“If you’re not up to it, I’ll make the tacos. I mean, I just have to cook the meat and dump taco sauce into the pansright? Shredded lettuce and cheese comes in packages, so it’s not hard.”
“Ew, no. I don’t use store bought sauces.”
“You make them from scratch?”
“That and guac.”
Her eyebrows widen. “Really?”
“Yeah. My nana was on a special diet that was bland, so I learned how to make it taste good with spices. Store bought stuff, at least to me, is either too sweet or too bitter. I prefer to make things myself.”
“I grew up on canned food and sauces from a jar.” One of the hockey guys wander over. “Single parent home. My mom died when I was nine so Dad took over. To survive, we went to canned food. It was at least edible.”
“I’m sorry about your mom.”
He shrugs. “It was a long time ago.”
“Doesn’t mean it still doesn’t hurt.”
He gives me a half smile. “True. I’m TJ. I play center, third line.”
“No idea what that means.”
“She’s new to hockey,” Jenny explains. “She’s from West Virginia and they don’t have hockey there.”
“What about football?” Another of the guys comes over and plops down on the bar stool.
“Who doesn’t have football?” I ask dryly and go back to the fridge to take stock of what I need. “Uh, Jenny, can you call Dylan and tell him to add lettuce to the list? I forgot it.”
“How many bags do you need?”
“Don’t get bags. Get four lettuce heads. We’ll shred it ourselves. I know you have a grater. I saw it in the cabinet the first day I cooked in here.”
“Can you cook?” TJ asks, an eyebrow arched.
“Yeah, my nana taught me.”
“Ohh, grandma’s cooking!” Two more guys have come into the kitchen. One of them looks vaguely familiar. “Best kind. I miss my grandma’s cooking.”
“That’s Collin and Carson. They’re both on the team.”
“You don’t remember me from statistics?” Collin pouts. “I’m hurt.”
“Sorry.” He sits with Hutch. That’s why he looked familiar.
He shrugs. “I’ll just have to work hard to make myself memorable.”
“What are you two doing here?” Jenny starts looking through the cabinets for containers we can use to put everything in as we chop and shred things.
“Hutch said he was coming over to see Daisy and I wanted to hang with my bro and my new bestie.”
“New bestie?”
“You, Daisy Mae.” He winks. “If you’re going to be around, then we’re going to be besties.”
“I’m not going to be hanging around.”
“Uh huh.” He looks at me like it’s a done deal. “What can we help with?”
