Page 37 of Why Not Both?

“You can go camping here?” Spencer asks as we pass the signs that point to the campgrounds.

“Yeah, but it fills up pretty fast. We went a few times when we were kids. And Daze and Sophie like to camp. If they’re close enough, I visit them for a day.”

“Not a camping person?” he asks with a smile.

“I like sleeping in a bed. If I had an RV, maybe. But I’m not sleeping on the ground.”

He laughs. “Fair.”

“Though camping cooking does present a fun challenge.”

“I’m certain you make gourmet meals, even when camping.”

I flash him a smile as I slow to cross a rickety, single-lane bridge. “Of course I do.”

Just after the bridge, I turn into a parking lot and we get out. Cerberus hops out, wiggling his excitement as he sniffs the air and then starts in a random direction.

I laugh, catching him and clipping his leash to his harness.

“Excuse me, sir. Just where do you think you’re going?”

Spencer and I put our things in the trunk.

“I have to confess. It’s not really much of a hike. More like a walk. But it’s one of Cerberus’ favourites.”

He grins at me and I just stare at him, lost for a moment in that captivating smile.

“No problem. Anything for the guardian of the gates of the Underworld. So you grew up in Maple Ridge?”

“Yeah. My parents still live in the same house I grew up in.”

“Why did you move to Vancouver?”

“For school, initially. I went to the Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts. After I graduated, I went to work at a restaurant in Burnaby for a while. But then it ended kind of badly, and Daze was already living in Vancouver so I moved in with her and found a new job in Vancouver. I can’t imagine living anywhere else now.”

Cerberus stops to sniff a tree stump on the side of the path for a moment before we continued.

“Was it always a dream to live and work in Vancouver?”

“No. The original dream was to open my own place somewhere. Probably not in Vancouver since it’s so expensive. But,” I shrug. “Dreams change.”

“Why did yours?”

“The business side doesn’t appeal to me. I just want to cook. Blue Vista is almost my ultimate dream job. To be in charge of my own kitchen. The only thing that would make it perfect would be to have creative control over the menu. But I figure, if I prove myself on this menu, I can convince Vic to let me have more control in the future.”

As we walk, he asks me about what kinds of things I would change on the menu and I tell him some of my favourite things I’ve created like the smoked salmon croquettes and a braised chicken that my mom loves.

After a while he groans. “Stop. You’re making me hungry.”

I smile and pull a granola bar from my pocket, handing it to him.

He bursts out laughing.

“Feeding people is my love language,” I say.

He just laughs harder. Eventually, he says, “I don’t think this is going to cut it. I want to try some of those things you were talking about. But I’ll wait.”

I slide the granola bar back into my pocket. “Enough about me and my dreams. What’s yours?”

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