Page 56 of This Love
I pulled out the cutting board and a chef’s knife.
“That’s a big knife,” Ava said. “Want to see what I’ve learned?”
I turned to her, holding the knife.
She squatted, eyes on the blade, then suddenly her tennis shoe was flying at me, knocking the knife from my hand. It clattered to the floor.
She leaped into the hair and smacked her hands together. “I did it!”
“Nice moves,” I told her, bending to pick it up.
“I’ll wash it. I knocked it down.” She reached for the handle, and our hands collided.
The jolt of touching her rocked through me like it had since the first date. She seemed to have gotten used to the regularity of our holding hands, but this time, her eyes went wide.
“Cosmopolitan talked about this,” she said.
“The magazine?”
“Never mind.” She took the knife and moved to the sink.
Interesting. Cosmopolitan would certainly have given her a lot of ideas she may not have had before.
I piled the tomatoes next to the sink, and she washed those, too.
She lifted one to inspect it. “Working at Harry’s has taught me a few things. Mainly to make sure everything is clean.”
I moved the tomatoes to the cutting board and took the knife, cutting an X into the ends. Then I peeled the paper off a head of garlic and pulled out several cloves. I used the flat edge of the knife to crush it.
Ava leaned on the counter. “You’re good at that.”
“I’ve had a lot of practice. Gram said she’d rather roll over dead than use bottled sauce.”
“We have huge cans of it at Harry’s.”
“It’s a common shortcut.” I bent down to retrieve the big stew pot and dump the tomatoes in. I covered them with water and started the flame.
Ava opened the end of the pasta box, admiring the long, flat pieces. “Did we used to make lasagna together?”
“I would make it for you.”
“And I liked it?”
“It was one of our favorite meals.”
While the tomatoes boiled enough to be skinned, I found the bottle of olive oil in the cabinet next to the stove and swirled a couple of tablespoons along the bottom of a pan. When I dropped the garlic into the hot oil, the entire kitchen filled with the fragrant aroma.
“Ooooh,” Ava said. “That smells so good.” She scooted closer.
I sprinkled in all the other spices, each one adding to the unique smell of the sauce. I watched her as I went along.
“This is making me so hungry,” she said. “And happy!”
“Can you put some ice and water in a bowl?”
“Sure!” She pulled out a big mixing bowl and filled it. “What’s this for?”
I used a spoon to pull the tomatoes out of the boiling water and into the ice bath. “This will make them shrink so I can pull the skins off.”
