“Really? Why didn’t I know this already?”
He dumped a cup of rice into the heating water and stirred it. “Yup. My foster parents left it to us boys, and I bought out the others to keep it. Kyle and Morgan are older than me and moved out years before I did. They have their own places and lives. Tammie—” He hesitated, like he needed to force himself to say the words. “Tammie wasn’t interested.”
He pulled out a cutting board and placed a head of broccoli on it. The knife in his hand had a gray-and-black blade of layered metals in a pretty crisscross pattern. The striking sheen contrasted with the pale wood handle. It fit Cam’s hand as if it was made for him. Hell, it probably was.
“Is that one of your blades?” she asked, snagging a green floret.
He smiled and tossed one into his mouth as well. “Yeah, I made this one. One of my first attempts at a Damascus wave.” He set the prepped broccoli in a cooking dish and cut up more veggies with the pretty knife. The sharp edge slid through a green pepper like it was butter. He held the blade up to the light to show its intricacies better. “Turned out nice, and I decided to keep this one for myself. I think it’s a lot like me.”
“What do you mean?”
“To get this effect, I had to cut thin layers of high-carbon and low-carbon steel. I also added some nickel alloys for a better contrast. Built them up and forged them together. Slow heat, borax flux, and a lot of hammering once the metal got to temperature. Then I had to cut it, fold it in half, and start the process again and again until I made a couple hundred or so layers. It takes a lot of time to form a usable billet.”
He finished with the green pepper and started on a red one. “I think our lives are built on layers like this. We have our high times, and we have our low times. Eventually, it all comes together to create who we are.”
She picked up one of the pepper slices and crunched it between her front teeth. The crisp flavor filled her mouth. “Interesting analogy.”
He smiled and sprayed a large skillet with oil. “There’s a lot more to it. Forming a blade means heating and hammering, reheating and more hammering, but”—he held up a pointer finger—“you have to be careful. Too much heat or hammeringand the blade might shatter. Not enough heat on the initial billet and the layers can come apart. It’s tricky and takes patience. I don’t think people have that anymore.”
Sabrina let out a short hum. “I can agree with that.”
The chicken sizzled as he added it to the pan. He lowered the temperature on the rice and put a lid on the pot. “Finishing involves grinding away all the parts that aren’t needed and sharpening the edge to uniform perfection. Again, this takes time and attention to detail.”
The cooking meat had a spicy aroma. He put the chopped broccoli in the microwave to steam while he took out a head of lettuce from the fridge. “The blade has to be hardened. That means one more round of heating to temperature and oil-quenching to make it flexible, but solid and unbreakable.”
He raised the lettuce high in the air and slammed the bottom onto the counter. Sabrina jumped at the sudden movement and stared when he turned over the green head and easily pulled out the core. “That’s pretty nifty.”
“Work smarter, not harder, right?” He picked up the knife again and sliced the head in half. “I learned that bit from my foster mom. She’s the one who taught us how to cook.”
“You mentioned Kyle, Morgan, and Tammie.”
He nodded and expertly diced the lettuce. “Cecil and Vera couldn’t have kids, so they chose to raise other people’s children. We were the last ones they took on because of their age. Vera became my mom, and Cecil became my dad. I was nine years old when I met Vera. She brought me cookies and explained her rules and what she would do for me. I left the children’s home at four forty in the afternoon and went home with her.”
Sabrina made the connection immediately. “The time on your tattoo.”
One corner of Cam’s mouth shifted up. “Yeah. I didn’t know it then, but that’s when my life started. Cecil and Vera treated melike a person. I had a place and a routine and people who loved and supported me.” He nodded at the dining alcove. “There used to be a big table over there. We did homework there every night. All of us. They both sat with us to help. Dinner. Board games. Family talks.” He smiled. “Yeah, they called us family. I have a lot of good memories from that table. That was the one piece of furniture Morgan wanted. Since I got the house, I figured it was fair.”
Sabrina’s heart cracked at the poignant words coming from the man who grew up here. “I think Ernie did the same for me. I don’t know when he started doubting he was my real father, but he never treated me as less than his daughter. Kids need assurance, right?”
Cam nodded as he stirred the cooked rice and dumped it into a bowl. “I guess that’s why I like working with metal so much. If you forge steel the right way, it holds its edge and stays stable for a lifetime.”
He clicked off the burners and raised his eyes to hers. Sabrina’s breath caught at what reflected in them.
“I really want to see what we’re going to forge together. We’ve come to that point where there’s no going back and you’ll stay here with me.”
“I understand.”
“Are you sure? You’llstay herewith me.”
Sabrina got it completely. Cam would become her man, her anchor, her family—permanently. She would put down roots in this community and make a home she wouldn’t have to leave.
“I’m ready.”
CHAPTER
EIGHTEEN
This timeof year could be tricky with snow, sleet, or sunshine, but fortune smiled upon the Knights. The day of the rally dawned with a nice cloudless day with slightly warmer temperatures than were usual for this time of year. Perfect for the event.
