Chapter Nine
Carter
Something smells incredible when I walk in the door. Christian occasionally cooks for us. Well, cooks is a bit of a stretch. He heats up a frozen pizza, warms cans of soup, or throws together a salad. What I’m smelling, however, is way above and beyond anything like that.
Rounding the corner into the kitchen, I find Kenna taking a pan out of the oven. Amelia, Christian, and—surprise, surprise—Bug are playing a card game at the table. Go Fish if I remember my games correctly.
Soft music is playing over a Bluetooth speaker, and something shifts inside me when Kenna’s hips sway back and forth. Jesus, it’s like I walked into another dimension. If someone were looking through the window right now, they’d think we were a family.
I resist the urge to walk over behind her, wrap my arms around her, and pull her against me.
Hell, she’d probably deck me and then take her kid and run as far away from me as she could get.
And I’d deserve it. So instead, I stand in the doorway and stare as she dances absently from the stove to the refrigerator.
“Dad?”
I turn to find Christian and Bug watching me curiously. Bug looks from me to Kenna and smiles deviously. I point my finger at her and shake my head. She just laughs.
Kenna spins around. “Oh, Carter. Hi. I hope you don’t mind that I used your kitchen. There’s enough for everyone.”
“Mind?” I go over and inhale a huge whiff of garlicky goodness. “It smells amazing.”
She looks embarrassed. “I promise not to encroach on your space after tonight, but I couldn’t find an Uber that had a car seat so there was no way for me to go shopping and get my own provisions. I’ll have to remember to get Amelia’s car seat out of your SUV.”
“Wait, are you saying you made lasagna from what I had here in the house?”
She shrugs. “The noodles had expired, but not for too long so they should be okay. You had some frozen ground turkey, sauce, lots of spices, and enough shredded cheese to clog the arteries of an elephant.” She giggles at her own joke.
“You didn’t have ricotta, but I was able to substitute cottage cheese.
I’m actually surprised you had it. An unusual item for two bachelors. ”
“It’s Aunt Mia’s,” Christian says. “She loves cottage cheese. She puts tomatoes on it.” He cringes at the thought of Mia’s unusual concoction.
My stomach growls loudly when I take a closer look at dinner.
“Dad… jeez.”
I pat my middle. “Sorry, but it just smells so good. Let me go wash up and I’ll help you set the table.”
“We can do that, Mr. Cruz,” Bug says, already starting to clear away the cards.
Okay, then. I guess Bug is eating with us. Again. Somehow, some way, those two end up eating at each other’s houses at least half the time.
While I change out of my work clothes, I remember what Kenna said about not being able to go to the store. I should have told her about Truman’s, the small grocery store over on McQuaid Circle. It’s only a short walk from here. Still though, in this weather, it’d be a trek.
Back in the kitchen, Christian and Bug have set the table and Kenna is bringing over the food.
More garlic assaults my nostrils, drawing me toward a breadbasket. “Is that garlic bread?”
Kenna nods. “I had to improvise. This is a package of hamburger buns, toasted and spread with butter and garlic salt, with a little sprinkle of shredded cheese.”
My mouth waters. “Dang… I like the way your brain works.”
She puts a huge bowl of salad on the table. “May I ask why you have an industrial-sized bag of shredded cheese?”
I laugh. “Christian’s go-to after school snack is nachos. He layers chips and cheese on a plate and microwaves it.”
“Nachos are fire,” Christian says, scooping a large portion of lasagna onto his plate.
“I want nachos,” Amelia says around a bite of garlic bread.
“I’ll make them for you, squirt.”
My brow lifts. Christian seems to have adopted Bug’s nickname for Amelia.
I bite into the lasagna, and my eyes roll to the heavens. “I can’t believe I had all the ingredients for this. It’s really good.”
Kenna’s cheeks pink and she smiles. Should I tell her she has a piece of lettuce in her teeth? I decide against it because she looks so darn adorable.
When I realize my pants are getting tight in the crotch, and how inappropriate that is with three kids sitting at the table, I quickly find a more appropriate—and mundane—topic.
“I’ll leave you my car tomorrow. I don’t do carpool again until Wednesday.
I can walk, or one of my siblings can give me a ride to work if the weather’s still bad. ”
Kenna’s head shakes vehemently. “Oh, I couldn’t.”
“Uber service around here is terrible. Dax used to be a driver, but couldn’t make squat. There’s just not that much demand.” I can tell she’s going to object again. “I tell you what. I’ll leave the keys on the counter. Use it or don’t, up to you.”
She holds my stare, her jaw shifting back and forth like she doesn’t know whether to argue or not. I raise a challenging brow. She rolls her eyes.
