Chapter 16

 

Rico really had to wonder if his grandmother was trying to push him and Mitch together. She was always giving him time off to help out with everything and anything from remodeling work to cupcakes. It was very suspicious.

For now, Rico set aside that concern. The shopping was done and they were back at the Dunbar house together spreading groceries all over the new countertop in the kitchen. That was mostly Sammy's doing as she showed Mitch what they bought.

"It's a sponge, Daddy," Sammy said as she held it up for him to see. The sponge was shaped like a flower with a smiley face on it.

"We had to get it. I'm looking forward to watching you wash dishes with it," Rico told him.

"We got seashell pasta too," she said and now she held up the box proudly.

"They look tasty," Mitch told her as she shook the box until he took it away.

"They will be once you make them into something," Rico said.

"I'll make it for the kids, but I'm not sure it will be to your taste," Mitch told him.

"I'm invited to lunch too?" Rico asked. He didn't think he was staying once he was done helping out.

"Of course. Unless you don't want to," Mitch told him.

"I want to. Thanks," Rico said and gave him a smile.

 

With the groceries put away, Mitch was texting Lara to get an easy, foolproof, no fail cupcake recipe. Sammy was busy with the kittens, and Rico was getting together the mixer, some bowls and hopefully a cupcake pan. Eventually he had to give up and give Mitch the bad news.

"I can't find a cupcake pan," he yelled from inside one of the kitchen cabinets while he made a racket as he put back all the pans he had pulled out so he could do a thorough search. Getting up, he came over to Mitch who was still texting. "There are other baking pans but not one for cupcakes. I can run over to my grandmother's," Rico offered.

"You don't need to," Mitch told him. "I just told Lara about it, and she's on her way. She'll bring one of hers."

"Oh, OK," Rico said and tried not to get jealous that she was so helpful to Mitch.

A few minutes later, Lara showed up looking especially good with both Gloria and her sister in tow, though Gloria soon disappeared going in search of Sammy and the kittens. All of them were dressed for going out. Though Stella could have toned it down a little and still looked stunning.

Those two sisters were a nightmare to Rico, but only Stella had that predatory vibe. Lara only looked the part but didn't bat her eyelashes at Mitch once, just handed him the cupcake pan.

"Thanks a lot for bringing it. I could have come to get it though," Mitch said.

"It's no trouble. We're on our way to take Gloria over to her dad's then doing some shopping," she said. "Text if you need any pointers and good luck."

"I'll need lots of luck. I'd hate to disappoint the kids," Mitch told her.

"You know, I could stay and help you," Stella offered. "I'm not too bad in the kitchen."

Lara and Rico both gaped at the nerve of her.

"This is a kids' party, and you were whining at me to take you shopping," Lara reminded her.

"I'm sure we'll manage," Mitch told Stella but not as harshly as Rico would have liked. He couldn't help but wonder if Mitch might have said yes to her if she and Lara weren't on their way somewhere.

The two sisters retrieved Gloria from the back where she had gotten stuck playing with Sammy and the kittens, then they were off. As he followed Mitch inside so they could get cooking, Rico tried to put Stella out of his mind. She was gone, but Rico kept wondering who Mitch thought he should be with.

At least for now, he had Mitch to himself, more or less. Sammy was there too to supervise them and lick frosting off the beaters. She gave the frosting her thumbs up, but Mitch was still uneasy about his baking skills. He was so diligent following the recipe to the letter that Rico had to tease him about it.

"And they say cooking is supposed to be fun. What do they know?" Rico said as he licked some frosting too.

Mitch acted like he wasn't supposed to watch him doing that. Then he cleared his throat and asked, "How is it?"

"Really good," Rico told him after a pause.

"So maybe following the recipe was worth it," Mitch said.

"Maybe," Rico said grudgingly then he grinned at him and had a little more.

"Don't eat all the frosting, Rico," Sammy scolded him.

As she ran off to see what the kittens were doing, Rico reassured Mitch. "Frosting is half the battle." He nudged Mitch with his elbow and got him to smile.

"I get anxious if I feel I'm out of my element," Mitch admitted, surprising Rico. "I was always afraid I couldn't do right by Sammy, just like her grandmother claimed. I felt like I had to prove myself and win the right to be her father."

"You're an amazing dad. But if you want to take it to the next level, write Sammy's name on one of those cupcakes," Rico challenged him with a grin.

"Her full name?" Mitch asked, upping the ante. "That would be Samantha Tabitha McEvers."

"Wait. That name...?" Rico narrowed his eyes with suspicion, got out his phone and did a quick search. He knew there was something funny about it, and his research confirmed it. "Seriously? This is the name you gave your daughter? You?" he said as he looked up from his phone screen and stared at Mitch with amazement.

Mitch shrugged and smiled. "Not me exactly. Ellie wanted to name Sammy after the mother and daughter on Bewitched. She was obsessed with the reruns of that show when she was a little girl. I agreed to name her that as long as we stuck McEvers at the end of it. I wanted my kid to have my name. After Ellie was gone, I was glad to give Sammy the name her mom wanted her to have." Mitch's voice cracked as he finished speaking, and Rico reached over and rubbed his back. Though he meant it only as a comforting gesture, Rico wondered if he might tense up under his touch, but he didn't.

 

By the time DJ and Riley got dropped off, the cupcakes were already out of the oven and cooling. While Mitch and Rico started on making lunch, the kids ran around all over the porch, making a lot of noise.

To reassure himself that he didn't screw up, Mitch sent a picture of the cupcakes to Lara, and she said they looked good. Rico shook his head at Mitch's baking insecurity.

 

Stepping out the kitchen door to make sure the kids were behaving, Mitch heard Riley stomping over to him at a run. Coming to a stop right in front of him, Riley craned his neck and fixed him with an eager look. "Can we play with your tools and stuff now?" Even before he finished his question, DJ, the older and wiser brother, was already shaking his head as he came up behind him.

"After lunch," Mitch said to Riley, but he looked kind of horrified at the prospect.

As Riley sighed with disappointment at the delay, DJ dragged him off to see some bug Sammy and the kittens had found.

Rico clapped Mitch on the back. "Like you wouldn't have loved playing with all those tools when you were a kid."

"Of course I would and hopefully some sane adult would have stopped me before I maimed myself," Mitch grumbled. "You know we never got to have Sammy's friends over before now."

"Really?" Rico said.

"I didn't know any of her friends' parents. I was always struggling to make enough money, rushing to drop her off and pick her up," Mitch said. "I could never arrange anything like this."

"You missed out on all the stomping and shrieking," Rico said as he heard the kids shrieking and laughing about something. He went off to investigate. "I'll go see what that's all about and call them in to have lunch."

 

A few minutes later, the kids tromped into the kitchen ahead of Rico. With a lot of scraping of chairs, they sat down, and Mitch and Rico got to hear all about how they found a bug then lost the bug and Natalie tried to climb under DJ's shirt and then the shrieking started. While the kids talked over each other at the kitchen table, Rico went over to help Mitch with the pasta.

As Rico sniffed at what he made, Mitch told him about it. "It's seashell pasta with cream sauce and peas. Sammy likes it like that, and I hope the boys will too. But if you want to wake it up, you can add more parmesan and black pepper."

"I do like my pasta woke," Rico said and fixed a plate for himself and Mitch too. "I woke up yours too."

As they ate and all the kids said they liked his pasta, Mitch looked pleased.

Sammy was so proud of his cooking skills. "My dad made cupcakes too. He put our names on them with sprinkles," she bragged.

Mitch had gotten lucky with the boys' names. Putting DJ and Ry on two cupcakes wasn't as big a challenge as Sammy's name, but Mitch got it done.

Letting the kids sit on the porch to have dessert, Mitch served up the cupcakes and Rico took pictures. He captured the moment Riley licked the peanut butter frosting off his cupcake and got some on his nose and his chin.

"You licked off your name and all the frosting," Sammy said, appalled.

"Yeah," Riley said, not the least bit contrite.

"Now you don't have any," she said, pointing at the cupcake catastrophe he had created.

With sad eyes, Riley looked down at his cupcake and blinked. "Yeah," he said once again and scrunched up his face feeling the weight of what he had done.

Mitch let out a big sigh, went inside and came back out with the mixing bowl that still had a little frosting left in it. He scraped up the last of it and spread it on top of Riley's cupcake.

"There you go," Mitch said as Riley beamed up at him in gratitude.

"Don't lick it off this time, Ry," DJ told him and both he and Sammy watched him to make sure he didn't. Under their eagle-eyed supervision, Riley ate the cupcake without further incident, and Rico couldn't stop laughing.

"One cupcake, one small boy, so much drama," he said to Mitch. "That could have been tragic. You saved the day."

As he grinned at him, Rico noticed how happy Mitch looked. It was like Rico was seeing him the way he could be, relaxed and free to enjoy himself. Rico couldn't help but hope that at least some of that was because Mitch was happy to be with him.