AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“How about some spaghetti?”
Just as he thought, Evelyn brightened. “I like spaghetti.”
“Me too. Do you like shrimp too?”
“Yes, shrimp are yummy.”
He had to smile. Yummy, huh? C. Evelyn Baker herself was looking more and more delicious to him all the time and would be irresistible if his intuition was right. “I think so too. Do you want to keep me company in the kitchen while I make dinner?”
Owen suspected if he left Evelyn to her own devices she’d fall asleep on the couch. Which would normally be fine—hell, it would be adorable, and he’d gladly pull a couple blankets over her to keep her warm while she snoozed—but he didn’t want her to go all night without eating.
“Sure.”
“You can help me pick the veggies to put in the pasta,” he told her as he set his hand at the small of her back and steered her toward his small but functional kitchen.
He hadn’t failed to notice a wrinkle of her freckled nose when he’d mentioned vegetables, but she was polite enough not to refuse. He slid out a stool at the counter, and, once she was seated, pulled the bag of frozen shrimp from the freezer then set them to thaw under some cool running water.
“Those aren’t just any shrimp,” he informed her as he started getting things out of the fridge and the cupboard. Hopefully if he kept talking, that would keep her awake long enough to have dinner and she wouldn’t face plant on his counter. As much as he’d like to carry her, he didn’t think he’d be able to and he didn’t want to wake her up to get her into bed. “Some friends of mine harvested these. They’re not technically fresh, but they were right off the boat when they froze them. Best shrimp I ever had.”
Not only that, but the crustaceans made him think about Enclave whenever he defrosted and added a handful of them to a meal. What would be in season when he was there next week? Would they be hunting, fishing, something else? The changing food seasons were a lot to keep up with and he didn’t have the time with the hours he’d been putting in at work. Hopefully he’d have the bandwidth now.
Evelyn didn’t really strike him as the subsistence living type, but everyone could appreciate fresh food, right? Especially up here. Not so much seafood because that you could get fresh and it wouldn’t cost a small fortune, but other things like meat and produce. Even dry goods cost a pretty penny because of having to ship them up here. Alaska was just expensive.
As far as he could tell the only affordable way to survive was to live mostly off the land. That was his plan for when his income dropped from no longer working at the clinic anyway, and how the guys on Enclave managed. Of course he suspected Taj and his employees made a pretty penny from Carcharodon, Taj’s private security firm, but he couldn’t say for sure.
Owen showed Evelyn the vegetables he’d fetched, and her look of consternation was adorable. Not a veggie girl then.
“I’ve got zucchini, carrots, onion, cherry tomatoes, broccoli, and snow peas. What do you think?”
The look Evelyn gave him was a tiny bit pathetic, and it wasn’t just the sleep deprivation. He didn’t think anyhow. It seemed like she didn’t want to be rude but didn’t quite know how to politely answer him.
“I think I don’t like vegetables.”
“Are there any that you’ll eat?”
His dinner guest pinched her lips together. “Are you going to cook them?”
“That was my plan.”
“Then, um, the onion should be okay. And the zucchini. What are those?” she asked, pointing at the snow peas.
“Those are snow peas.”
“I like regular peas,” she offered. “I’m sorry I’m so picky.”
“Nothing to be sorry about,” he said easily, but opted not to mention that a lot of Littles were picky eaters even if he was thinking it. “I’ve got regular peas in the freezer, and those three will do nicely.”
He kept his chatter up while he cooked and tried his best to engage Evelyn in conversation but she’d been through a lot today and it wasn’t surprising that she couldn’t be bothered with small talk. Him talking seemed to be enough to hold her attention and keep her awake.
Luckily, the dish was quick to put together the sautéed vegetables, the pasta, and the shrimp in a lemon parmesan cream sauce and he had their dinner on the counter soon.
* * *
Dinner had been tasty, even if there were a bunch of vegetables in it. Cricket had felt bad telling Doctor Pierce she didn’t like vegetables. She knew it made her sound childish and ungrateful, and she’d been scolded for being a fussy eater about a million times as a kid. It was such a relief to not have him roll his eyes or make a mean comment—to instead accept that limitation like it was no big deal.
Truthfully, though, the sauce Doctor Pierce had made was so yummy, she could barely taste the veggies if she covered them with creamy deliciousness first. And he was right about the shrimp—so good.
After she’d eaten, she felt like she ought to offer to help clean up. That’s what her mom would tell her to do since she hadn’t lifted a finger since she got there. She didn’t want to be a bad guest especially since Doctor Pierce certainly hadn’t expected to have company and he was being so nice.
