Christmas Recipe for Romance novel · Chapter 19 of 24

Chapter 19: The Same Silence

By Saturday afternoon, Abel and I had been polite to each other for three days.

It was awful.

We passed the salt like diplomats.

We said "Excuse me" in a kitchen where we had once knocked a flour bin over with our bodies.

The crew had noticed, because a crew notices everything.

Mabry sat on the prep table swinging her boots and watching us over her glasses.

The plow man tasted a spoonful of soup and said, to no one, "Somebody's getting no dessert."

At four o'clock Ansel came down the stairs.

He had the walker again, but he did not lean on it.

He crossed the kitchen to the pass, and took the long wooden spoon from its hook, and tapped it on the steel.

"Both of you," said Ansel. "Here."

Abel put down his knife, and I put down my whisk.

The Lutheran, the Methodist and the two teenagers stopped in their tracks.

Nobody had heard him say that many words to us at once.

"I did that for twenty-seven years," Ansel said. "Don't."

"Grandpa," said Abel.

"Quiet."

He rapped the spoon on Abel's chest, not hard.

"You. An old man asks you to keep a secret, and you keep it a week past sense."

← Chapter 18 · All chapters · Chapter 20 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend