“Whichever one is paying my bills,” she said with a nod. “I’m two hundred and twelve years old and people are still paying to put my name on a call sheet. As long as the work is good, I’m grateful to be there—Now take your bread and dunk it in the milk, just like that.”
Evie followed her instructions, soaking the thick pieces of brioche. She wondered how long it would be before she could carry on a conversation and effortlessly move around the kitchen.
“But things are so different now. I love working onRory’s. In my day there were so few brown faces running things when you walked on set, and now we have a Black woman producing, a Black showrunner, all kinds of people in the writers’ room. Evie, it’s wonderful.”
Evie glanced over, smiling. “That sounds like fun. It sounds welcoming.”
“It is. And it keeps me young, being surrounded by all of these different young people. Watching them work together and learn from each other. I’m a lucky girl.”
“I wonder what it was like for me on my show.”
“When you’re ready, you can watch it.”
“I should do that.” Evie placed the first piece of bread in the warm pan and watched as the edges started to slowly brown.
“You smell that?” Miss Leona asked.
“It’s the nutmeg?”
Miss Leona’s wink was all the answer she needed.
Chapter 15
Evie felt like she’d made her first real big decision. Uncertainty and hesitation seemed to follow her around as she waited for everyone around to give her cues and instructions about what she should do next, what she should think, where she should go, but finally she found herself fully in command of the direction her heart and mind wanted her to go.
Evie was in love with nutmeg.
She’d taken note of the way a fry pan could transform the pungent odor of onions or bring out this certain sweetness from butter as it melted and browned, but nutmeg? Whatever her life was like before her accident, Evie knew she’d known no greater love than what she was currently feeling for the wonderful brown spice.
After Evie made enough French toast for her own late breakfast—it was very good, warm and sweet and buttery in the best possible way—and for Miss Leona to taste test, Vega expressed some interest in a second breakfast when she returned from her walk with three of the four dogs, so Evie made some more. And more for Lilah when she appeared from her room and wanted to give Evie’s handiwork a try and thenmorewith the remaining bread for Corie when she returned from her trip into town.
Vega helped her with cleanup, then Evie found herself drawn back to that nutmeg. She joined Vega and Lilah on the couch, where Lilah brought up the first season ofSupreme Chef. She suggested they ease Evie into it before jumping to her seasons. Evie watched a dozen chefs from around the country compete for cash prizes and a chance to present an international food festival.
The first timed challenge had the chefs fighting over a variety of produce for a simple tasting course. The pace and the pressure made Evie cringe. She loved cooking with Miss Leona. She couldn’t imagine having to come up with a dish on the spot while trying to battle other people for the last of the bell peppers. She also made a mental note to ask Lilah if they could try out bell peppers.
She glanced over and caught Lilah looking at her as she held the open nutmeg just under her nose. “Sorry,” Evie said, only mildly embarrassed.
“Don’t apologize. I love the smell of nutmeg.”
“Right, but you don’t want to marry it.”
“Maybe it’s attached to a memory.”
“Oh yeah. Could be,” Vega said with a shrug.
“What do you mean?” Evie asked.
“Sometimes scents or sounds or even textures can remind you of something. Like I went with Zach to go have lunch with a new feed supplier a few weeks ago and he was wearing this awful aftershave that my brother Jack used to wear, and immediately, I just remember my mom telling him that he was gonna wilt every grape we had. It was like a memory of my mom just as much as it was a memory of my brother,” Lilah said.
“Hmmm,” Evie took another whiff. She couldn’t walk around with a container of nutmeg in her pocket, but she was strongly considering it.
* * *
Later in the afternoon, Miss Leona’s driver arrived and they sent her and Corie off for their New Year’s Eve adventure. With her official kitchen adviser away, Evie decided to give herself homework for the weekend. Pick a dish per day to make on her own—with Lilah’s help and Vega’s moral support. For dinner she tried her hand at spaghetti carbonara. She resisted the urge to add nutmeg. The execution was far from smooth. She dropped an egg on the floor. Burned some of the bacon. Luckily there was plenty more in the fridge.
She learned a valuable lesson about cheese graters as she almost took a nice chunk out of her finger while preparing some fresh parmesan. And while there was a big difference between crazed chefs and big dopey dogs, having Sugar Plum follow her back and forth from fridge to sink to stove until Lilah bribed her with treats so she would sit the heck down made managing the space pretty challenging.
She refused to give up, though, and in the end she made enough to feed half a dozen people. It was disappointing when she remembered it would just be their party of three. Vega and Lilah’s company was wonderful, but she wanted as much feedback as she could get. Zach was still tied up at the ranch and Jesse had a standing social engagement that had him going into town. He popped in to say hello before he and Clementine hopped into his truck and took off.