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15

HEIDI

T he kitchen smells like homemade pasta sauce and banana bread, which is quite the combination of smells, if I do say so myself.

After Emmett had left for the day, I brought Juniper to school and I stopped by the market for some dinner ingredients. I’ve been craving pasta lately, and I thought there would be no day like today to make it. The day after a really great win from the guys, and Juniper got an A on a project we had worked on the other week.

It’s always weird to me to see how different schools work, because when I was her age, we were barely doing math on paper. Juniper takes French and Spanish and has been helping Elara a little to catch up with the rest of the grade, since her previous school didn’t require it that early.

While I can’t really help with the language part of her homework, I’ve been decent with math—meaning, I know how to add and subtract—and her other classes are fairly easy for me.

My favorite is when she brings home books to read. We’ve sat out back on the porch together as she reads me her book. I always give her a small treat after when she does particularly well and sounds out a difficult word, which is usually a Berger cookie.

“Is that garlic bread?” Juniper’s head appears from around the corner. Just her head. Nothing else. This is a particularly troubling habit of hers I haven’t quite figured out how to try stopping. She and her dad love scaring the shit out of me.

“Uh,” I look toward the oven. “No? It’s banana bread though.”

She steps into view, her jaw hanging open. “No garlic bread?”

“No?”

“This is a travesty,” she says, throwing her arm up to her forehead.

Travesty was one of the words she learned reading at the end of last week, and to say she’s been using it every single second she can would be an understatement.

“Don’t you like banana bread?” I ask her, a bubble popping in my sauce. I grab my large spoon and stir it.

“Banana bread is a travesty, Heidi. Garlic bread is where it’s at.”

Well, okay.

I look around the kitchen. “Would white bread with butter and garlic also be considered a travesty?” I ask her, pointing toward the bread cabinet.

She looks at me suspiciously. “Maybe.”

“Okay well, let’s try it. But you also need to eat some banana bread, deal?”

She nods dramatically. “Deal.”

The front door suddenly opens, Emmett stepping inside. He looks wiped out, his shoulders slumped and a frown on his handsome face. “You okay Big Guy?” I ask him as he drops all of his things on the floor with a loud thud that I swear I feel rattle my bones.

“Just a long day,” he says simply before turning toward the kitchen. “What smells so good?”

“Pasta sauce,” I say simply, looking over my shoulder.

“Garlic bread?” His face lights up, and I set the spoon down with a groan.

“I feel like you and your daughter being garlic bread goblins was something I should have been told before taking this job.”

“It’s a tr?—”

“You’re right Juni, it’s a travesty that I wasn’t told.” My eyes narrow at her dad, who shoots her a confused look. “Travesty is our word of the week,” I inform him, sliding my finger through the sauce on the spoon and sticking it in my mouth. “Get with the program, Big Guy.”

He shakes his head as if to just let it all go. “Is there some kind of bread in the oven?”

“Banana bread. Your bananas were dead this morning and I figured I’d make something fun out of them.”

“Oh that’s just as good.” The smile that lights up across this man’s face is otherworldly. Something I’ve never quite seen myself.

And it’s beautiful.

“Holy shit,” I say, quickly covering my mouth. “Sorry,” I whisper, realizing that Juniper heard, an evil smirk on her face.

“She’s heard worse,” Emmett waves it off. “She plays video games with Leo, remember?” That’s true.

“You smiled,” I whisper, pointing an accusatory finger at his chest.

“I smile a lot.”

“No you don’t. Not that often.”

“Well maybe I’m just happy today,” he tells me, taking the spoon out of my hand, tasting the sauce. The man doesn’t run his finger through it. No. He straight up licks the spoon, and I’m not quite sure if I’m repulsed or if I think it’s the hottest thing I’ve ever seen. “You made this?” he asks.

I nod.

“From scratch?”

I nod.

“It’s really good, Heidi.”

I tuck my hair behind my ear. “Thank you.”

“I don’t cook a lot around here. If you want, you’re more than welcome to join us for some meals?” he looks unsure as he says it, like he doesn’t know why he’s extending the offer, or if he’s going to rescind the invitation right after giving it.

I suck in my bottom lip, my brain running a million miles an hour trying to figure out if this is some kind of trap, or if I’m even truly welcome.

“You sure about that?” I ask hesitantly.

He waits a beat before nodding, his blue eyes holding mine intensely. “Yeah.”

I break eye contact, finding Juniper across the dining room. “I’d love to.”

The second I say it it’s like the trance breaks, and Emmett snaps out of it, his hands clapping together. “Well!” he says quickly. “I was also wondering, while we’re talking about it, whether you’d like to start running with me in the morning.”

“You want to go running?” I ask, confused.

“I’m an athlete why wouldn’t I want to run?”

“Maybe because it’s your job and I’m sure you run plenty while training?”

He shakes his head. “Nah. I think running before practice would be good for me. Are you in, or are you scared?”

A small smile tugs at the corner of my lips. “You’re on, Gardner.”

It occurs to me, as we’re loading plates up with pasta, homemade sauce, and makeshift garlic bread, that I’ve never heard Emmett talk so much. I’ve never seen him this happy, either.

And I don’t let myself wonder if it’s because I made him pasta, or whether he’s not used to having more people here, or whether he’s just been lonely.

It’s probably nothing at all.

But part of me, deep down, really hopes that this is the start of a friendship.