Caught Between Three Billionaire Tycoons - Willa Hart Page 0,60
mouth twisted. It made him look adorable.
“We need the butter.”
“Does that help to get the dress on?”
I couldn’t stop laughing as Aleksey passed me one of the many sticks of butter, he was destroying I started rubbing the turkey skin with it, sprinkling herbs.
“You see what I’m doing?”
“I see. I don’t understand.”
“You don’t have to. All you need to do is rub the skin with that butter and add sprinkles of herbs. Just give me one sec.”
I found some fresh green apples and broke up some pieces of bread in the food processor. I added some butter—not too much—and a little cinnamon, then started stuffing the turkey with it.
“When does the dress come into it?”
I controlled my laughter into just a smile.
“This is it. This is how you dress a turkey. Butter, herbs, stuffing.”
“Wow. That term is a little confusing, isn’t it?”
“It all depends on your cooking education, I guess.” We spent a few moments just staring at each other, grinning like idiots. We kissed with our hands still sticky with turkey grease.
“Okay.” I wiped my hands clean. “Now to rescue you, Aleksy.”
“You know, I’ve seen memes about how pastry will literally kick your ass. I thought it was a joke. I didn’t think it literally leapt up out of the bowl and wrestled you to the floor in a choke hold.”
I giggled and Aleksy pulled me into his lap. He started groping at me, leaving floury white fingerprints.
“Hey! Hey! Cut it out. You’ll owe me a new sweater.”
“Oh, no. I’m not buying you clothes. Never. Eventually you’ll run out and then you’ll just be naked all the time.”
“Wise man.” Daire nodded slowly. “I knew there was something I liked about you.”
Daire tried cleaning up some of his mess and put the turkey in the oven. I sat on Aleksy’s lap, adding flour to the dough and turning it to get it to a good consistency. Now and then Aleksy would reach around and help, squeezing the dough into odd shapes.
“But you cooked breakfast the other day!” I tried not to sneeze as a cloud of flour rose to hit me in the face. “I thought you were good in the kitchen.”
“I am!” Aleksy protested. “That’s why I thought I could handle pastry.”
“Only grandmothers of many a year can handle pastry.” I nodded sagely.
“You’re not a grandmother! How are you handling it?”
“Oh. I’m a good guesser and I’ve got a lot of luck.”
I turned so Aleksy could kiss me and I fell across his lap as he tried groping me again with his sticky hands.
I worked the pastry into some semblance of its proper glory, pressing it down into the tin. Aleksy just shook his head.
“You’re a witch. Like totally, magical, Sabrina type shit. No one could do that without witchcraft.”
“No, my dear.” I pressed the edges to make them crimp. “Just a bit of patience.”
I stood up and moved around the counter. “Where’s your filling, Daire?”
He pointed at a cold saucepan of orange slurry.
“What the hell?”
“You have to cook the pumpkin first, right?”
I pressed a hand to my eyes. “Oh, dear god save me. Yes. But a little roasting and blending will do it.”
I took the mush to the sink and squeezed the moisture out of it, taking it back to the bench. It might have been a puddle of slurry, but it would still work. I spooned it into the pastry shell, sprinkling it with sugar and nutmeg.
“How much nutmeg?” Daire asked suspiciously.
“Three teaspoons.” I looked seriously into his eyes. “It’s gospel.”
Aleksey dissolved into laughter as Daire absorbed my comment with total sincerity. I hurried to Daire and hugged him, kissing away the confusion in his eyes.
We put the pie in the oven under the turkey and cleaned up a bit. The guys grabbed a bottle of wine and I grabbed a bowl of cookies from the ones I had just made with the kids.
We gathered by the fire and Zavier set about getting it blazing.
“Look, mommy!” Adara held up her book. It was a picture of three big bears and two little bears. She had colored them all carefully in shades of black, brown and gold. She hurried over, putting her sweet little arms around my neck.
“It’s for you, Mommy. For coming to stay with us.”
My eyes filled with stinging tears and I held the little girl as hard as I dared.
“I’m not going anywhere, sweetheart. I’m with you, baby girl.”
Adara gripped my neck before she let me go, giving me her picture. She snuggled against me,