Chapter 9: Flour

The housekeeper handed over the kitchen at noon on Saturday with the expression of a woman surrendering a country.

"Everything is labeled," she said. "Please do not touch the good knives."

"We won't," Jude said.

"Please do not set the oven to broil."

"Why would anyone set the oven to broil?"

She gave him a long look and left.

The Parker kitchen had two ovens, a marble island the size of a car, and a juicer that had never been used.

Ken stood on one side of the island in a borrowed apron that said KISS THE COOK.

July had bought it as a joke and put it in the drawer.

Jude stood on the other side with a bag of carrots.

"Weekends are off the clock," Ken said, before Jude could ask. "I decided last night."

"You decided."

"So no lessons. Today I'm a man in a kitchen."

"A man in a very small apron."

"It's the only one that fits."

"It says Kiss the Cook."

"I can read."

Jude bit down a smile and fed a carrot into the juicer.

The machine roared, shook the entire island, and sent an orange mist across the ceiling.

Ken did not move.

A single droplet slid down his forehead.

"That's going to be a recurring feature," Jude said.

They made juice first, since the juice had been July's rule.

Carrot, apple, and a thumb of ginger, pressed to a cloudy gold.

Jude tasted it and made a face. "It tastes like a garden that's angry at me."

"Drink it."

"Do I have to?"

"Do you want to know what's in the cookies?"

Jude drank it.

The cookies were Ken's grandmother's recipe, oats and honey and butter, with one change.

"I don't have chocolate chips in Millbrook," Ken said, "so I never put them in."

"We have chocolate chips."

"Dark. Ten percent of the weight."

"Ken."

"Eight percent."

"You're negotiating my chocolate."

"It's good for you."

"It's the only reason I came."

Keep reading free with an account. Start He Took Jude's Money, Ken Won His Heart from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.