“We cook,Delane.Come on, we’re chefs. So, we cook. Not for them, not for the people judging us.We cook for us. We make whatever reminds us of how fucking amazing we are.”
I laughed, and it was the first timeall night I finally felt like myself again. Hell, maybe it was the first timein years I felt like myself again. Not the shadowed, broken version I’d beensince Derrek, but the real me. The one that had been rescued by cooking andempowered by the kitchen. “I thought you were going to say drinking,” I toldhim. “That when all else fails, we drink.”
He chuckled, reaching for a bowl ofspices. “Well, we do that too.”
“Hey, Vere?” Molly called frombehind me.
Oh, my God, I’d completely forgottenshe was here. I whipped around to her, hoping she didn’t comment on how red mycheeks flamed or how absorbed in Killian I’d been for the last ten minutes.“Hi, sorry. Gosh, Molly, sorry.”
She gave me a pointed look, silentlycalling me out on everything I hadn’t wanted her to see. Her eyebrows dancedover her eyes, and she made a silent gesture toward Killian—kissing and thensomething more vulgar. “Do you care if I take off? I have an early morningtomorrow, and I’d like to get home.”
She was a liar. She had brunch withme tomorrow morning because we’d made plans less than an hour ago.
I narrowed my eyes at her. “Are yousure?”
Smiling innocently, she nodded.“Super sure.”
“You don’t want to wait around justanother hour or so?”
She started walking toward the door,collecting her things as she went. “Nope, I’m good. I’ll uh, see you tomorrow,Vera. Bye, Killian.”
“Bye, Molly,” Killian called overhis shoulder, fully absorbed in his new and improved spice blend.
I didn’t say anything to her. I waspretty sure I was never going to speak to her again.
Or at least not until tomorrowmorning when I met her at brunch.
The door shut behind her and Killianand I were left alone. Suddenly feeling awkward, I moved away from him andfocused very intently on anything else. Like my cleaning rag and thegreased-over fryer.
“Where did you train?” he asked whenI found more surfaces to scrub.
“CAI, Charlotte,” I told him.
He whistled between his teeth.“That’s a good program. You finished?”
I nodded. “Yeah, with a Bachelors.Geez, that was almost five years ago.”
His face scrunched up while heworked through my answer. “So, I met your dad, and your brother owns the bikeshop, right?” I nodded, not liking where this was going. “And your mom?”
I rubbed my hand over my heart,feeling that same hollow ache I always got when the subject of my mom wasbrought up. “She, uh, died when I was little. My dad raised us.”
His silence was a tangible thingthat filled up every single space in the truck. It sucked up the remainingoxygen and reached across the galley to touch me, wrap around me… hold me. “I’msorry,” he said so very tenderly my heart skipped.
I tilted my head, avoiding eyecontact with him. “Thank you.” We were silent for a minute while he let me stepout of the sharp but also distant grief that came with losing a mother I couldbarely remember. I only had a handful of faded memories of her. Watching herput on perfume. Laughing while she pushed me on a swing. A family vacation atthe beach. There weren’t many of them, but I treasured each one.
People never knew what to say when Itold them my mom died when I was young. They usually tried to fill in theemptiness with useless clichés or words of encouragement. I appreciatedKillian’s silence. There honestly wasn’t anything to say. Nothing made itbetter or okay. Nothing said could change what happened. It just was. This waspart of my story, the reality I lived with. Killian seemed to get that betterthan anyone else.
I wanted to ask about his family,but he changed the subject before I got a chance. “Durham is home for you?”
“Born and raised.”
“And the truck is a new venture,right?”
“Right.”
“Where have you been since CAI? Notin a kitchen around here. I would have heard about you.”
I shook my head. As flattering asthat statement was, I also knew it wasn’t true. I’d worked for plenty of chefshappy to give me busy work without any real responsibility. “I stayed inCharlotte for a while. Last year, I worked my way across Europe.”
