Page 28 of Picking Pismo

David nudged Claire with his shoulder. “No, you already told me she can’t cook.”

“Hey…” Claire suddenly felt defensive even though she couldn’t argue. “I could maybe try.”

Wrapping an arm around Claire’s shoulders, David kissed her on the temple. “It’s okay you can’t cook. You have lots of other wonderful qualities. Besides, I was asking Alexis if she wanted to take a crack at the recipe with me.”

Alexis smirked. “I’d like that, David.” She leaned across the table and looked at Claire. “Have you already packed up Mom’s cookbooks?”

Claire shook her head. “No. I haven’t gotten to it yet.” She served herself some of the chow mein then took a bite. “That was the next cupboard I was going to tackle.”

Jumping up, Alexis went to the cupboard where Mom kept her cookbooks. She rummaged through a few of them until she found the one she wanted. Enthusiastically, Alexis held it up and tapped the cover with her index finger. “I remember this is the cookbook with the recipe in it.” Alexis brought it back to the table, putting it down on the table next to her.

David finished chewing, then said, “If you make a list of the ingredients, then we can go shopping together to get everything we need to make them.”

“Can I come too?” asked Claire.

Claire appreciated David taking an interest in Alexis, but she didn’t want to be left out.

“No,” replied Alexis. “You weren’t invited.”

David patted Claire’s thigh. “Sorry, Claire.” He took another bite of the broccoli beef. “You heard the boss.” David made a head tilt toward Alexis.

Claire scoffed. “Why can’t I come, Alexis?” Folding her arms against her body, she acted more hurt than she felt.

“Because…” Alexis rolled her eyes. “You’ll just try and take over, and then I’ll never learn.”

“Geez, please don’t hold back on how you really feel,” replied Claire.

Smugly, Alexis said, “I won’t.”

Claire’s shoulders drooped, embarrassed Alexis found it imperative to point out to David she was both a bad cook and needed to be in control. Two big strikes against her. If she kept going, Alexis might manage to scare David away.

David leaned in closer to Claire. His breath tickled her neck as he cupped her ear and whispered. “Claire, don’t you worry, I like you just the way you are.” His hand slid away from her ear, down the length of her arm, smoothing out the knot in between her shoulder blades. “This is going to be our project.” David winked at Claire. “We promise you can eat the finished product. Right, Alexis?” He glanced at Alexis with a raised eyebrow.

“Yep.” Alexis nodded. “We’ll make dinner. You won’t have to do a thing. You deserve a break.”

Leaning back in her chair, Claire folded her arms. “Do I?”

“Yes, you do.” David fiddled with her hair, swiping it over her shoulder. “Alexis and I have this.”

Her skin tingled. Claire threw up her hands. “Fine. You’ll make dinner, and I’ll eat it.”

“See,” Alexis said. “You can’t say I don’t do anything for you.”

Claire laughed. “Touché.”

CHAPTER TEN

David entered his parents’ house, and Jasper ran down the hallway to greet him. Scooping Jasper up, David wandered down the hallway in the direction of the sound of his parents’ TV “Mom, Dad, are you back there?” David stroked Jasper between his ears.

“Shh,” Kelly bellowed. “We’re watching Survivor.”

He chuckled to himself. His parents’ obsession with the show was unlike anything he had otherwise witnessed. Quietly, David continued into the living room. His parents were cuddled up on the couch, David plopped down on the empty loveseat. Attention glued to the TV, neither glanced over at him. Jasper settled onto his lap, and David rubbed his fur in long methodical strokes until Jasper fell asleep.

Finally, Survivor went to a commercial. Kelly hit the pause button on the DVR device. David gasped. “You’re recording this? Why didn’t you pause it when I came in?”

“You know we only pause it during commercials, so we can fast forward through them.” Stephen adjusted the blanket spread haphazardly across both his and Kelly’s laps. He raised an eyebrow. “Did you stop by for a reason? You never come by when we’re watching Survivor.”

Kelly threw the blanket off her lap, grabbing an empty popcorn bowl. “You have five minutes before we turn it back on.” Wiggling off the couch, she walked to the kitchen and placed it in the sink. “Hey, how did helping Claire and Alexis with the garage sale go? I never asked.”

---