Strawberry Wine (Strawberry Inn Book #2)

Chapter 12

CODY

I almost declined Hayes’s invitation to dinner, but I’m glad I didn’t. I stopped by the grocery store on my way to their place and picked up one of their fresh-baked loaves of bread and a strawberry rhubarb pie for dessert. I’m not a huge fan of it, I can only handle so much strawberry in my life, but Hayes always liked it. I might be trying to gain some brownie points with him, no shame.

From the moment I walked in the door, I could feel the awkwardness in the air. He was excited that I was there, but Blair took her time in the kitchen, keeping herself busy with the cooking. I knew her well enough to know that she was avoiding me for as long as she could. I then felt guilty for saying yes to dinner all over again. I’m sure the last thing she wanted to do after a long day of work is entertain her ex-husband.

Blair was the same friendly woman she always has been though. She brought a huge platter of carbonara to the table with a smile plastered on her face. Hayes dug in first, hardly waiting for the platter to hit the table and then Blair motioned for me to take a serving, but I refused. “Go ahead, Blair. This is your creation, you should have the chance to get first dibs before the guy crashing dinner.”

She takes the tongs and twirls the paste onto her plate, “Don’t be silly, Cody, you’re not crashing dinner. It doesn’t make sense for you and Hayes to always find somewhere outside of the house to hang out. Plus, I always cook way more pasta than I need.”

She smiles while passing the thongs to me. I try to twirl the pasta and be as graceful as she was, but I end up making a huge mess. “Well, shit. That didn’t go as planned.”

“Go grab a towel, will you, Hayes?” Hayes stands up right away coming back just a few moments later with a kitchen towel. When she reaches over to clean up the mess, I take the towel from her and wipe it up instead. Our fingers slightly brush and a zing shoots through my entire body. I wonder if she felt the same thing, but when I look up to make eye contact with her she turns away at lightning speed.

“I can clean it up, Blair. I made the mess.”

“Yeah…of course.” 

She takes a seat once again and begins to eat her dinner. I follow suit taking my first bite of the dish. The moan that escapes me is louder than appropriate for dinner, but there is nothing fake or exaggerated about it. “Wow, I’ve had a lot of pasta in my life, but this…holy crap this is good.”

“You don’t need to exaggerate, Cody,” Blair says while rolling her eyes. “Carbonara is not that difficult to make, I’m sure you’ve had better. Hell, the pasta is just dried spaghetti.”

“I’m not exaggerating anything, I swear.”

“Mom adds an extra egg yolk in, that’s the difference,” Hayes shares her secret.

Blair chuckles, “I guess I can’t put this in my recipe book, you shared the secret ingredient.”

“I will take it to my grave if you promise to make this again another time,” I smile across the table at her.

“That’s a hard promise to keep when you’re all the way in Houston.”

“You’re right. I guess that is one more reason to return back here more often, then.”

“I’m the number one reason, right, Dad?”

I reach over and slap him on the shoulder, “You’ll always be my number one reason for coming to visit, but this pasta might be number two, so you’re going to have to sweet talk your mom into making it anytime I come for a visit.”