Page 54 of Just This Once

Emily hopped off the counter and joined me by the island, picking through the ingredients. “Okay, how can I help? I’m not much of a cook, but I can follow directions.”

“Stop.” I placed my hands on hers. “Just let me cook for you.”

Her eyes softened and went wide. It didn’t take much to see that Prim was always busy—hustling to be useful and at the top of her game. For once, I just wanted her torelax.

I gripped her hips and hauled her up onto the island. I pointed a finger. “Sit.”

She threw up a jaunty salute. “Yes, sir.”

I smirked and crowded her space. “Careful. I might like that a little too much.” Opening the drawer beside her legs, I lifted out a pair of tongs and clapped them in her direction. “Just talk to me.”

Emily toyed with her lip as her eyes moved over the simple ingredients on the counter—shrimp, butter, garlic, lemon, parsley. Her hands itched to mess with them. “Talk to you...”

Clearly it was a challenge for her to sit still. Shaking my head, I pulled some orzo from the cabinet and smiled as I filled a large pot with water. “Tell me about work. How’s Michael been?”

She relaxed with a sigh. “Michael has been good. No more incidents. Work is...” A furrow deepened between her eyes. “It’s okay.”

I paused and turned down the heat on my skillet. “Just okay?”

“I kind of got into a little trouble,” she admitted.

I hummed as I added butter to the skillet and let it melt, then moved to salt and pepper the shrimp. Keeping my attention on the food rather than her seemed to help her feel more at ease.

“I did a thing,” she continued. I raised my gaze to let her know I was listening. “There is this kid in my class, Robbie. He’s a great kid—creative and kind, but a little bit of an outcast. Middle school is tough.”

I turned the heat down on my skillet and inverted my plate so all the shrimp hit the pan at the same time. “What’s his last name?”

“Lambert.”

I frowned down at the shrimp and started flipping them.

“You know the family?” she asked. “The dad is?—”

“An asshole with a chip on his shoulder,” I supplied.

Emily chuckled. “Yep.”

I focused my attention on her. “Did he do something to you?”

Her smile softened. “No, nothing like that. I just noticed that Robbie was coming to school with shoes that were falling apart. So I got him a new pair.”

A pain poked me in the chest. “That was kind of you.”

“Yeah, well, no good deed goes unpunished, apparently. His dad forced him to return them to me, and then he stormed into the office threatening my principal. I was accused of ‘special treatment’ and basically got a slap on the wrist for it.”

I added garlic and let the shrimp sizzle. “That doesn’t sound too bad then. It’s a shame that the kid has to suffer because his dad won’t accept someone else’s help, though.”

“Exactly! I just hate that this year isn’t going as I expected, you know? I really want Principal Cartwright to see that I’d be perfect for a full-time position.”

I carefully plucked each shrimp from the hot skillet and set them on a clean plate while I worked on the sauce. Adding lemon juice and chicken stock, I scraped a wooden spoon across the skillet.

Emily inhaled. “Oh my god, that smells good. Where did you learn how to cook?”

Pride swelled in my chest. Somewhere along the line I enjoyed Emily’s praise just as much as I enjoyed poking at her. “Picked it up at the fire station. We all take turns making meals, and there are bragging rights involved.” A thought sparked as I moved to drain the cooked pasta. “So you got in trouble because Robbie was the only one who needed the shoes?”

Emily considered. “I mean, there are other kids in the school who need things like shoes or clothes, but essentially because Robbie was the only one whogotthis so-called special treatment, I got reprimanded for showing favoritism or some bullshit.”

“Got it.” I bit back a grin as a plan bloomed in my mind. “Why don’t you let me take care of it?”

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