Page 256 of What We Brave
"Ourpan. Community property." He sets it on the coffee table—Angie lifts her wine glass just in time—and drops onto the floor beside my legs, back against the couch. "I'm telling you, it's over. That cheese won."
Three hours. Three hours of wine and lasagna and Tony's impression of their station chief, and nobody's made it weird. When Reid suggested inviting all our friends over, I wanted to say no. It felt like too much pressure. But it's been great. Tony and Angie are blending so easily with Jamila and Kerry, it's like they've known each other forever.
It's easy. Maybe too easy, but I'm not going to think about that right now.
"Boil water in it," I say. "Let it sit for twenty minutes. The cheese will lift right off."
He twists to look up at me. "That's it?"
"That's it."
"Boil water."
"Yep."
"Where did you learn that?"
"My mom." I take a sip of wine. "She burned everything she ever cooked. Toast. Rice. Soup. The woman could burnwater. But she could clean a pan, because she destroyed about ten thousand of them."
"Is she any better now?" Jamila asks.
"God, no. My mom's a menace in a kitchen. But she knows her way around a scrub brush."
Reid grins. That stupid wide grin that rearranges his whole face. "Where were you when I spent forty minutes scrubbing a muffin tin last week?"
"Watching you suffer, probably."
His hand finds my ankle. Thumb pressing into the bone. Casual. He does this—finds a place to touch and just holds on.
"Reid!" Tony's voice from the kitchen. "I don't give a shit if you don't like clean up. Man the fuck up!"
"I'm consulting an expert!"
"You're hiding!"
Blake's voice now. Dry. "Get your ass back in here."
"No respect." Reid's already on his feet, grabbing the pan. "I get no respect in this house." He points at me. "Boil water. Twenty minutes. If this doesn't work, I'm blaming you."
He kisses the top of my head, snatches Claire out of Angie's arms, and disappears.
Six months old and I just met her tonight. She was born while everything between us was in pieces. I missed the whole thing—Tony handing out cigars, Reid showing up at the hospital with a stuffed elephant the size of a Labrador. All of it.
The room settles. From the kitchen—Reid defending himself, Blake's low laugh, Kerry saying something that makes Tony cackle. She's been in there with the guys most of the night. Give her a beer and a group of dudes and she's happier than at any brunch.
Angie watches the doorway where Reid disappeared.
"I can't even imagine," she says.
"Imagine what?"
"Two of them." She nods toward the kitchen. "I've got one husband and one baby and some days I'm not sure either of us is going to survive it. You've gottwomen in this house full-time." She shakes her head. "How do you even do it?"
Crap. Jinxed it. I had to go and get comfortable.
I turn my wine glass by the stem. My heart's doing that jumpy thing it does when I'm about to either say something honest or something stupid. Usually both.
But Angie's face is open. Curious. And there's no edge in her voice. She knew before she walked in. Tony told her. She brought wine and let Blake carry her diaper bag and complimented the lasagna twice.
