Page 16 of Firefighter Midlife Wolf

“Coming.” Jessica emerged from the bedroom.

Paige stood proudly next to the dining table, beaming. “I made dinner.”

“That’s so sweet of you! What did you make?” Jessica came around the table to sit at her usual seat. The food was plated at each spot, along with a fork and knife carefully aligned on a napkin. Two candles burned in the middle of the table.

“Baked ranch chicken, green beans, and garlic bread.” Paige sat down across from her, still grinning. “The chicken is breaded in crushed cornflakes, ranch seasoning, and parmesan.”

“It looks wonderful. All of this does. The table, too. How did you put all of this together?” Jessica was truly floored by how much effort her thirteen-year-old had put into making a dinner for the two of them when she could’ve simply nuked some pizza rolls. “I didn’t even know you were interested in cooking!”

Paige shrugged. “I’ve been watching some cooking videos online. I know sometimes they make it all look easier than it really is, but it wasn’t too bad. I just picked something that we had all the ingredients for. What do you think?” She leaned forward, watching with keen interest as Jessica cut a bite of chicken and put it into her mouth.

She wasn’t sure what to expect. Jessica had heard of people using cornflakes as breading and casserole topping, and she had a vague recollection that her aunt might’ve served a few things along those lines at a family potluck or two, but she’d never done it herself. It wasn’t like she’d had much time to cook with her work schedule over the last twenty years or so. Jessica crunched through the flavorful breading into juicy chicken and shook her head in disbelief. “Paige, this is amazing!”

“You’re not just saying that?” Paige hadn’t even touched her own food yet.

Jessica remembered what Hayden had said about teens thinking any positive comments were out of obligation. She knew she’d felt the same way when she was that age, but she wanted Paige to know just how earnest she was. “No, really. Try it.”

Paige took a bite and chewed carefully. Her narrow shoulders lowered a bit. “You’re right! It’s pretty good!”

“I guess this means you’ll be in charge of dinner from now on,” Jessica joked. “You’ll save us from frozen pizzas and fast food.”

“There’s no way I could do this every night,” Paige remarked, shaking her head and sitting back in her seat. “I’ve been in that kitchen forever and still have all the dishes to clean up.”

It was a good dose of reality for her, that was for sure. “I’ll help with those. I really am impressed that you could learn all this from a video.” A pang of guilt hit her as she cut into her chicken again. It was great that Paige could learn on her own, but shouldn’t she be teaching her daughter to cook? Jessica no longer had the crazy hours and shifts of the ER, but now she had to split her time with Brandon. Paige was growing up fast, and it was only a matter of time before she didn’t really want to spend time with her parents.

“It was just the chicken and the beans. The garlic bread had the instructions on the bag.” Paige took a big sip of apple juice. “I found some other videos that interest me, too.”

“Lobster bisque? Beef Wellington? Tiramisu?” Jessica tried the green beans, finding them to be well-seasoned. This was probably the best meal she’d had in the past couple of weeks.

Paige laughed. “No, Mom. Nothing like that. I mean makeup and hair tutorials.”

“Oh?” This was a turn of events. Paige’s hair had always been that deep chestnut she’d inherited from Brandon, but she had Jessica’s waves. It was gorgeous, and when Jessica had had the time, she used to tie it up with cute little bows or barrettes. As Paige had gotten older and didn’t care as much about looking like a girly girl, she’d usually just put it up in a quick ponytail or raked a brush through it without much effort.

“Yeah. Here.” Paige took out her cell phone, a necessity after the divorce. She spent more time home alone, plus having her own line meant she could reach out to either of her parents whenever she wanted. She pulled up the videos she’d been watching and pushed her phone across the table to Jessica. “This one is all about this line of neat hot tools, like a straightener and a wand-style curling iron. Then there’s this one about makeup.”

Jessica only saw the thumbnails, but she didn’t need to see more to understand just what was happening. It was inevitable. It was exciting to see Paige entering the next phase of her life, but she wished time would slow down a little. “That’s a pretty color of eyeshadow she’s wearing.”

“Isn’t it?” Paige fiddled with her garlic bread. “I was wondering if we could go shopping sometime so I could get a few things and follow along. I’ve got that stuff Grandma got me for my birthday last year, but it’s not really what I need anymore.”

Jessica smiled as she dabbed her napkin on her mouth. Brandon’s mom had decided to buy Paige an entire makeup set without bothering to ask Jessica how she felt about it. It was a nice set, but it was all from the brand Mrs. Anderson had been wearing for decades. It wasn’t the young, fashionable stuff that Paige was interested in. Jessica had known as soon as Paige had unwrapped it that it was destined to sit in the bottom of her closet. “Sure, honey. We can do that.”

Paige practically bounced in her seat. “Really?”

“We’ll just need to find a time to go. In the meantime, you should see what you can do with what you have. If you’re just practicing at home, you’ll still learn some techniques even if you don’t have the shades you want.”

“Okay! So, how was work?”

Jessica had to give her credit. She wasn’t sure if Paige had made this meal because she genuinely wanted to or because she was buttering Jessica up to take her on the shopping trip. She’d take it either way. Now, she was even asking about her day and genuinely seemed to care. Regardless of her motives, Paige wasn’t her little girl anymore.

Unfortunately, Jessica couldn’t think about work without thinking about Hayden. The handsome firefighter was in her mind like an annoying song, rolling through over and over again no matter how much she tried to distract herself. “I don’t want to talk about work right now. Why don’t you show me exactly what you want to buy? Then we can figure out where to go.”

“I’ve got a whole list!” Paige tapped her phone again.

Jessica let herself get lost in eyeshadow, mascara, highlighter, heat protectant, and styling tools.

9

“Look at this.” Jonathan Bell’s eyes lit up as he reached down next to his chair and lifted a wooden cane. “My son made this for me. He went out into the forest and found the piece of wood himself and everything. Just look at all that carving. Can you believe that?”

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