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He sniffed the air. “Care to tell me what you made? It smells delicious.”

“You didn’t have challah bread, but the loaf of French bread you had was good in a pinch for this French toast casserole. Also, it calls for blueberries, but I used your strawberries.”

“Good, I like strawberries,” Brax said as he peered into the casserole pan and took a deep breath. What did you put into the oven?”

“That’s a cheese and egg casserole with some crumbled bacon.”

“Thank God, Jada and Gideon are coming over. There is no way we could have made a dent in all this food.”

“I would have screwed up the recipes if I tried to cut them in half. I suck at math.”

He kissed her self-deprecating smile. Then kissed her deeper for good measure.

She pushed him away. “When are they going to be here?”

He glanced at the clock on the microwave. “About twenty minutes from now.”

“I need to shower. Keep your kisses to yourself. Can you take the eggs out of the oven when the timer rings?”

“Aye-aye.”

He watched as she hustled down the hallway, then pulled a fork out of the silverware drawer and took a big bite out of the French toast casserole and groaned.

So good.

Jenny gave Jada a hug when she came through the door. She still didn’t feel comfortable enough with Gideon to do the same. He must have sensed it, because he didn’t offer one.

“Come on into the kitchen, Jenny has cooked up a feast.”

“You cooked?” Jada asked. “What’s that?”

Jenny giggled. “I just threw a couple of things into the oven. It was no big deal.”

“Wait til you taste them. It’s a big deal.” Brax grinned.

Jenny noticed that Gideon brought his tablet into the kitchen with him, and Jada carried her beautiful leather purse with her as well. Weird.

Brax pointed to Gideon’s tablet. “No work during breakfast. We’re going to savor this meal, got it?”

Gideon’s lip twitched. “Got it.” He sat down and turned his tablet upside down on the kitchen table. Jada put her purse down underneath the table. Now that Jenny thought about it, she’d bet that her purse contained her tablet as well.

“Did you find something out with my username and password?” Jenny asked.

“Uh-uh-uh,” Brax admonished. “Food first, then talk. I’ve been dying to try this.”

“What are you talking about? I saw how much of the casserole was gone before I put it in your serving dish. You devoured at least two pieces.”

“What can I say, I worked hard last night.”

Jada snickered.

“Shut up, already,” Jenny said as she rolled her eyes. Brax took a big scoop of the eggs, then passed the dish to Jada whose eyes widened.

“You made this?” she asked Jenny.

“Sure.”

“This is like something from a restaurant.” She took a big scoop. Not as big as Brax’s, but big. They passed around both dishes, and the bowl of melons that Brax had cut up. Pretty soon everybody was quiet as they dug into their food.