The Encore of Us novel · Chapter 10 of 24

Chapter 10: Free Tuesdays

The lake house stood on a bluff above Lake Harriet with a long window facing the water, and the kitchen smelled of burned butter.

"It's supposed to be golden," Anders said.

He stood at the stove in his shirtsleeves, glaring at a pan of eggs that had gone the color of a boot.

"It's supposed to be eggs."

"This is an egg-adjacent substance."

"Give me the spatula."

"No."

"Anders. Give me the spatula, or I'm calling the fire department."

He surrendered it with great dignity.

I scraped the pan into the trash and started over with the butter at half the heat.

He hovered at my shoulder, with the tall warm length of him a few inches too near, and tried to read the technique.

"You keep stirring," he said.

"That's the whole secret."

"That can't be the whole secret."

"Seven years of institutional breakfasts," I said. "You learn what a good egg is."

His breath stopped.

I hadn't meant it to land that hard.

I kept stirring, and the eggs went soft and pale yellow in the pan, and I felt him go still behind me.

"I'm sorry I wasn't there," he said.

"You didn't know."

"I should have." His voice was rough. "I should have read the first letter. I should have looked at my mother's face."

I turned off the burner.

"Tonight isn't about that," I said.

"What is it about?"

I put the spatula down and turned around and looked up at him.

He had a smear of butter on his cuff and the lamplight on his hair.

His hands hung at his sides.

"It's about the eggs," I said. "I'm making you eat them."

"Linnea."

"And then I'm making you do something else."

He swallowed.

I took him by his belt buckle, and I walked him backward until his legs hit one of the kitchen chairs.

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