Page 59 of Home Sweet Home

The pancakes bubbled,Evie’s cue to flip them. She turned them with the spatula in a clean motion, and they were perfect, crisp and with golden rings around the edges. While the other sides cooked, she brought the coffee pot to the table, where her dad and Josh sat. Josh hadn’t said a word since slinking into the chair the farthest from their dad five minutes ago.

She was surprised he’d even come out at all when she called him for dinner, but his hunger must have outweighed his anger toward her. And Josh loved pancakes, even when she was making them for dinner because they were fast and easy and cheap, and she had to be at West’s house for her surprise in less than an hour.

“Yes please, kiddo,” her dad said, cradling the mug with a bright-yellow sunflower on the front. The light-brown ceramic was chipped in more places than it was whole. It had been her mom’s favorite. Evie used to come into the kitchen every Saturday morning to find her mom flipping pancakes and sipping coffee from that mug. He hadn’t picked it on purpose, but it made her breath catch.

“Coffee, Josh?” she asked.

He shoved his mug a few inches forward. Any other day, she would have made him pour his own damn coffee. When he’d shambled into the kitchen and stared daggers at her, though, the guilt she carried for letting their dad stay over had won out, and she’d decided to be extra nice to him.

She poured her own coffee and drank it while she flipped the last batch of pancakes onto the top of the stack before putting the plate on the table. “Get them while they’re hot.”

Her dad stabbed three pancakes with his fork then smothered them in soft butter and maple syrup, the real kind, one of their only luxuries. Aunt Jemima had never had a place in Evie’s house, not under her mom’s watch and not under Evie’s. He took a bite. “Damn. Your mom taught you well.”

As Evie slid into her chair, the knot in her stomach tightened, and her attention shifted to Josh’s empty plate. “You should eat something.”

“Hear you’re playing this summer, Josh,” her dad said, pancake crumbs spraying out of his mouth.

“Enjoy your fucked-up family dinner,” Josh said with a pointed glare at Evie before bursting out of his seat like a tightly coiled spring.

Before Evie could say anything, Josh’s bedroom slammed shut behind him. She thought TV shows exaggerated how frequently teenagers slammed their doors, but Josh had made her wonder if they hadn’t underplayed it.

Her dad’s fork hovered midair. “Was it something I said?”

Evie took a bite of her pancakes. “We haven’t seen you for years, Dad.”

“I’ve texted. Both of you. You never text me back.”

“And why do you think that is?”

“I live in a van, Evie. No place for a kid. Never has been.”

You made a choice.Evie forced herself to control her exhale, her chest tightening. She flexed her fingers, trying to release the tension there.

“I’ve tried to do right by you two,” he added when Evie didn’t say anything. “Best I know how. And don’t forget, your mom was the one who kicked me out.”

She could pull at the thread he’d picked out, explain how all the choices he’d made were the reason she’d done it, but that was more pointless than a box of dull pencils. “Josh was in diapers last time you stayed longer than a few days. He barely knows you.”

“How am I supposed to get to know him if he won’t talk to me?”

Good fucking question.Let me know if you figure out the answer.“He has a game in a few days. A big one. Might help if you show up.”

Her dad took a bite, his face brightening. “Count me in.”

* * *

“This technique right here,”West said. “Called the ‘Stretch and Fold.’”

He pulled at the dough, stretching it up toward the ceiling before bringing it back and folding it over the top of the soft mound of dough in the mixing bowl. The muscles in his forearms flexed as he worked, and as Evie watched, she found her mind wandering, thinking of all the ways he could use those muscles.

West stopped and gave her a look that made her think he knew exactly what had been on her mind. “Are you listening to a word I’m saying?”

Evie nodded. “Uh huh. Stretch. Then fold. Got it.”

She had been distracted since she’d shown up at West’s house, first because he looked especially attractive while he was making bread, but also because she couldn’t stop thinking about her dad back in her house. She’d felt a pang of guilt that she was going off to have fun and leaving Josh alone with him. She fully expected her dad to go to Mel’s the second she was gone, though, and there was basically no chance Josh would leave his room.

“Your turn, then.” West made room for her at the counter. Evie reached for the dough, but he shot his arm out to stop her. “Gotta wash up first. Who knows where those hands have been?” A smirk tugged at his lip. “Might have let my imagination run wild wondering, though.”

Evie turned on the tap and put her hands under the warm water just as West came up behind her. She felt his breath on her neck before he kissed the skin just below her ear, his hands gripping her hips, fingertips digging into the flesh there.

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