Page 165 of Thrust & Throttle

“Sorry, let me try again. Willa,” she pleaded. “Why did I have to come home for dinner?”

“Better,” I remarked.

“Much better,” Duke agreed. “Let me try on my parenting voice. Go to your room! You’re grounded!”

Waverly and I looked at each other and then burst into laughter.

“What?” Duke demanded.

“You’resonot the hard ass,” Waverly said.

“Right? I was trying to tell him that, but he didn’t believe me. Where’s the dresser?” I asked.

“Storing it in Jess’s garage. Where’s the couch?”

“I accidentally set it on fire,” I lied.

She peered at me. “Methinks you’re lying.”

“Methinks you don’t get to ask any more questions about it,” I said.

“Fine.”

“Didn’t Savage take you to the mall?” Duke asked.

“Yes.”

“Where are your shopping bags?”

“I gave them to Savage. Willa would snoop if I brought her present into the house.”

I gasped. “I do not snoop.”

“No? You’re a first-class snooper! Remember the envelope behind the toilet?”

“I wasn’t snooping. I dropped something and I saw it out the corner of my eye,” I protested.

“If it looks like a snoop…” Waverly shrugged.

“I think this household is suffering from low blood sugar. I’m calling for a pizza,” Duke said, picking up his phone from the kitchen table.

“We really should get in the habit of cooking,” I announced.

Waverly and Duke looked at each other and then burst into laughter.

I sighed. “This parenting thing. I’m pretty sure you have to cook to be a parent.”

“Mom didn’t cook,” Waverly pointed out, taking a seat at the kitchen table.

“Well, I’d like to be the antithesis of Angel in every way. Is it too late to put in a request for a wedding present?”

“Brooklyn already gave us a slow cooker. It even had food in it. Those were the days, huh?”

“Not a slow cooker. Cookbooks.”

Waverly blinked. “Cookbooks? I don’t understand. We have the internet.”

Duke angled my laptop toward him and opened a new browser. His fingers clacked against the keys and then he said,“Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child. French cooking? You think she has a recipe for that French version of beanie weanies?”

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