In a Heartbeat (MxM)

Chapter 36

He turned, raising his brow, before shrugging. "I helped with the cooking at home."

"Oh."

I wondered if I shouldn't have bothered to say anything but he smiled before pointing at the hand-written recipe on the table. "Did your mom cook a lot?"

I shrugged. "Not much. We had Loreta to cook most of our meals. But mom would insist on cooking on the weekends, and for the holidays she insisted on making dessert."

Xavier turned to chime in. "She'd make this awesome pumpkin bread. I could scarf down the whole thing if I wanted."

"But she'd slap you upside the head if you did," I scoffed. "Personally, I think her pumpkin crunch was better."

"You're crazy, it was always too much frosting," he pointed the spoon at me, before realizing he was spilling everywhere.

"The frosting was the best part."

He made a face. "No, it was definitely the crust."

"Whatever."

Almost so faint I couldn't hear, I heard Simon whisper, "I missed this."

"Ah, shit," I heard him say suddenly loudly. Our heads turned, in total shock at his curse word. He set the knife down, blinking a lot like he had something in his eyes. Tears were starting to form but he quickly grabbed a paper towel to dab at it. "Damn, onion."

"Here." I touched his shoulder, not ignoring the way he flinched away from it. "I'll finish cutting the vegetables."

He sat down across the counter in the barstool, the paper towel hovering in front of his face, as he dried his eyes occasionally. A part of me wondered if it was actually the onion's fault at all.

After finishing up with the vegetables and placing them in the pot, I checked my mom's recipe, not being able to read any of her scribbled writing.

"You can understand this?" I asked Simon, holding up the paper. He set the paper towel aside, moving around the counter to look at the writing.

He pointed at it before replying, "simmer on low heat."

How he deciphered that was beyond me. He chuckled at my confused expression before looking over at the pot Xavier was still stirring. He took a spoonful and blew on it before handing it to Xavier. "Try it."

Xavier sipped on it before swallowing the whole thing. He stood still, then blinked, his mouth dropping open. "Woah," was all he had to say.

Simon smiled at that before ladling up another spoonful, gingerly handing it towards me. "Here. Tell me if it needs anything."

I grabbed the spoon from his hand, slowly sipping it, the flavors immediately dancing on my tongue. And after a few seconds, I understood why it had left Xavier speechless. A wave of nostalgia had hit me, just from that small amount of stew. I was suddenly transported back in time, sitting with my whole family, including Michael and David, enjoying my mom's same stew on the weekend. Even my cousin Dwaine and his family were there, my dad there at the head of the table, back to his happy self, the one before Michael shared the news. Everyone was talking and laughing, catching up with how our day went.

"Good?" Simon chimed in, the memory still playing out in my head. "Does it need salt?"

"No," I replied. "It's perfect."

"Literally," Xavier added before turning to me. "I told you he's good."

I hummed, as we all grabbed a bowl. I think we all grabbed a bigger portion than necessary, but we didn't care, it was insanely delicious. So much so that we didn't really speak as we ate. The silence didn't bother us, as we were so engrossed in the stew. They would make small talk, and I chimed in occasionally, but Xavier and Simon seemed to really enjoy talking with each other. I almost felt out of place suddenly, totally lost about whatever it was they were discussing.