Page 47 of Tastes Like Summer

“Guys, I thought we agreed on Masterchef Junior. Why are you watching makeup tutorials on YouTube?” Michael asks, his eyes wide and horrified on the television screen. “You’re nine years old. Emi, you’re eight!”

“Masterchef Junior? Really?” I chuckle.

“I’m trying to convince my daughter that I’m cool, okay?” He sighs as he rubs his forehead.

“So you thought forcing her to watch old episodes of Masterchef Junior would help?”

He presses his lips together, but his eyes are alight with humor. “Yes. I thought it would.”

Rachel walks up to him and takes his hand. “Cooking isn’t cool. But that doesn’t mean you aren’t, Dad.”

Michael basically melts on the spot, his face spreading into a goofy grin that makes me want to die it’s so adorable.

“R-Really?” he asks, his voice high-pitched. It’s clear from her body language that Rachel is thinking twice about her choice of words because Michael looks like he’s five seconds away from bursting into tears. “That’s, like, the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me.”

Rachel rolls her eyes, definitely regretting causing this big moment, before Michael pulls her into a big hug.

“I’ve told you you were cool before, what are you talking about?” She tries to pull away from him, but it only makes him hug her harder.

“Yeah, but that’s when I was your uncle. Not now. You haven’t said I was cool.” He squeezes his eyes shut, his smile pure ecstasy. “I love you, Rach.”

“Oh my god, gross. Get off me. I’m never giving you a compliment again.” Rachel finally manages to scramble away, but Michael is laughing.

“That’s fine. This one will probably last me like ten years. I can wait until the next one.”

She crosses her arms and glares at him before muttering, “Not likely.”

They stay for another hour while the girls finish their videos and have dinner. When they start to fade, he carries a drowsy Rachel to his truck and sets her in the backseat, buckling her into place before walking back to me.

“Tonight was…” He sighs, hesitation in his eyes.

“It was great.” I try to smile, but the truth is my stomach is in knots. I really don’t want to talk about this. I’m not ready. I’m not even sure I know how I feel. “Thanks again for all your help today.”

“You’re welcome. Let’s talk tomorrow?” His voice is pleading, his eyes wide. The expression on his face tugs at my heart, but I’m half filled with excitement and terror at the same time.

“Yes. Sure. Tomorrow. I’ll call you.”

But I never do. And it makes the next time I see him all the more complicated.

“Okay, Diana. So, I’m going to need you to send our client the addendum for them to review,” Edgar says over our daily morning Zoom touch base. “Max prepared it, but you have such a good eye and attention to detail, I’d prefer to have you take a final look over it before we send it.”

My eyes widen. “You want… me to review it?”

He smiles over the screen. “Yes. You have a problem with that?”

“I just… I mean, shouldn’t you be the one reviewing it? Making sure that it was done right?”

“Well, Max is an associate, so in general I shouldn’t be checking his work at all, should I? But alas, he’s proven to be… somewhat useless at times.”

I wince at his blunt words, but he isn’t wrong. Sometimes Max actually creates even more work than necessary.

“You understand the basics, you’re a quick learner, and have natural instincts for this type of thing, so I want you to review it. Plus, I think it will be a great learning activity for you.”

I bite my lower lip and open the attachment in my boss’s latest email, quickly scanning the first paragraph.

“If anything, you can check it for typos and grammar,” he adds.

A broad smile stretches across my face, my heart shining from Edgar’s encouragement. He believes in me, trusts in me, and every day that passes, I grow to love the law more and more. But with it also comes the disappointment that I’ve missed my shot.