AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Cassie couldn’t take a single sip of wine a half hour ago, but now it sounded fantastic. She and Laura followed their dad downstairs, leaving behind the sound of their mother shuffling boxes around in the other room. Part of Cassie wanted to knock on the door and offer her help anyway, but part of her was glad her dad had let her off the hook.
If Judy Quinn cooked you a meal, there would be no complaints, but Walter was the real chef of the house. Cassie had always thought he would open his own restaurant, but he had waved the idea away.
“Why turn something I enjoy into a job?”
It was a valid point.
Walter piled ingredients onto the island in the middle of the kitchen: steak, potatoes, asparagus, butter, onions, mushrooms, lettuce, tomatoes. The food was so fresh, Cassie swore she could smell what it was about to become.
Laura rolled up her sleeves. “How can we help?”
“Get me a couple of pans. Olive oil. Spices.” He pulled out some carrots and shut the fridge. “I wouldn’t mind a drink myself.”
Cassie pulled down a few pans hanging from a wire rack over the island while Laura made a beeline for the spices. When Walter looked over her selection, he gave her a satisfied nod. Laura beamed.
“I can get your drink,” Cassie offered.
“Well, if you insist.”
Cassie had always loved pouring her dad a drink. He didn’t partake often, and only drank whiskey neat, but it was a routine she knew well. She’d been doing it since she was sixteen, and she still knew how to measure the exact right amount each time. When she was younger, it had made her feel mature and responsible. Now, it felt like a unique bond between her and her father.
But after searching through three cupboards, she realized she had no idea where they kept the glasses, let alone where he kept his stash of whiskey these days.
“Over by the fridge,” Laura called, pulling a cutting board out of a drawer. “Whiskey’s in the dining room.”
Cassie had to temper her annoyance with her sister. It wasn’t Laura’s fault that Cassie was a stranger in her parents’ house, and it wasn’t Laura’s fault that she’d had to play the role of both sisters over the last ten years.
But the feeling of being replaced still stung.
Cassie poured her father his drink and scooped up her glass of wine, draining it in a few sips. Her mother’s wine was always sweeter than what Cassie kept at home, but it went down much easier. By the time Laura and Walter had finished cooking dinner, Cassie had consumed three glasses and was working on her fourth.
Her mom appeared in the doorway. “Smells good.”
“It’s going to taste even better,” Walter promised. “Been a while since both my daughters were here to help me.”
Cassie held up her glass and ignored the tingling in her fingertips. “Laura’s been doing the hard work. I’m just pouring drinks.”
“Some would say that’s the most important job in the kitchen.” Judy lifted the empty bottle and shook it. “Good thing we got more, huh?”
“Sorry,” Cassie said. But she didn’t mean it.
Judy pulled down plates, bowls and water glasses and set them on the island. Then she stacked silverware and napkins on top. She caught Cassie’s eye. “Do you mind setting the table?”
“No, not at all.”
The formal exchange made Cassie’s skin crawl, but she escaped the feeling by grabbing the tableware and taking her time in the dining room. If she measured the distance between every plate and its accompanying fork, they’d be exactly the same. As a child, her father had taught her the proper way to set a table, and it was one of the few skills she hadn’t lost over the years. Her cooking might be average at best, but she could make a mean table setting.
Knives scraping against plates and compliments to the chef punctuated the first few minutes of dinner. Cassie had missed her father’s cooking, and everything tasted a hundred times better than she remembered.
The downside of getting some food in her belly was some evaporation of the wine’s effect.
Laura was the first to break the silence.
“You know what I keep wondering?”
“What’s that?” Judy asked.
“Which elephant in the room we’re going to talk about first.”
