THWACK!
The knife hit the cutting board with a resounding thud. The potato split cleanly beneath the blade, and each subsequent chop sent a satisfying jolt up my arm.
“Jesus. Did that potato kill your childhood pet or something?” Xavier asked.
“This is not aggressive.” I finished cutting the potatoes and placed them in a pot of cold water before I turned on the stove. “Hand me the seasoning mix over there.”
He grumbled but complied. “I like how you’re usingmykitchen for free while also treating me like I’m your unpaid sous chef.”
“Be serious,” I said. “I would never let you be my sous chef. You don’t even know what macerating means.”
“No one knows what it means except you.”
I snorted. The water started simmering. I added kosher salt and baking soda, my mind drifting as muscle memory kicked in.
It was early February, nearly three months since Maya’s birthday party. Between work and the holidays, time had passed in a heartbeat, but my mind was stuck in last year—in the woods,in the conservatory, in a thousand moments where I could’ve made a different choice but didn’t.
Maya and I had skipped our in-person meetings since her party. One or both of us kept running into “scheduling conflicts,” but we did have one on the calendar for the end of the week.
Whether it’d actually happen remained to be seen.
I reduced the heat to a simmer and started making the garlic rosemary seasoning while I let the potatoes cook. My chest was tight, and I was only half paying attention to Xavier’s Valentine’s Day plans for Sloane this year.
I couldn’t hide from Maya forever, but I hadn’t figured out what to say the next time I saw her. Should I try to act normal, or should I throw caution to the wind and clear the air between us once and for all? If I chose option two, what would that mean for our relationship going forward?
Dammit. I wished I could time travel back to last summer, when it’d been so much easier to keep my mask intact.
I was right to have been worried about working so closely with Maya. It was fucking me up, and she wasn’t even here.
“You were pretty MIA during the holiday circuit,” Xavier said while I finished cooking the potatoes. I was taking a break from the scallops to experiment with other dishes. Hopefully, that would give me space to figure out what was missing from the scallops recipe. “Everything okay?”
“I wanted to keep things low-key,” I said. “I didn’t feel like dealing with the party scene this year.”
The Maya avoidance issue aside, it’d been my family’s first Christmas since my aunt died. My mother had been a mess, and I hadn’t wanted to party while she was crying her eyes out every night. My father had tried to help, but he wasn’t a naturally comforting person, so it’d been up to me to calm her down.
“Understandable.” Xavier’s mouth quirked. “Too bad youmissed one of Vivian’s clients almost dropping Josie at Ayana’s holiday fundraiser. She’s fine, but Dante wasthis closeto committing actual murder.”
I chuckled at the mental image. Dante was the world’s most overprotective father. I bet he’d gone full nuclear on the poor client.
“Let me guess,” I said. “They’re no longer a client.”
“Yep,andwe can say goodbye to anyone else being allowed to hold Josie ever. I’m pretty sure he ordered some custom bubble wrap to cocoon her in until she turns eighteen.”
Poor girl. Having Dante Russo as her dad was both a blessing and a curse.
With Xavier’s help, I finished my dishes in a reasonable amount of time. Crispy rosemary garlic roast potatoes and pineapple-glazed ham—both perfect. It kind of pissed me off how easily I’d nailed them without trying when Ididtry with the scallops and had gotten nowhere.
“Can I bring some back for Sloane?” Xavier asked around a mouthful of ham. “She’ll kill me if I don’t.”
“Go ahead. It’s all yours.”
“Sweet.”
I was cleaning up when I received a phone call. It was from Mount Sinai.
I answered immediately, my heart pinging with alarm. Xavier gave me a concerned stare as the woman on the other end identified herself as a nurse.
“We’re calling about your mother,” she said. “There’s been an incident.”
