Page 24 of Painting Together a Family
“I just might take you up on that. I bet it tastes great sandwiched between two halves of a biscuit.”
Bryan had to grin. “I can confirm that it does indeed.” Leftover meat sandwiches were not only economical, they were one of his favorite things. He’d had many a midnight snack sandwich. “There’s also dessert, but maybe we should wait a bit, let dinner settle before we have that?”
“That sounds perfect.”
“Did you guys want to watch a movie?” he offered the kids.
“Marley said she’d read to us.” Micah adored being read to. Dylan was more into trying to read the books himself now, which worked out well because Micah would happily sit and be his audience, but Bry imagined Dylan would be happy to listen to Marley read because she was someone new.
“I did. You have some great books to choose from, too. Can we be excused?” she asked.
“You can—boys wash your hands, please.” If they didn’t, everything they touched would need a cleaning.
“Everyone should wash their hands,” Dev suggested.
Marley sort of rolled her eyes, but she called out, “Okay!” and that stampede of elephants made their way down the hall to the bathroom. Bry was glad, as he always was, that the Pereisos lived above them and not beneath them.
“Let me help you clear the table and do the dishes,” Dev offered.
“That would be great, thanks.”
They got the table cleared, and he started putting the leftovers away. Dev grabbed a plate and rinsed it, then stood there, looking around, little frown drawing a line between his eyes.
“What’s wrong?” Bryan asked.
“I can’t find the dishwasher.”
Bryan laughed. “That’s funny—you’re looking right at it.”
Dev looked around some more, then back to him, frown lines deeper.
He gave Dev a break and pointed his finger at himself. “Me. I’m the dishwasher.”
“You don’t have a dishwasher? I mean a mechanical, put the dishes in it and let the machine wash them dishwasher.”
“Nope. It’s an older house, and there isn’t really room for one in here.” Besides, most of the time there were dishes for just the three of them, and he usually cleaned up as he made food, so there was never all that many dishes to do at once. This was the first time he’d had guests over for supper—well the first time he’d had guests over, period, since Grant. It was funny—and not in the hahaha way—how having a spouse die and then all your money stolen really sent the people you’d called friends out of your life. Grant had helped with that, Bry knew that now, isolating him from the few friends who’d stuck around after Miller had passed.
He stuck the leftovers tupperware into the fridge and grabbed the shortcake out to put on the table and allow to come up to room temperature. Then he grabbed the plate from Dev’s hand and turned the tap back on. He had a scrub brush with soap in the handle that worked really well at cleaning, and he started washing the first plate.
“I guess I’ll dry?” Dev suggested.
Bryan reached over to one of the drawers and pulled out a dishcloth, tossing it at Dev. “You can stack the dishes on the counter next to the rack and I’ll put them away when you’re done.” It would save Dev from having to search out where everything went.
They did the dishes without talking much, but instead of awkward, the silence felt companionable. Bryan couldn’tremember the last time he’d shared quiet space with another adult. Usually, he felt like he needed to fill any silences, and he wasn’t the greatest at small talk, so it always felt awkward.
“Would you like a coffee or some tea?” The dishes were done, and he felt like something warm to go with their dessert, which he was sure the kids—or his boys at least—would come hunting soon enough.
“Oh, tea would be nice. What have you got?”
He opened the pantry. “Tea’s here on the eye-level shelf.” He had a box of orange pekoe, and several boxes of herbal stuff, mint, camomile for the nights he couldn’t sleep, along with some of the celestial seasoning zingers.
“What goes with our dessert?” Dev asked, eyes twinkling.
“You just want to know what dessert is.” Though Dev had seen him take it out to the dining room table.
“Maybe. It will probably impact my choice though.”
Chuckling, he pointed to the pekoe and the mint. “Either of those will go well. I’m having the mint. Oh, it’s strawberry shortcake. The berries looked amazing at the market this morning.”
