“Please. Eat whatever you’d like,” Azio said.
“I can’t. You’ve already given too much.”
“They don’t mind. I promise,” Brooke said, hurrying to join me in the kitchen. “Their idea of cooking is throwing stuff together in a pot. Having us make something for them will help even the trade. Plus, we get to eat well too. What do you want to make us?”
The fey next to Brooke laughed.
“My Brooke does not like to cook. She is trying to trick you into cooking for her.”
Brooke grinned at me.
“Every meal you’ve made has been good, and that was without a stocked pantry. Imagine what you could make here,” she said, gesturing to all the food in the cupboards.
A smart person never said no to food.
The fey moved into the living room, far enough out of sight to put to the back of my mind as Brooke and I worked together to make a meal. She mostly talked and fetched while I worked. I didn’t mind, though.
It was the most relaxed meal preparation I’d done in months. An honest to goodness chili with chunks of meat, beans, onions, and peppers. The slight wilt to the green pepper hadn’t bothered me in the least. And the selection of seasonings Azio had made the chili the best thing I’d tasted in ages.
Brooke was quick to grab a spoon of her own for testing.
“This smells amazing,” Brooke said, inhaling. She blew gently to cool her bite then ate it. She groaned as she chewed then swallowed. “Babe, I know you don’t like tomatoes, but I swear you have to try this. When all this stuff is mixed together, it’s not the regular red stuff.”
“I’m sorry,” I said quickly. “If I’d known he doesn’t like tomatoes, I could have made something different.”
Brooke laughed. “None of them like tomatoes. But they like meat. So this is a fifty-fifty shot.”
“Oh.” I looked down at the pot, a sick feeling settling in my stomach.
“Hey, it’s fine. You’ll see.”
She turned me and steered me to the table, which she had already set. As soon as I took a seat, the three fey joined us. I kept my eyes on my bowl as Brooke served us all. She filled our dishes to the top and put a small spoonful into each of the fey’s bowls.
“Dig in,” she said, sitting.
I tentatively took a bite and waited for their reactions.
“You are right, my Brooke. It does not taste like the red sauce in the cans.”
“It heats my mouth,” the other fey said.
“It does,” Azio said. “I like it.”
I flushed and smiled down at my bowl, relieved that they’d liked it. Breathing a little easier as they helped themselves to bigger portions, I slowly consumed mine. When I finally scraped the bottom of the bowl, my stomach felt tight and full. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d eaten like that, and I thought of little Greyly with guilt.
“You’re frowning. Here.” Azio slid his partially eaten bowl toward me. “Eat this.”
“I swear, I couldn’t eat more if I wanted to. Thank you, though.”
“Then why do you frown?”
I glanced at Brooke instead of focusing on the fey.
“This is the most I’ve eaten at one time in forever. I should have thought of Greyly.”
“Every time I spent the day here, I should have too,” Brooke said. “But I didn’t. I don’t think that makes either of us shitty people. We weren’t purposely withholding anything from anyone. We just didn’t think about it.”
“But now I have.”