The pain in her eyes dimmed slightly, and she blew out a breath, then glanced at Mercedes.“Are you sure you want to live with him?”
Mercedes crossed her arms and scowled.“He’ll be good, or he’ll be sleeping on the streets.Right, Evan?”
“The streets.Right.Don’t want to be on the streets.How about I order pizza for all of us to make up for being a bonehead?”
The two women peeked at each other, and some secret form of communication traveled between them.
“You’ll have to get two.I want veggies, but Carli likes the meat lovers.”
He pulled out his phone and swiped until his delivery app popped up.To keep the peace, he’d order a dozen pizzas and pay for every single one of them.
The front door opened and closed, and Mercedes looked up from her book.Evan gave a quick wave, then stomped down the hallway.She’d come to realize it wasn’t because he was upset at anything, but because he was filthy from work.He’d taken her clean house rules seriously, to a degree, and attempted to keep his work mess in his room.
She counted off as she flipped through the pages, not really reading them, then paused.Yup, his bedroom door opening, softer footsteps in the hall, then the bathroom door opening and closing.The shower would start any second.
And … there it was.Like clockwork.She’d known Evan since they were kids but hadn’t realized he was as structured as this.Or perhaps it was a routine he’d only started in the last week.Who knew?What mattered was that the decision to let Evan move in had been a good one.So far.
The shower stopped.Footsteps along the hall.Then, his bedroom door closed again.Mercedes attempted to get lost in her book once more, but it would only be a minute or so before he lumbered into the kitchen like a bear foraging for food.
Closing her book, she tucked in an old receipt to mark her place, then beelined to the kitchen.If she didn’t get to the crock pot first and dish out some food, Evan would dig a fork in and snag a few bites from the pot.Her germophobic tendencies wouldn’t allow that.
She placed a second plate on the table as he trudged through the door, his hair still damp, in an old t-shirt and sweats.Fine dining indeed.
“This smells delicious.”
He’d taken to voicing as well as signing since he’d lived here.She wasn’t sure why as he was quite aware she was fluent in ASL.She wouldn’t complain since the more he spoke, the better she understood his deaf voice.
“I didn’t know I’d get a home-cooked meal every night.You never said that was part of the living arrangements.”
After taking a cautious bite of the hot food, she shook her head.“It’s not.You can cook dinner any night you want.”
Evan had already gobbled down a half dozen forkfuls of the roast and potatoes that dripped in beef gravy.“It wouldn’t be anywhere near as good as this.If you want to take turns, we can set up a schedule.Adam and I made our own stuff.Unless we ordered takeout, we rarely ate together.”
“I usually cooked when Carli lived here, too.She got home later than me, like you do.”
Did someone teach you to cook or is it simply natural talent?His hands flew, but his mouth continued chomping on the meal.
“My mother grew up in France, and her father was a chef.She learned to cook at his knee.”
She’s a nurse now, right?
“Yes.Doesn’t mean she stopped cooking.I actually thought of going to cooking school at one point.It’s a lot of hard work and often nights and weekends.I wanted to have a social life as well.”
So you took after your dad?Evan asked, still chewing.
“In a way.”Her father was a college professor who taught history.He’d grown up in Haiti and had met her mother when she’d been on a vacation there.They’d fallen in love fast, but it hadn’t been an easy road.His parents hadn’t approved of him marrying a white woman, but love conquered all, and they would celebrate their thirtieth anniversary in a few months.
“I love books and reading, so knew I had to do something where I had lots of access to them.”
Evan started to wipe his hand across his mouth, then froze.Swiping a napkin from the holder on the table, he used that instead.Maybe he could be taught.
“A library has lots of books.Good choice.”
“So far it has been, for the most part.”
Evan dropped his fork in his plate and sat back, staring at her.“For the most part?”
She rubbed her hands together before answering.“Every job has a few things, or people, who make it harder or less pleasant.”