“So your brother used to be an Uber driver, huh? Was that back before you opened your business?”
“Actually, for the first few years, he was moonlighting. None of us were sure the shop would turn a profit. We took out a huge loan to make it happen. It was a big risk.”
“It obviously worked out, though. I mean, here you are.”
I sigh. “I suppose.”
Her head cocks. “Seems you should be happier talking about a business you built from scratch.”
I glance at Christian, who’s deep in conversation with Bug, and decide it’s safe to talk about it.
“There’s a brand-new collision repair center that just opened across town.
” My head shakes, still not wanting to believe it.
“It’s going to eat into our meager profits.
I mean, we do okay.” I wave my hand around, indicating the house.
“Enough to afford this. But none of us will ever get rich. And that’s fine.
That was never the point. We all love what we do.
And working for ourselves is not something a lot of people get to do, so I’m truly grateful. ”
“But…?”
I narrow my eyes at her.
She dabs the corner of her mouth with her napkin. “I can hear a but coming. You love what you do, but…”
I sigh heavily. “But this was just incredibly bad timing. Like, the worst. That other shop opening now, this year…” My jaw stiffens and my lips form a thin line.
“When we took out the loan years ago, we agreed on smaller payments up front as the shop was in its infancy, knowing the trade-off was going to be a large balloon payment.”
“And it’s coming due,” she says.
I nod. “This summer in fact.”
She looks sorry for me.
“It’s okay. It’ll be fine. Worst case, we refinance.”
“Today’s rates are a lot higher than they were years ago. Your payments could double even, and your loan will extend by what, ten more years? Twenty?”
I raise a brow.
She shrugs. “Personal finance classes.”
“Ah… right. You’re correct on all counts. But, hey, enough with the shop talk. I didn’t mean to ramble on about my problems.”
“It’s okay.” Her gaze shifts to the floor. “Everyone has problems.”
The way she says it haunts me. What are hers?
Before I can even attempt to dive into that, Bug starts clearing the table. “I’ll do the dishes,” she says. “It was really good, Kenna. Thank you.”
I clap my hands together. “I guess we should get your stuff out of the car.”
Kenna looks out the window. “It’s getting dark, and, um…” She glances at her daughter.
Realization dawns, and I pat Amelia’s shoulder. “And we promised her a snowman.”
Kenna smiles. Damn, I love her smile. Lettuce or no, it’s amazing. It lights up her face. It lights up my face.
“Frosty!” Amelia jumps down from her chair excitedly. “We can make Frosty now?”
“Leave the dishes for later,” I say to Bug. “We have a snowman to build. And we’re losing daylight fast.”
I turn on the outside floodlights as Kenna bundles up Amelia then herself.
“Okay, we’re going to tag-team this because it’ll be dark soon.” I lead the way outside then point to Amelia. “You’re in charge of the head. Christian, you and Bug do the middle. Kenna and I will do the base. Everyone got their assignments?”
Kenna giggles and whispers to me, “So you really are a drill sergeant?”
Damn, her hot breath on my ear does absolutely nothing to squelch my growing attraction for her. I take her elbow. “Come on, let’s start out by the street where there’s plenty of snow from the plows.”
I ball up some snow as tightly as I can and make a large snowball. I put it on the ground and start rolling it. Kenna scoops more snow with her gloves, moving it toward the growing ball.
“We make a good team,” I say.
She stops gathering snow and looks up at me. “You really don’t have to do all this, you know.”
“It’s a snowman, Kenna.”
“No, I mean everything. The house. The car. The getting of our things. The… everything.”
I look around, taking in the everything.
“Just one single parent helping out another. Listen, I know how tough it can be. And, well, you haven’t exactly mentioned a job, so I figured you’re between them.
” I roll the growing snowball a little closer to her pile.
“Besides, I have a sister. She’s not a single mom, but I hope if she were ever in a bind, someone would step up. ”
I’m not sure why my words have her looking guilty. I’d hoped they would put her at ease.
“Besides.” I shrug. “What goes around comes around, eh?”
“So you’re doing this for good karma?”
I laugh. “Sure? Why not?”
Something hits me in the back. I turn to see Amelia giggling.
“Did you just throw a snowball at me, pumpkin?”
She giggles some more.
I pack a small ball of snow and toss it gently toward her legs. She looks down, maybe a little shocked I retaliated. But then a cunning smile flashes across her face.
Before I know it, all five of us are in a full-on snowball fight, laughing and yelling and running around. Well, Christian isn’t running. He’s sitting on the bench making ammunition for Bug and Amelia, loving every minute.