desperately wanted to get back in Ethan’s Lexus and beg him to take me back to Vancouver. But I didn’t run from a challenge. And that was all it was, a challenge.
At least that was what I told myself as I followed them down the hall to the belly of their home. The kitchen.
Christmas music was playing and the place smelled like baking cheese and pasta sauce. My mouth instantly started to water and I was grateful when Ethan pushed a glass of red wine into my hands. It gave me something to do other than stand there looking like a lost puppy.
“We’re ready to sit down and eat right away,” Naomi called over her shoulder as she bent down and opened the oven. She pulled out a steaming casserole dish full of lasagna followed by a loaf of baked bread. She set it on the stove and took off her Santa Claus patterned oven mitts. “Plates are here beside the stove. Help yourselves and pick a spot at the dining-room table. Salad is already out there.”
The family formed a line. Ethan made me go ahead of him and he praised his mother’s cooking as everyone loaded up their plates and made the procession into the dining room. Candles were lit on the table and the salt and pepper shakers were in the shape of red and green Christmas ornaments.
This was clearly a special holiday in this household. No wonder Ethan liked Christmas so much.
We took our seats, buttered our bread, said our gratitudes, and dug in.
The first bite of lasagna made my taste buds sing like angels. I pointed at my plate with my fork. “Naomi, this is the best lasagna I’ve ever had. Thank you for setting another place at the table for me to join you all.”
Naomi smiled. “It’s our pleasure.”
Ethan, who sat beside me, grinned broadly.
I noticed how nobody sat at the head of the table opposite from Naomi. It wasn’t a hard riddle to sort out. They left their father’s seat open even though he’d been gone for three years. I wondered what sort of man he’d been. Based on what I’d heard from Ethan’s own lips, he was an excellent father and a doting husband. It was no wonder they wanted to keep his chair empty in his memory.
It wasn’t long before the man himself came up in conversation.
Dana joked about him being there with us tonight. “We wouldn’t have any leftovers. That’s for sure.”
“The man could eat,” Casey recalled. “The first time Eli brought me over for dinner, your father filled my plate for me. I remember sitting down staring at the mountain of food wondering how I was ever going to eat it all.”
“Did you?” Ethan asked, pausing with a forkful of lasagna to his mouth. “Eat it all, I mean?”
Casey laughed. “No, are you kidding me? There was more food on that plate than I could eat in an entire day. I brought it into the kitchen and Naomi packed it up in a to-go container for me and warned me never to let him fill my plate.”
“A fair warning,” Eli said.
There wasn’t any heavy feeling of sorrow amongst the family as they reminisced about their missing member. Mr. Collinder had clearly been the heart of the family, and now that he was gone, that seemed to be all they remembered him for, his love for them. He sounded like a great man with the same kind of work ethic I’d seen in Ethan. He liked to laugh, just as his son did, but he knew when to buckle down and get the job done, and he didn’t believe in cutting corners.
When we finished dinner, Dana cleared the dishes away. She refused my help but accepted Ethan’s, and I was left at the table with Casey, Eli, and Naomi. All of them stared at me with curious smiles.
I cleared my throat and took a sip of wine. “I’m sure you’re all equally as confused as I am that he invited me for dinner.”
Eli nodded. “A bit.”
Casey jabbed him in the ribs with her elbow.
He grunted and his eyes widened in surprise. “What?”
“Don’t be rude,” Casey muttered. She straightened up and smiled at me. “We were a little thrown, but now that I’ve met you, I think it makes a little more sense.”
“Oh?” I swirled my wine in my glass. “Care to enlighten me? Because I was trying to riddle it out the whole drive here and I came up empty.”
Casey smiled.