Page 164 of When Love Takes Root

JJ started to speak, then huffed out a breath first, his thumb dragging along the pitcher handle like he was trying to rub patience into his skin.

“Nah, you staged it.”

Maya slid onto the island stool and opened her sketchbook, but her pencil never touched the paper. Her eyes stayed on Kayden beneath a slight frown.

“Cross-examination before dinner is wild.”

Zuri climbed onto the stool beside her, beads clicking as she shifted from one footrest to the other.

“And rude. Deeply rude.”

Skye glanced from Kayden to Josiah, then leaned closer to Josiah with all the seriousness her little face could hold. “Kayden gets cranky when he’s hungry and emotionally unavailable.”

Kayden’s head snapped toward her. “I can hear you.”

Skye blinked up at him. “Then receive it.”

I pressed my lips together and reached for the cutting board because laughing would’ve made Kayden worse. Josiah didn’t laugh either, but the corner of his mouth fought for its life. That man looked down at the lettuce like romaine required a degree and two references.

I needed him to stop being charming.

The problem was, he didn’t seem to know how.

Dinner came together with too many hands, too much movement, and one teenage boy’s mood darkening the edge of everything. JJ set the table without being asked twice. Maya filled glasses while pretending helpfulness offended her. Zuri and Skye argued over napkins, then put them down crooked. Josiah washed lettuce, sliced tomatoes, and moved around my kitchen with careful awareness, stepping back when I reached across him, handing me the salt before I asked, saying “yes, ma’am” when I pointed toward the cabinet with serving bowls.

Kayden caught that too.

His eyes narrowed at the yes, ma’am as if manners had personally threatened him.

Josiah grabbed the wrong bowl.

I looked over my shoulder. “No, sir. That’s my holiday bowl. If you put salad in that, my grandmother is coming back to ask questions.”

Josiah held the bowl away from himself. “I respect the ancestors.”

JJ laughed. “Smart man.”

Kayden muttered, “It’s a bowl.”

I turned slowly.

Kayden looked at me, then at the bowl, then away.

“It isn’t just a bowl.”

Zuri nodded with full seriousness. “That’s the bowl Nana almost fought Aunt Denise about.”

Skye chimed in, eyes shining with the urgency of family history. “At Thanksgiving.”

Maya kept her pencil moving across the page. “Aunt Denise brought watery greens.”

JJ shook his head. “Dark day.”

Josiah’s eyes came to mine, amused and warm. “I’ll put it back.”

“Carefully.”

“Yes, ma’am.”