All the air left my body. “Cane! What happened?”
He nudged my head back down to his chest. I wasn’t sure if he needed me close or didn’t want me to see his face as he recalled the tragedy, but I leaned against him.
“Well, of course I thought of Simon’s dad, Lee’s his name, immediately. The police originally ruled it an accident, but I came home right away and hired a private investigator. Nick worked on it for a few months before it was proven that it was Lee that did it.”
He bent down and kissed my head. “And, for the record, the baby thing was a boldfaced lie. So there is no little Cane running around.”
“I don’t know what to say. I am so sorry.”
“Yeah, well this is my burden to bear, not yours. I hate talking about this. I just thought it was time for me to try to be open with you, you know?”
“Thank you, Cane.”
He pulled the blankets up over us. “Sleep now, beautiful girl.”
“Are you awake?” Cane nudged me in the side as I lay next to him.
“I am now,” I answered sleepily.
“I have a craving.”
“Cane!” I laughed, wiping my eyes to help me wake up.
“What? Oh, you thought I mean for you?”
“I’ll play along. What do you have a craving for, Mr. Alexander?”
“Chocolate chip cookies,” he whispered.
“Are you serious?” I glanced at the clock. “It’s one in the morning.”
“I can’t help it. I want chocolate chip cookies.”
I fell onto my back and sighed. “Do you have some Chips Ahoy or something?”
“Nope.”
“I’m sure there’s a grocery open around here. This is a major metropolitan area.”
He leaned in close and whispered, “I want us to make them.”
“You want us to make homemade chocolate chip cookies right now?”
He nodded his head eagerly like a child.
“Do you have the stuff to make them?” I yawned again.
He shrugged. “Probably. We can always improvise.”
“Cane, you can’t ‘improvise’ when baking. You have to follow the instructions.”
“I’ve never been good at that,” he said stubbornly. “Come on.”
He hopped off the bed and dragged me across it by my hand.
“Cane!” I shrieked, laughing at his ridiculousness.
He held onto my hand and led me to the kitchen, flipping on the light.
“Okay,” I said, letting my eyes adjust to the brightness. “Do you have a recipe book or something?”
“Yeah, I’m looking at it,” he said, cocking his head at me.
“Heaven help me,” I muttered, throwing my head back in exasperation. “I’m sure there’s an app for this. Where are our phones?”
“Yours is dead. Shocker, I know. And mine is upstairs somewhere and I’m not going to look for it.”
“Cane. How are we supposed to do this without a recipe?”
“Have you never made cookies before?” he asked in disbelief.
“Yeah, a few times. But—”
“Nope. No but’s. What do we need?” He looked at me expectantly. “You know what? Fuck it. We will make our own recipe. It can’t be hard. I’ve watched some of those cooking shows. They have no idea what they’re doing. Except the hot Italian one. That chick can do whatever she wants.”
I had never seen Cane so spontaneous, so playful. Where is this coming from? He was typically so controlled, so scheduled. To see him like this—carefree and excited—was quite entertaining.
“You’re insane,” I sighed. “Okay. We will need flour, sugar, chocolate chips and eggs. Probably vanilla and some salt. And baking soda so they’ll be fluffy.”
“Baking soda? Who has baking soda lying around their kitchen?”
“People who want to make cookies,” I deadpanned.
“I’m going to pretend like you didn’t just say that,” he growled as he pulled out the flour and sugar and sat them beside the vanilla and salt. “Are you going to help or you going to watch? The chocolate chips are in the freezer.”
“Um, this was your idea, so I’m totally okay with watching. And why are the chocolate chips in the freezer?” I rolled my eyes as I made my way across the room.
“Have you ever had a frozen chocolate chip?”
I shook my head no.
“Then don’t knock it until you try it, woman.”
I grabbed the chocolate chips out of the freezer and tossed them next to the other items. “Grab a bowl. I’m going to need a big one,” I instructed him.
He burst out laughing. “Oh, I have a big one, all right. But let’s make the cookies first, okay?”