Page 57 of Recipe for Rivals

“So far, I have to agree,” I told her, taking another bite. “Did you know that all the firefighters in town think I’m the best cook?”

Alice shook her head, her fork hovering above a plate of lasagna cut into bites.

I shrugged. “They might be wrong though. I guess we’ll have to wait until the Battle of the Badges to know once and for all.”

“Sure. Because we both know people will be voting for the food and not the organizations,” Nova said, her voice dripping in sarcasm.

“My grandpa voted for the police a few years ago, back before I was cooking.”

“Were you a firefighter then?”

“Yes, and it brought me great shame,” I said gravely. “People take it seriously. That’s all I’m saying.”

“This bread is delicious,” she said, taking another bite. “Did you get it at the market?”

“No, I made it.” Did that sound smug? I felt a little smug.

She tried to fight her smile, but I saw it playing on her lips. “You mentioned your grandpa left you two rooms of furniture. Is he the same traitor who voted for the cops?”

“The very one.”

“Maybe I shouldn’t have called him a traitor.”

“He was. I think I probably used that same word on him for weeks after he did that.”

Her cheeks were rosy, bringing out the depth of her brown eyes. She brushed loose hair behind her ears. “Do you have other family around?”

“No, just me and Gramps. He’s in Beeler now at an assisted living facility, but he signed his house and everything over to me before he went. We don’t have anyone else.”

Nova put her fork down. Her eyes shot to Alice, who wasn’t eating anymore. “You can clear your plate,” she told her.

Alice hopped up, carrying her half-empty plate to the garbage to scrape it clean. What a disgrace. None of this lasagna deserved to make it into the trash.

“Sorry,” Nova said more quietly while Alice rinsed her plate and ran off to her room. “I shouldn’t have pried.”

“It’s no secret, Rival. My parents are long gone, and there wasn’t anyone else, so my grandpa took me in and raised me. When his mind started to go, it wasn’t safe for him to be at the house without me during my 48-hour shifts, so he picked a facility and started preparing to move.”

“He chose it?” she asked.

“Yeah. He visited all the assisted living facilities in the area when they threw their recruitment BBQs and chose the one with the best food.”

Nova laughed. “Is he the one who taught you to cook?”

“No.” I took a swig of water and raised my gaze again. “He can’t cook at all. He can pop a TV dinner in the microwave or fry eggs, but that’s about it.”

She stared at me, her deep brown eyes peering across thetable and into my soul. “Which is why you learned, I’m guessing?”

“Bingo.” Usually talking about these things made me slightly uncomfortable, like I needed to defend Grandpa for his poor health choices, like I owed him so much it didn’t matter that we didn’t eat healthily for the first half of my life because at least I was eating. People could be so judgmental, and I always wanted to jump to his defense when he had been doing me the massive favor by feeding me at all. But Nova didn’t give me the urge to say anything like that. She didn’t judge me or my story. “He did his best, but I got tired of microwavable food.”

“You know, one thing my doctor drilled into me when I had Ben was the phrase ‘fed is best.’ Have you heard it?”

“No.”

“It just means that it doesn’t matter whether you nurse your baby or feed them formula, as long as the baby is eating and growing. Fed is best.” She pushed her plate away and leaned her arms on the table. “I thought about that a lot when my kids were toddlers. They picked at their plates or fought me on vegetables and would eat nothing but graham crackers and Go-gurt. As long as they were eating, I considered my job done. I think it’s incredible you learned such a valuable skill on your own, but as far as your grandpa is concerned, he wasn’t doing anything wrong.”

My chest glowed in appreciation. “Thanks for saying that. He put up with a lot from me, so the least I could do was put hot dinners on his table. I’m pretty sure he missed the food more than me when I went off to college.”

Nova lifted an eyebrow.