Chapter Twenty
Ava
“And then you add the salt,” I told Jules, sprinkling a pinch of flaky sea salt over the sizzling mushroom sauté. The rich, earthy aroma filled my nose as I took a deep breath over the skillet. “You’ll need less, and it will do a better job complementing the flavors.”
Three days ago, Riley drove back with Jules to make one final trip and move her in with me. Riley returned to Indy the next day, but Jules and I had been living our best roomie lives.
Jules stabbed a juicy mushroom straight out of the frying pan and popped it in her mouth with a mischievous grin. “We’ll be lucky if I get far enough to have them in the pan at all. Cooking was never my strong suit.”
“If you learn to cook, especially as a vegan, you’ll be making food at home that’s far more satisfying than anything you could get at most restaurants.”
Jules just shook her head and stole another mushroom. “If you have to eat my cooking, you’ll rescind that statement.”
I set Jules to chopping the tarragon while I checked the lasagna noodles. Almost done. Two more minutes and they’d be ready. After watching Jules eat fast food for the last three days, I couldn’t take it anymore and had to stage an intervention. It was making my stomach hurt just watching her eat it, and I knew Jules liked my cooking. All it took was a bit of wine as bait and I had a sous chef.
Tonight, I’d roped her into helping with one of the simplest, most delicious meals for a beginner—my own version of Gordon Ramsay’s mushroom leek pasta, veganized just for my girl. It was savory, indulgent, creamy, and a perfect pairing of two low-budget vegetables—something I knew would be a priority for Jules. As a bonus, it was easy to double for leftovers, another thing I knew she’d appreciate.
“You know, we could probably make this wheat free for Viv,” I thought aloud. “It wouldn’t be a perfect copy, but I bet it’d be tasty.” I’d seen gluten free noodles all over the store even in our tiny town, but I hadn’t tested any. Maybe I should see if I could adapt the recipe further so she could enjoy dinner with us. I always loved a good cooking challenge, after all.
“We should try it that way before she comes back,” Jules echoed my own sentiments. “And it will give me another chance to practice making it.”
I did a little happy dance in my own head at the thought of Jules even wanting to practice cooking, using all my willpower not to take that and run with it. The last thing I wanted was to scare her off now that she was finally interested.
“Are you ready for the fun part?”
Her lips cocked into a look of pure skepticism. “The fun part?”
“Making the garlic butter.”
“Oh, yummy.” She beat me to the fridge, grabbing the olive-oil based butter and looking at me expectantly. “That does sound fun. Show me the magic.”
Fifteen minutes later, we were sitting at my kitchen table slurping up mushroom leek noodles and homemade garlic bread. The food was incredible, but I couldn’t stop thinking about how lucky I was that I was spending so much time with Jules. Since my birthday it felt like she was really back in my life. And that was the best gift ever.
She would only be my roommate temporarily while we renovated the B&B, so I was determined to make the most of it.
Sure, she was here for the long haul of opening the B&B, but I knew we’d fall into our own routines eventually. And if we were renting out rooms, all five of us couldn’t live in the Van Kamp house. I wouldn’t be sharing every meal with her, and we wouldn’t be cozying up to watch The Great British Bake-Off before bed with a giant bowl of popcorn. So as we sat sharing our homemade meal, what I really savored was the company of a great friend because now, more than ever, I understood what a gift that was.
“So I’ve been looking through the house photos,” Jules began, taking a sip of her sangria, “and they suck.”
I set down the bite that was halfway to my mouth. “Like the quality? Or the subject matter?”
Jules chuckled, spinning a noodle on her fork. “The quality is so bad I can’t answer that for certain, having never seen the house in person. How would you feel about going over and taking some pictures and measurements for me?”
I chewed on that for a moment before answering. Of course I had no problem doing what she’d asked, but eventually she’d have to come to terms with the fact that she and Ben were going to cross paths from time to time. And now that I knew Ben’s side of the story, I wasn’t sure that was a bad thing. Maybe it was time we all moved on from high school drama.
“I’d be happy to,” I told her, “but wouldn’t you get a better feel for it if you did go see it in person?”
For the first time that night, her smile faltered. “I know it seems silly to still be avoiding him.” She twirled a white-tipped curl around her finger, not meeting my eyes. “I can’t explain it, and it’s not like I’d want to date him now or anything, but it just—” she sighed. “It just feels like too much.”
“Have you guys ever talked about it at all?” I pressed, seeing my opportunity to maybe get her to fix things with Ben so it wasn’t always weird. Or at least so it was less weird. I doubted Gianna and Viv would ever see him without that in the back of their minds.
Jules shook her head. “We haven’t spoken since he dumped me.”
Okay. I could work with that. Not great, but I could try. “We’ve all changed a lot since high school.”
Her lips rolled in as she pushed the noodles around her plate. “That’s true, I suppose.”
I saw the idea settling, so I stopped there. I could only make the suggestion, I couldn’t actually do the fixing. That was up to Jules and Ben.
“So what measurements do you need? Can you get me a list?”
Jules’s oval face lit back up. “Yeah, I’ll write it after dinner.”
“Let me see when Ben is available.” I pulled out my phone and sent him a quick message asking about meeting up for more photos, ignoring the excitement that bubbled in my stomach as I watched the rolling dots that told me he was responding.
I didn’t hate Ben anymore, but I definitely didn’t like Ben.