Abigail wanted to see what Del’s style was, and what she was working with, so last night Justin had filmed him as he made an omelet and described the process as if he had some YouTube subscribers watching.
A lot of it had been off script.
“You know what?” Del said on the video, his voice sounding a little tinny since Justin didn’t have earbuds. “People are going to tell you not to buy shredded cheese because it costs more than it does to buy a block of cheese and a grater. But here’s the thing about shredded cheese. You can freeze it. So if you don’t use a lot of cheese, freezing the shredded stuff is going to work out to be more economical in the long run than if you have to throw out half a block when it goes bad. So you figure out what option works best for your household. I know not everyone’s got the same help in the kitchen I do, right, Wyatt?”
In the video, Wyatt was grating Del’s cheese, his face screwed up in concentration. It was slow and messy work for a four-year-old, but Del kept an eye on him to make sure his fingers didn’t get too close to the grater. But he looked up when Del said his name and nodded in solemn agreement.
Justin felt a smile tug at his mouth as he watched. He crossed his legs at the ankle, dislodging a shower of rich black potting soil from the tread of his new boots. A whole pallet of seedlings had fallen off a forklift earlier, and Justin had to clean up the mess. Lloyd had said he could keep any he salvaged though, and Justin currently had a bunch of them in a bucket. If he could plant them out okay, he could have his own vegetables soon.
“Now, while I’ve got Wyatt grating the cheese over here, I’ve got Chef Harper working on the mushrooms. How are those coming, Chef Harper?”
“Good!” Harper beamed at the camera.
“Chef Harper is using kid-safe knives,” Del said. “You can get a variety of sorts online, but most of them work by sawing instead of slicing, so they cut through veggies, and not fingers. If you’ve got kids who want to help out in the kitchen, they’re a great option. You can find some really affordable ones on Amazon, but again, if they’re not affordable for you and your kids want to help out, just be mindful and supervise at all times. My parents never bought kid-safe knives for me when I was a tyke, and I’ve still got all my fingers.”
Justin glanced up from the screen as a truck roared past on the back road than ran behind the highway. It was nothing but a plume of dust. He turned his attention back to the video, wondering if Del realized how much he’d talked about accommodating kids in the kitchen as well as about what he was actually making. Maybe that could be his angle though. Justin wouldn’t mind Harper and Wyatt being on Del’s channel if Del wanted to include them when it came to videoing the real thing. If Abigail agreed, he guessed.
Abigail. Justin felt nervous just thinking of her, and he knew that was all on him since she’d been nothing but nice the few times they’d spoken on Skype. But he couldn’t help remembering how Del had reacted when he’d realized that Justin was younger than Abigail. And now Abigail was coming to visit soon, to catch up with Del and help him out with his social media stuff, and to meet Justin and the kids. Justin was afraid that being in the same room with her would somehow make Del look at the age thing again, and rethink his relationship with Justin. It clearly bothered him, at least a little bit, and Justin didn’t want Del to suddenly have a crisis of conscience and break up with him over it. What if he thought he was stopping Justin from meeting someone his own age? Except he wasn’t. Del was saving him, and had since the moment they’d met.
Which was another thing. Who needed saving anyway? Kids did. Maybe Del wasn’t too old for Justin. Maybe Justin was too young for Del. These small doubts prickled at him too often, and he didn’t know how to stop them.
His chest ached, and he rubbed it with his free hand.
“I spent most of my life running a restaurant kitchen,” Del said on the video as he cracked eggs into a stainless steel bowl. “And everyone will tell you how chaotic that is. But you know what? It’s a lot more chaotic—and a lot more fun—cooking with family.”
Family.