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But I could do it, and I could do it well.
When you were a kid forced to either cook or starve, you learned some things.
And since we weren’t poor, we just had a neglectful parent, I learned how to do that at a very young age, which I shared with my sous-chef.
“Where did you learn how to make pancakes?” JP asked.
I looked up at her, seeing so much of her mother in her miniature face that it startled me for a long moment.
How could I have ever looked at her with anything but adoration?
Sure, I had my hang-ups and my reasons for my initial hesitancy with JP and Folsom, but that hesitancy had disappeared right along with JP’s mother.
“I taught myself when I was your age,” I admitted. “I liked eating, and my father didn’t like cooking. So, I did what I had to do. A lot of trial and error went into cooking, but I learned how to make my favorites.”
“And pancakes are your favorites?” she asked curiously.
“They are,” I nodded, flipping over said pancakes. “Are you sure you’re allowed to have chocolate chip cookies?”
She snorted. “My mother allows me to eat whatever I want as long as it’s in this house. Now, red dye…not so much. Do you know how much food has red dye in it?”
“What’s the deal with red dye?” I asked.
“Technically, I can eat red dye if I want to. It’s not detrimental to my health. However, I have gastrointestinal issues,” she looked at me. “Do you need me to explain what those would be?”
I shook my head, a grin solidly lodged on my face. “No, ma’am.”
“Anyway, I have gastro issues, hives, itching and swelling. Then if I’m having a really bad day, I get cold or flu-like symptoms,” she answered.
“That sounds like a whole lot of no fun,” I paused. “Doesn’t chocolate and candy have it in it?”
“Yes,” she grumbled. “So pretty much, if it’s any good tasting, it likely has red dye in it. But these,” she poked the cookie dough where a chocolate chip lay. “Are special anti-allergic ones that she orders from somewhere straight from the cocoa source. We found them when we were looking for natural alternatives to the usual chocolate chips. Because I do love me some chocolate chips. In my pancakes and cookies. Even in my cereal in the morning.”
I curled up a lip. “That’s slightly disgusting.”
“The cereal that I have to eat because of the red dye issue is slightly disgusting,” she countered.
I chuckled louder this time, which was finally what caused Folsom to pop her head up off the couch.
She was not a morning person. That I’d known from before.
What I hadn’t known was that not only wasn’t she a morning person, but she was also not a midmorning person.
I looked at my watch, which happened to be turned the wrong way to JP’s liking, and noted it was nearly eleven.
We’d slept late, JP and I. But even being in the kitchen for an hour, while also not trying the least bit to stay quiet, Folsom had slept later.
“Why do you wear your watch like that?” JP asked as she watched my wrist drop and my hand pick up the spatula.
I flipped another pancake, then started reaching for the plate that was across the bus. JP beat me to it and held it out for me to place her pancakes on.
I placed two on her plate, and still, she waited.
I placed one more, and she raised her eyebrow as she said, “Don’t be stingy, Kobesama.”
I felt my heart trip over itself.
“Kobesama?” I teased. “Does that mean I get to call you Juliesama? Or Paynesama?”
