Penny grunted and Alyssa took that as progress because while it wasn't a conversation, it wasn't slashing hateful words or a fork in the eye either.
Jack returned with a stack of glasses and a pitcher of water. She'd never seen the jug and matching glasses before but decided against questioning where they'd come from. It was probably something else they'd talked about.
Once Jack took a seat, the only sounds in the room were the scratching of cutlery on china. And the plates were china. Like the glassware, Alyssa had never seen the plates before. They looked expensive. Definitely better quality than the Target bought ones she'd stacked in the cupboard last weekend.
Starving, she inhaled her first helping, and when Jack slid a second slice onto her plate, she glanced up and offered him a smile before diving in. If Penny had made the meal, her sister had talents she was unaware of. Talents Alyssa would gladly encourage from now on.
"This is really good, Penny." She picked up her glass and drained half of it. "I didn't realize you could cook."
Penny shrugged. "It's all formula. You add the right amount of this and that and you get the answer."
Alyssa understood what her sister meant; she'd tried numerous recipes herself. Although her efforts weren’t as successful as Penny’s. "Well, that may be so, but it doesn't mean the end result is edible or the way it's supposed to be. Not when I do it anyway," she laughed. "I attempted to make lasagna once and the outcome was like soup."
"You do burn water," Penny said with a crooked smile.
"Hey! One time. And I thought we agreed to never speak of that again."
Her sister laughed. "Youmight have agreed but I didn't."
"I remember that. You set the smoke detector off. Had the fire department on your doorstep," Jack added helpfully.
"How do you know that? You weren't even there!"
He smiled at her. "No, but Grady was; he told Grayson and Grayson gave you shit about it for weeks."
"And how would you know? We don't work the same shifts."
"You can't keep stuff like that quiet."
"Speaking of giving each other shit...what are you knitting at the moment?" she asked with a smug smile.
"A sweater," he answered without batting an eye. The bastard.
Her smiled died when the reaction she'd hoped for didn't happen. Jack's hobby might normally be associated with a grandma and not exactly masculine, but she should have remembered that it never bothered him to be ribbed about it.
"Is it mine?" Penny asked.
Alyssa's gaze bounced between Jack and her sister. "You're making Penny a sweater?"
"Yeah. For my birthday."
Her birthday? Alyssa swallowed. Penny's birthday. She had no idea when that was. "Ah..."
"No. Not yours. I've got plenty of time before August to make yours."
"Then who is this one for?" Penny asked. "And when are you going to teach me how to knit?"
"I doubt you need me to teach you, but we can get you started on something this week. And I don't know who will end up with this one. The last one ended up in a tug-of-war at work."
"You could donate it to Penny's school for their end of year fundraiser," Mrs. Alverez suggested.
"Oh, that reminds me. I need to give you something to add to the prizes," Alyssa said. "What did you want to offer?"
"Don't worry." Penny smiled. "Jack took care of it."
"What? When?"
"Last week when we had dinner out.Youwere at work. We got a couple of different vouchers for restaurants in town and he made one for a scenic flight over Sunnyville."
