Page 11 of The Only Time

“Hi, sweetie,” I say, then give her a big kiss on her chubby little cheek.

“I missed you. You didn’t come to my recital. I was sad.”

Shit, tear out my heart why don’t you? I tried like hell to make it, but I was stuck in a meeting with executives. Needing to leave early for my niece’s dance recital wouldn’t have gone over well.

“I’m so sorry. I wanted to be there so badly. Did you get the cookies and flowers I sent over? Your daddy sent me the video. I watched it a hundred times. You were the best one out there.”

She giggles in my arms. “You think so?”

“I know so.”

We walk into the kitchen where my entire family is huddled around my large island laughing.

“Oh, Mia,” my mom says with an arm around her. “This food all smells amazing. How lucky we are to be treated to your family recipes.”

Ever since mom and Layla worked out their differences not too long ago, she’s been so different. She shed the entitlement that came with my father’s business taking off years ago, now back to the old women we once knew.

Mia smiles. “I’m so happy to cook for you guys. You’re so sweet to spend the evening with me. And I’m slightly obsessed with your son’s kitchen, so any excuse to use it.”

Well, at least someone puts this kitchen to use. For as much time as I spend in my home, making home cooked meals hasn’t been a part of my routine. It wasn’t when Kim lived here, and it certainly hasn’t been since she left.

It’s not that I don’t want to use it, but there’s something about cooking for one that’s depressing. With Kim, it was like cooking for one because she wouldn’t eat anything but salads. It was like living with a rabbit.

“Hey, look who’s home,” my dad shouts over the noise.

Everybody turns to me with my niece still in my arms. I don’t know why, but I focus in on Mia’s reaction. I watch her eyes as they look me up and down then, as if embarrassed by something, back to the pot in front of her.

“I didn’t think we would see you until after dinner,” Layla says as she greets with me a kiss on the cheek then proceeds to steal Brie out of my arms.

Since she is the only kid in the family at the moment, until Charlotte has her baby, we all fight over her. I hope we don’t turn her into a diva as she gets older.

“I guess it slipped your mind to tell me I was hosting a dinner at my house tonight,” I mutter to her under my breath.

“Sorry. I’m trying to make Mia feel more at home here. She’s going through a tough time and just really needs to feel the love.”

I’ll bet she’s going through a tough time, and she needs a rich man to come to her rescue. I still would love to know if she even has a job.

Despite my foul mood, I walk over to my mom and give her a kiss. I know she still worries about me daily, with all her text messages and phone calls. She thinks I’m depressed and am going to do something stupid one day. She may not know that I can see through it. If I don’t answer her for more than a day, she’ll justhappento be in the neighborhood at ten o’clock at night asking me a million questions about my mental state.

I have a desk drawer filled with therapists’ business cards that she hands to me like their Tic Tacs.

“I’m so happy you’re home early,” she says with a smile. “See, maybe Mia being here will be just what you need.”

Well, that’s not awkward at all to say as Mia stands right next to us. Annoyance prickles my body. I pull at the tension in my neck. I don’t know how to respond.

“That smells good, Mia,” I say in an effort to deflect. “What are you making?”

She bites her bottom lip. “It’s cacio e pepe.”

“Mia made these noodles this afternoon by hand…from scratch,” Mom says proudly. “This is what you need in your life. A woman who can cook.”

Mia coughs uncomfortably. I do the only thing I can think of in the moment—walk away. I find my brothers and dad who are now in the other room watching a football game.

It’s some extreme nineteen fifties shit going on in my house right now. The women in the kitchen while the men watch football.

“I didn’t know you got married man. Congratulations,” my youngest brother Liam slaps my back.

I roll my eyes. “Fuck off.”

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