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Before I had a chance to ring the doorbell, Seth yelled, “Come in! I’m in the kitchen.” Nervously, I walked in, unsure of what to suspect. He said it was going to be a quiet night of whatever I wanted, but how could I know what that would involve when I didn’t know what I wanted.
The kitchen was straight ahead. Seth was there, humming as he stirred the beef. He already had a pan set up, holding double decker tacos. All he had to do was add the meat and cheese, and pop in the oven.
“You do well in the kitchen,” I said as I leaned against the counter that divided the kitchen from his dining room. It had chairs set up around it, so I knew the others spent more time eating here or at the back deck than at the table. Proof was also all the paper strewn across his dining table, looking more like a workstation than anything else.
He turned to me with a smile. “I had a lot of time to practice.”
“Tell me about it? What made Seth such an amazing cook?”
“Oh, interested in me?”
My face heated, and I looked down at my hands.
“My parents worked a lot. Nothing devastating or bad. They just worked and once I was old enough, I wanted to be helpful. Here.” He handed me a bowl with tortilla chips and then a small bowl of salsa. “Homemade.”
“Thanks.” I scooped up a bunch of salsa and then shoved the whole thing in my mouth. It was the best freakin’ salsa I had ever tried.
“How?” I asked around the mouthful.
He chuckled. “Years of practice. Food to me is something to bring people together.”
Was it okay to call a man adorable? That explained so much, like the Sunday dinners. “So you began cooking to make sure your parents had supper to come home to?”
Seth stirred the meat. “Yeah. Like I said, I wanted to be helpful and at the time, that was the only way I knew how.”
“Where are they now?”
“They moved to Portland. My dad got a huge promotion. I talk to them every few days.”
I smiled, liking that he seemed to have a normal family. “Didn’t want to go with them? Explore the world more?”
“I like it here, and I never got the travel bug. I’m a town boy, and I’ll stay like that. Done.” He scooped the meat into the shells, topped it with cheese, and then popped the pan into the oven. “Now, what do you want to do?”
“You mentioned movies? Or games?”
“I have a bunch of PlayStation games, what are you in the mood for?” He motioned for me to go into the living room. We got settled down and Seth showed me his large collection, half of them the scary kind. We ended up becoming ghost hunters, trying to determine what kind of haunting different locations were experiencing. It was freaky as hell, and I loved it.
Seth jumped a few times, and I teased him for it. After the first round, we munched on tacos. We didn’t talk about anything deep, and he didn’t question me about today. It was low-key and fun.
And I was enjoying Seth’s house. While he was cleaning up the kitchen, I took the time to poke around. His hallway was full of pictures. I got to see him with his parents. He looked like his dad, down to the way his eyebrows arched and his lips curved into a smile. And there were tons of photos of him and the others. They really did all grow up together. I followed the journey of their childhood until it ended by the first-floor bathroom.
“Having fun?” Seth asked, making me jump. I was so engrossed in his past that I didn’t notice that he stood in the hallway, leaning against the wall as he watched me. Seeing him like that made it easy to talk to him.
“It’s different for me,” I said and touched one of the dark brown frames wrapped around a photo of Seth with Toby and Paxon out on the river in canoes. It looked recent, like this past summer. Toby was trying to shove Paxon in the water, and Paxon was using his oar to keep his friend back. Toby normally kept his hair on the shorter side, but it was longer when this photo was taken, almost unruly. It was impossible to not feel jealous. While they were out on canoes, I was stuck in a hospital bed most likely.
“What do you mean?” Seth came to my side and looked at the photo I was staring at. His smile widened, humor lighting his eyes as he fought to keep his laughter to himself. That one look from him helped rid me of all my dark thoughts.
“Seeing your family dynamic. I like it. I don’t know what that’s like, and it’s nice to see what normal is like.”
“Normal, huh?” He rubbed at his jaw. For a moment, I thought he was going to feel offended but he chuckled instead. “That’s true. The stereotypical lower middle-class household with both parents working. They worked so hard for me growing up.”
“And you want to return that favor.”
“I’ll never be able to return the favor. They were good to me. I know that, and I’m thankful for it every day.”
“You’re a good son. They’re lucky to have you.”
Seth puffed up his chest, obviously proud. “I know. And I’m lucky to have them.”
