“And Ro and Anna’s kids are around here somewhere—twins, Lulu and Ava. Charlie is a twin, too.”
“No kidding!” Anna said with a smile as she chopped vegetables. “Well, our twins are in the side garden, picking chives . . . But they’ve been gone awhile so I should probably go check they haven’t decided to dig up the entire garden.”
Essie shook her fist in mock anger. “They’d better not be,” she called after Anna, then turned to smile at Cass—revealing where Miguel had inherited his endearing dimples from. “Those two are always up to something,” she said. “They keep us on our toes. You must know what that’s like, right? Double the trouble, those two. Now, I’ve just opened a bottle of cava. Can I get you a glass?”
“She doesn’t drink, Mom,” said Jacintha. “Sorry—is it weird that I know that? I read a Q&A with you in People.”
“Oh no, it’s not weird, it’s just—”
“Not true,” Miguel said, handing her a glass of cava. “You should know better than to read those magazines; everything is made up.”
Thankfully, there were no blips after that. Once Cass got used to the chaos—including the twins running into the kitchen with handfuls of lavender, not chives, and clumps of dirt falling all over the floor, to which the adults reacted calmly, cleaning up the mess while Javier accompanied the kids back outside to find their true quarry—she felt like she fit right in.
Essie asked her to help brown the butter for a béchamel, and they carried platters to the table along with everyone else. They were a warm and welcoming clan, and she felt like one of them by the time the sun set over the ocean and they had scraped their plates clean of a delicious linguine with seared scallops and buttery clams, plus a fresh salad redolent with the variety of fresh herbs the twins ended up procuring in the end—none of them chives, it turned out.
“Can you believe it, Charlie, Miguel is our black sheep—the only one who isn’t a doctor?” Jacintha said.
“The only one of us who actually has a life,” Ro added, standing to begin clearing plates, while Anna chased after the twins. He waved Lila away and told her to sit back down and rest when she tried to assist with the table-clearing. Cass stood and picked up an empty platter.
“No, no,” Javier said. “You stay here. Participants in the recipe challenge aren’t allowed to see the ingredients in the staging area.”
“Oh no,” Miguel said, putting his palm to his face. “You said you wouldn’t.”
“What I said and what I intended to do were two different things, son. We have the honor of hosting Charlie Goodwin at our home today—and if you think that means we are going to cancel the Sunday bake-off . . . Well, that’s just crazy. Isn’t it, Charlie?”
Cass was laughing. “Miguel told me about these bake-offs. I’d be happy to participate. How does it work?”
Javier rubbed his hands together. “Two teams, one prize,” he said, as if he were a television announcer.
“Oh yeah, Dad? What’s the prize?” Miguel was rolling his eyes good-naturedly.
“Bragging rights,” Javier intoned, still in a faux-deep voice. The teams were formed: Cass, Miguel, and Essie on one; Jacintha, Ro, and Javier on the other. Anna and Lila opted to watch the twins swim instead—but said they’d be very happy to judge the finished products.
Competition was fierce, and Cass couldn’t remember the last time she laughed so much. By the time she and her team had plated their simple fresh fruit mini crepes with lemon crema—one of the rules was that no dessert could take longer than forty-five minutes to create—her sides hurt from laughing. Jacintha, Ro, and Javier had gone with a chocolate chili mousse. Everything was carried out to the table on the deck for judging. In the end, the twins declared the mousse the winner, “Because chocolate is always best.”
“Sorry, Charlie, better luck next time. We’ll have a rematch when you join us for dinner again,” Javier said, standing to get another bottle of sparkling water. He caught her eye. “Which I hope will be soon.” She smiled back at him.
“I hope so, too,” she said. It had been easy to forget, amid all the laughter, conversation, cooking, and chaos, that this was just going to be a one-off and she wasn’t going to see Miguel’s family again. She stood and picked up some of the dirty glasses.
“You’re our guest, you don’t have to help clean,” Essie said.