maybe the stove won’t be hot this time’ phase.”
Bay frowned at him.“What does that mean?He doesn’t think it’ll cook?”