Page 60 of You'll Be the Death of Me

“Just curious,” she said right as someone opened her office door.

Both she and Cole jumped back, startled.

Oscar had entered, clearly having come from the hospital. Dellsucked in a shocked gasp, hoping she wasn’t about to find out her sous-chef and respected friend was up to no good.

“He was at the hospital,” Cole observed.

“Yes. He’s my sous-chef. I can’t imagine he’d be doing anything to harm me.”

She and Cole shuffled into the corner when Oscar came around her desk and sunk into her chair. Dell bumped up against Cole, her back to his front, but in the small space, there was no room to move.

“Why is he in your office?” Cole asked. His breath poured over her nearly bare shoulder and made her shiver in the most pleasant way.

“I don’t know, but sometimes we come in here to—” Dell couldn’t finish her sentence before Oscar opened her bottom desk drawer and pulled out the bottle of scotch stashed there along with a crystal tumbler. “Have a drink when things are rough,” she added on as they watched Oscar pour two fingers of top-shelf brown liquor into the glass and sip it.

Oscar sighed and held his forehead in his hand. A soft sob burbled out of him.

“Oh,” Dell said, realizing why he was there right when someone quietly knocked on the door.

Sasha peeked her head around the corner and quickly slipped inside before shutting the door behind her.

“And this is?” Cole asked.

“Sasha, my head pastry chef,” Dell answered. “There’s rumor she and Oscar are a thing.”

Sasha always moved with the grace of a ballerina, all long arms and legs. Watching her make desserts, cutting pastries, placingberries, drizzling chocolate, was like watching someone dance. At that moment, she appeared caved in on herself. Her braids were pulled back in a colorful scarf. She wrapped the baggy sweater she wore more tightly around herself.

“Hey,” she said to Oscar from across the room.

Oscar looked up at her, his eyes red and face puffy. In an instant, Sasha dashed to his side. She knelt next to him and held his face.

“Oh, baby, I’m so sorry.” She pulled him against her and held him while he cried.

The whole scene stunned Dell. She’d never,everseen Oscar cry. Not even when he’d sliced his finger and had to be taken to the ER for stitches. He was a tatted-up, no-nonsense tough guy who rarely cracked a smile. And here he was weeping over... her?

Sasha shushed him and smoothed her hands over his hair. She held his face to look at him. “What happened at the hospital?”

Oscar shook his head with a sniffle. “It’s not good, baby. She’s—” He cut off with another sob. He thumped his fist on the desk. “Fuck. I just never told her how much I admired her or really thanked her for giving me a shot. And now I might never get the chance.”

Sasha smoothed her thumbs over his face. “Hey, she knew, okay? She knew what she meant to you, and to all of us.”

Dell wasn’t sure shedidknow, but she knew Sasha was only trying to comfort him and couldn’t blame her for saying it. The same feeling she’d gotten while watching her family mourn her hollowed her out again.

Sasha kissed Oscar’s cheek and then his lips. She still held his face, and the kiss lingered like she was trying to transfer his pain to herself. When they pulled apart, she pressed her forehead to his. “Want me to make you something special?”

Oscar’s sad pout twitched at one side. “Got any more of the pistachio gelato?”

Sasha softly smiled back. “Coming right up.”

Oscar’s smile grew. “I love you.”

“I love you too. Now come on, we’ve got a kitchen to run. Dell would want us to.” She stood up from the floor and held her hand out to grip his.

Oscar placed his into it and followed her toward the door. He pulled her back before they reached it and used his other hand to cup her face. “I don’t deserve you,” he said, and kissed her again.

When they opened the door, the smell of the kitchen flooded into the room. Dell watched them leave, feeling all sorts of things. She pressed her hands to her face to cover her eyes.

“I didn’t know he cared that much. I mean, I know helikesme, and we share mutual respect, but to see him cry over me? And Sasha. They aren’t just a thing;they are inlove. How could I have missed that?”