“Kyro…” Kong warned.
“I love a good peanut butter and jelly, too, but I like trying new things. You can sit down at the table over there, and we can play a game to make this fun,” Ayla suggested.
“What kind of game?” Kyro squinted at her suspiciously.
“The kind where you pretend to be a critic. You can rate my dish one to ten. How does that sound?”
“I can be honest, too, and you won’t get mad if I make it a negative zero?” Kyro asked, making Ayla chuckle.
“You have to be honest, not mean, and give me a good reason why you don’t like it. That’s called constructive criticism.”
“Can I make some of those rating cards with the numbers on them like on the cooking shows?” Kyro negotiated.
“You sure can.”
“Come on, Kara.” He took his sister’s hand and guided her out of the kitchen with Kong staring after them.
“How did you do that?” he asked, his whole face warped in surprise as Ayla continued to mix the bowl of cornbread pancakes and lift her warm eyes.
“Do what?” she asked, oblivious to what he meant.
“Talk him down like that. He’s usually ready to argue and go back and forth with anybody about anything.”
“Oh, I have a nephew. Dane is fifteen now, but he was a terror when he was that age. He never liked to eat anything I made either. I had to force veggies into meals for him, masking them with other flavors. Including him in the experience went over well, though. Made him feel like he was doing something instead of being in the way.” She shrugged, and Kong studied her, captivated.
Twyla was good with the kids. Nobody had been as patient with them since, so he was thrown by Ayla’s organic nurturing nature. Although he was older than her, she was mature beyond her years. Her eyes told a story, like she’d seen things, lost things. Although bright and warm, there was also a somberness resting very subtly. Only someone who knew that same sadness would recognize it.
“Now, I can’t get him to stop eating, and he’s taller than me.”
Kong was a man used to easily rattling women. While he could tell Ayla admired him on the outside like most, it wasn’t her instinct to flirt or throw herself at him. Had it been any other type of female, they would have thrown the innuendos every which way they could. She was more interested in keeping it professional. It was impressive, which only intrigued him moreabout her. She was also being modest because behind those thin framed glasses was a pretty face.
Where he was hard, she was gentle, open where he was sealed shut. He wondered if she was right for this job, in his home. They needed a chef, and the kids needed some kind of stability, but beneath that reasoning lay something more dangerous. Ayla represented a light Kong spent years avoiding. With his dark past and need to live half in shadow because of his lifestyle, he had to acknowledge that allowing himself around someone like her was unsettling.
In the same token, she seemed to already be having an effect on their household. Giving her time to familiarize herself with the space without feeling like she was being watched, he went to his office and viewed her from the surveillance monitors instead.
She didn’t seem overwhelmed or scared in the least. He noticed she turned on an R&B playlist from her phone and put one of her buds in her ear to listen as she did her thing. It didn’t take long for the aromas to fill the house and draw everyone into the kitchen. Kong settled with both children and his father at the table where she served them with the cornbread and chicken first.
“Wait.” Ayla stopped them before they all dug in hungrily. “Grace. Please.”
Audiemar peered around the table at everyone, locking eyes with Kong last.
“Join hands,” Ayla encouraged, watching them all reluctantly do so. “Father, thank you for bringing this family together at this time, on this day. May they enjoy this hearty meal in your name, amen.”
The four of them dug in, and Ayla awaited their reaction anxiously.
“Yoohoo!” Phoebe’s high-pitched voice echoed from the front entry. “Something smells… interesting.”
Two sets of heels traveled in their direction as Ayla moved back to the counter to check on the last batch of egg bites in the oven. The minute Nayelli laid eyes on her so comfortably behind the counter in Kong’s kitchen, she didn’t like her. All meek and naturally beautiful with her hair neatly pulled into a bun as she moved through the kitchen like she’d been there forever.
“Well, good afternoon to you all!” It was Phoebe who spoke first, immediately witnessing the jealousy in her daughter’s eyes.
Nayelli had always been territorial over Kong, even when he impregnated Twyla all those years ago. In her mind, the two of them would somehow end up together, and he would marry her, so they could start a family. When Twyla entered the picture, another woman didn’t even exist for him.
“What’s going on here?” Nayelli set her reusable bags down from Crowder’s, a local organic food chain in the city.
“Ayla here is interviewing for the chef position.” Audiemar nodded as he cut into a cornbread pancake and forked it to bring to his lips.
“Is she now?” Nayelli skimmed her carefully and squinted.
