Page 9 of Margo

“True, but still. If you girls were mine, you wouldn’t be cooking by yourselves or even with help. Little girls shouldn’t be using knives or cooking on a hot stove. It’s too dangerous.”

“If you had a Little girl, you’d do all the cooking for her?” Mariah asked.

He could tell her interest was piqued as she shoved the cutting board and bowl of strawberries toward him.

“I would. Or, if I was in the situation Baze was in, I’d probably hire someone. Baze should probably do that soon anyway. As he starts building, there will be more and more people here, and he’s gonna need a cook eventually.”

Mariah looked thoughtful. “Margo hates to cook,” she finally said. “But I like it. I used to do it a lot at home, and it’s kinda therapeutic. Plus, I hate feeling useless. I wish Baze would let us work.”

“Maybe if you tell him that, he’ll give you a job. I mean, there aren’t really any jobs right now, but there will be eventually. Maybe when he hires a cook, you can get a job as a kitchen assistant. A sous chef.”

“I thought Little girls shouldn’t play with knives or hot stoves,” Mariah teased, tossing his earlier admonition back at him.

Knox just shrugged. “Unless they are under the supervision of a Daddy. Then I suppose it would be okay.”

“Well, what if the chef Baze hires isn’t a Daddy?”

“I don’t really see that happening. Anyone Baze hires to work here on a daily basis will have to at least be tolerant of the lifestyle. I don’t see that going any other way,” Knox mused as he sliced strawberries.

Mariah was just standing there, looking unsure of what to do. Knox knew it was his presence making her unsure, not her kitchen abilities.

“Why don’t you get out the bacon and get it going in the oven?”

“In the oven?” Mariah sounded scandalized by his suggestion.

“It’s easier and less messy. Preheat the oven to 400 and line an edged cookie sheet with aluminum foil, then just lay the bacon out on the sheet and pop it in the oven for eighteen to twenty minutes.”

“Will it still taste the same?” Mariah started to do as she was told, but she looked skeptical while doing it.

“I promise you, this tip is gonna change your life,” Knox swore.

Mariah giggled. “Change my life huh? I feel like that’s a lot to ask from a kitchen hack.”

“It will, though, you’ll see,” Knox promised.

Mariah finished laying out the bacon on two lined trays, popped them in the oven and set the timer. “Now what?”

“Now….” Knox looked around the kitchen. There wasn’t much left to do in the way of food prep. “Now you can start cleaning up and putting things away while I start the pancakes.”

Mariah groaned. “I like cooking a lot more than I like cleaning up,” she announced.

“Don’t we all?”

“Not all of us. I think Margo would rather do dishes than cook all day long. She’s a really bad cook.”

“Good to know.” Knox filed away that info in his head, saving it for a rainy day.

They worked in silence for a few minutes, Mariah flitting around the kitchen, getting everything put away before she started the dishes.

When she was standing at the sink and he was a few feet away working the griddle, she looked over at him. “Mister Knox?”

“Yes, Mariah?”

“What if… what if we’re naughty and we don’t want to wait for Baze to get home to punish us?”

Knox frowned. He hadn’t been expecting that question. “Why wouldn’t you want to wait?”

Mariah shrugged and didn’t look at him when she answered. “Waiting sucks. Having to deal with a whole pileup of things at once instead of just one thing really sucks.”