“My grandmother used to say you could tell when someone put love into the food they’ve prepared. It just tastes better.” I take another bite of my meal along with a piece of the pita bread.
“I did fall in love with it,” he tells me. “After a while I realized that I wasn’t just chopping vegetables or sprinkling spices onto meat. I was nourishing my family.” He chuckles.
“What?”
His gaze meets mine. “This will sound cheesy as a double stuffed pizza, but I realized it once when I took Gina to one of herdoctor’s appointments when she was pregnant with Ace. Micah was a toddler running around, so I went to wrangle him in …”
“And because you didn’t want to miss any appointments,” I add, recognizing what he hasn’t said.
He dips his head. “Yes, after missing out on Micah’s pregnancy and his first few months of life, I didn’t want to miss anything. During the appointment,” he continues, “the doctor measured the baby and checked Gina, then looked over at me and said, ‘You’re feeding them well.’
“I hadn’t thought about it before, but Gina was eating for two … a little, defenseless baby who had to take whatever he was given. That’s the moment it clicked. She needed her strength and so did the baby. The meals I prepared fed them, gave them life in a way.”
He stops, his eyes moving from his plate to me.
Joel looks so damn cute and sexy at the same time with the unhidden vulnerability in his eyes.
“Told you it was cheesy.”
“Not at all.” I reach out my free hand, and he takes it. “It sounds like you understand what it means to be a partner and a damn good father.”
We eat the rest of our meal in a comfortable silence, but our hands remain intertwined all the way up until the moment Joel rises to take our plates into the kitchen.
I remain seated, as he’s just directed. A few minutes later he comes back to the table with a plate of coconut cookies and two mugs of hot chocolate.
“The two don’t go together often but Donna’s Bakery had these fresh when I stopped in this afternoon,” he says while placing the plate of cookies in front of me.
My heart skips a beat as I stare at the cookies. I swear I need to stop getting choked up like this.
“I didn’t add marshmallows to the hot chocolate, but I can if you’d like?” he suggests. “Didn’t know if it would be too sweet for you in one go.”
“This is perfect,” I say, barely able to keep the wobble out of my tone.
And it is. Everything about tonight is perfect.
CHAPTER 21
Joel
“It’s off-center,” Ellyn complains for the third time as I try to hang the final row of lights around the gutters of my house.
“How the hell is it off center? I put them right above the gutters.”
“Then your gutters are off-center,” Ellyn throws back.
I glance down at her, and she immediately goes to hold on to the ladder that I’m standing on.
“Be careful.” Worry and concern fill her voice. “Why would you insist on doing this part of the decorating tonight?” she admonishes.
“We’re decorating the house,” I remind her. “This is part of the house.”
“Yeah, but I didn’t realize that meant you would literally climb onto your rooftop at eight o’clock at night.”
I turn my head so she doesn’t see the grin that covers my lips.
“Only a few more minutes.”
“This part could’ve waited until tomorrow afternoon. In the daytime.”
