Page 202 of Between Passion and Revenge: Part Two
“We’ll make pancakes, eggs, bacon—the whole works, that way when Mommy gets back, we can surprise her.”
It doesn’t matter that I know my way around the kitchen the same way I know how to do heart surgery, because the smile on Tempest and Raiden’s faces makes me feel like fuckin’ Superman.
The twins look at each other, shout, “Yay!” in unison, and sprint off toward the kitchen.
This will be fun. Piece of cake.
An hour later,I realize this, in fact, is not a piece of cake.
“Put it out, Daddy!” Raiden shouts, pointing at the electric cooktop I’ve just set on fire. The frozen potatoes still cook in the hot grease I’ve pulled off the eye, and the flood of vegetable oil that spewed out of the pot when I dropped the hashbrowns spreads off the stove and onto the stone beside it.
“Fuck!” I shout, and Tempest pulls on Raiden to get them both to safety.
“Where’s the fire extinguisher!” Raiden yells.
“Flour! Blippi says to throw flour on a fire if you can’t find an extinguisher!” Tempest screams. The flames dance on the glass, and I begin to panic, grabbing the box of Bisquik and throwing handfuls of the dry batter onto the fire.
It takes all of ten seconds, but the fire’s finally out.
Then, the smoke detectors start to shriek.
“Goddamn it!” I grit out, not wanting to shout and scare the kids, but, of course, that’s the moment when Shae skids into the kitchen with her hands covering her ears. The engagement ring glints off the incoming sunlight.
“What the—” she yells over the alarms. I grimace, opening the windows closest to the stove. Then, I vault myself to stand on the kitchen island, waving a towel next to the alarm.
When all is quiet, I take in the scene: Shae stands wide-eyed and bewildered in my oversized T-shirt and panties, her hair wild around her face; Raiden looks like he’s just faced certain death; and Tempest giggles now that the danger’s done.
Well. That went well.
“What happened?” Shae says, pulling her hands from her ears and looking around the destruction that is our kitchen.
“Well,” I start, still standing above everyone on the island.
“Daddy was trying to makehashbrowns!” Tempest says, running up to her mother.
“But then he waited a long time for the oil to get hot, and when he did, it wentschwrshhh!” Raiden describes the bubbling explosion of hot vegetable oil.
“Oh?” Shae asks, rolling her lips inward, probably to keep from laughing.
“Yes! But then he moved the pan andka-bloom!There was fireeverywhere!” Tempest shouts, jumping with her hands up.
“Everywhere,” Raiden affirms.
“I wouldn’t say there was fireeverywhere,” I object. “Plus, look at everything else we made.”
I point to the platters loosely covered with tinfoil. Hopping down, I move around the counter while Shae crosses her arms over her chest, her expression softening and a smile coming to her face.
“We’ve got,” I pull off the coverings, “bacon, sausage, scrambled eggs, and pancakes.” I hold my arms out like I’m presenting on a game show.
“Fresh coffee from the drip, and the good orange juice,” I add.
Shae’s grin turns to outright beaming.
“You did all of this, Storm?” she asks, her voice light. Seeing her happy, even with the smoldering stove behind me, does something to my heart. My children and my soon-to-be wife are in the kitchen together on a Saturday morning, just…existing with each other.
I could be sad, thinking about all the years I missedthis,but I choose to be happy, joyful, instead.
Because this? This is perfect.
