Page 123 of Finding Us

“What’s wrong? Is it bad?”

“It’s uh, salty.” He takes another drink of water.

“Salty?” I take a bite. All I taste is salt and garlic. “Garret, it’s disgusting!”

“It’s not disgusting.” He picks at it with his fork. “It’s just. . . salty.”

I sigh, sinking back in my chair. “I don’t know what I did wrong. I followed Sean’s recipe exactly how he wrote it.”

“This was Sean’s recipe?”

“Yes, but when I made it with him it tasted really good.”

“You made lasagna with Sean?”

“He gave me some cooking lessons.”

Garret smiles. “And you kept this a secret?”

“It was supposed to be part of your birthday surprise. I know you do the cooking, but I thought I should still learn how. I was going to surprise you tonight with my great cooking skills, but I obviously need more lessons.”

“Jade, it’s fine. I’ll just eat it.”

“No, don’t. It’s not edible.” I take his plate and mine and set them in the sink. I check the recipe again. “I did everything like it said.”

Garret meets me by the sink, reading over the recipe. “Where are the spices you used?”

I get them out of the cupboard. He checks the recipe again and says, “You used garlic salt instead of garlic powder. I’ve done that before. They’re easy to mix up.”

“And the recipe already had salt in it. I guess that explains it.”

“What did you use to measure the spices?”

I take the measuring spoon out of the drawer.

“That’s a tablespoon. You only needed a teaspoon. So you put in a tablespoon of salt and a tablespoon garlic salt?”

“Yes.” I sigh again. “Crap. I really screwed this up. I’m sorry, Garret. I ruined your birthday dinner.”

“Don’t worry about it. We’ll just order a pizza. We already have salad and breadsticks. We’ll have those as an appetizer.”

“I probably screwed those up, too.”

“Nothing’s screwed up.” He pulls me into his side and kisses the top of my head. “We’ll get the pizza and everything will be fine. You want me to order it?”

“I’ll do it.” I turn him toward the table. “Go have a breadstick. All I had to do was heat them, so if I managed to screw that up, I really suck at cooking.”

I order a large pepperoni from Garret’s favorite pizza place. It arrives a half hour later and dinner is salvaged.

For dessert, I finish decorating my cake by topping it with 20 candles. It’s a two-layer chocolate cake with chocolate frosting.

Garret watches as I carry it to the table. He leans over to kiss me. “Thank you for making all this.”

“You’re welcome.” I get the matches and quickly light the candles. “Okay, make a wish.”

“You’re not going to sing again?” He’s laughing.

“Yeah, you’re hilarious. Make a wish.”

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