Page 34 of Chasing Shelter

“I promise. What would you cook if it was just for you?”

Interesting question. One I hadn’t pondered for a while. Usually, when it was just me, I did the quickest thing possible or grabbed takeout. “Might horrify you, but I’m going brisket, baked mac and cheese with breadcrumbs on top, mashed potatoes, and chocolate cake for dessert.”

Ellie stared at me for a long moment, and then those gorgeous lips twitched. “What did vegetables ever do to you?”

“Says the vegetarian. You’re probably on the take for Big Kale.”

She burst out laughing, and the sound was pure magic—throaty with a little rasp but so damn free. It wrapped around me in smokytendrils, and I never wanted to lose the feeling of it. How the vibrations clung to my skin.

“Big Kale, huh? I could probably be convinced. Kale is expensive.”

I inclined my beer bottle toward her. “See?”

“You can’t hate veggies that much. Tonight’s dinner was full of them.”

“If I don’t want my kid or me to get scurvy, sacrifices must be made.”

“Especially in the battle of mealtime.” Ellie shook her head, dropping her foot to the floor and standing to grab the plates.

“You don’t have to do that.” The truth was, I didn’t want to lose the moment we were having right now. And that made me dumb. And maybe even a little reckless. But there wasn’t anything I could do about it.

Ellie smiled, stacking the plates. “You cooked. The least I can do is clean.”

I shoved back my chair. “Well, I’ll supervise while I get dessert ready.”

“Dessert, huh? Chocolate cake?”

“Chocolate cake is a weekend, off-duty festivity. Tonight, you’ll have to settle for berry sundaes.”

Ellie’s pale green eyes sparked. “A berry sundae is not settling. That’s just rude to berries.”

I chuckled as we made our way into the kitchen. “Apologies to the entire berry family.”

“That’s a little better.” Ellie started scraping plates as I began slicing berries. But when she got to the dishwasher loading, I couldn’t help but cringe. Nothing was even. Plates were askew, bowls at odd angles, cups ready to be knocked over by the spray of the machine.

“Chief…”

My gaze flicked to Ellie’s face. “Yeah?”

“Why are you staring at me like I’m committing atrocities of war right now?”

I scrubbed a hand over my stubbled cheek. “To be fair, youarecurrently committing atrocities against my dishwasher.”

Ellie gaped at me. “I rinsed these thoroughly.”

I set down my knife and moved toward the dishwasher and Ellie. “I give you a solid B on the rinsing.”

“AB?” Ellie asked, offended.

“At least you passed. This Leaning Tower of Pisa in my dishwasher is a D at best.”

The shock on Ellie’s face morphed into a glare. “All right, Mr. Perfection. Let’s see what you’ve got.”

“I thought you’d never ask.” My hands flew over the top rack, righting glasses and reassigning bowls to their proper spots. I moved Tupperware from the bottom rack to the top.

“That was perfectly fine there,” Ellie groused.

“If you want to melt the plastic, sure. But then again, you did start a fire the last time you utilized kitchen machinery.”

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