by MK McGowan
“Collectively, these are called giblets. They’re the organ meats-liver, heart, gizzard, and the neck. You make gravy with them,” Elizabeth said. “But that’s Jane’s department.”
Elizabeth pulled out a cutting board and a knife. After showing her how, Elizabeth set Darcy to work preparing celery and onions while she oiled and seasoned the bird. “We’re doing a dry rub today,” she said with a nod toward a small bowl of mixed seasonings sitting on the counter. “If we were home, we could brine it a day instead.”
“And that does what, exactly?” Darcy asked, handing over the vegetables. If she had to do this, she might as well learn something.
“Theoretically, it imparts flavor. Mostly it gives the old folks something to argue about at the table,” Elizabeth said, massaging the spices into the flesh of the turkey. She washed her hands and checked the thermometer in the oven. Satisfied at the temperature, she slid the loaded roasting pan into the oven and shut the door.
“Does everyone violate their turkey with a celery stalk?” Darcy asked.
“Yes. And it’s not only celery. It’s onion, garlic, butter, and seasonings. It helps flavor the bird and, more importantly, the drippings,” Elizabeth explained.
“Drippings?” Darcy made a face. “Drippings doesn’t sound good.”
Elizabeth laughed. “It’s for the gravy,” she said.
She rinsed the turkey neck and threw it in a saucepan with the onion and celery that Darcy had chopped. She poured some chicken stock over the vegetables. “Some people add the liver and heart,” she explained. “But I don’t like liver.” She put the pan on the stove to boil while she pulled out two large pans of cornbread from the refrigerator. She’d cooked them the day before.
“What’s that?” Darcy asked.
“That is a little piece of heaven,” Elizabeth replied seriously. “Cornbread from my mother’s recipe. If you’re nice to me, I let you in on the secret.”
Darcy moved up behind her and slid her arms around Elizabeth. “You don’t have to bribe me to be nice to you,” she whispered.
Elizabeth enjoyed the embrace for a moment, but when Darcy’s hands dipped into the folds of her robe, she reached down and stopped them. Darcy got the message. This was the point where she usually put her clothes on and went home. Instead, she kissed the back of Elizabeth’s neck and asked, “When do we get to make the cobbler?”
Elizabeth laughed. “Sorry. No cobbler today.” She turned around and draped her arms over Darcy’s shoulders. “For Thanksgiving, we make pecan pie.”
“Not pumpkin?” Darcy didn’t actually care what kind of pie they had.
“In the South, it’s always pecan. Sometimes we have pumpkin or sweet potato, or even apple pie on the side, but we always, always have pecan,” Elizabeth said seriously.
“Your Grandmother’s recipe? She must have been a great cook.”
Elizabeth was pleased that Darcy remembered her earlier story. She rewarded her with a quick kiss and turned back to her tasks. She needed to finish cooking. Especially now that it looked like Jane was going to be a no-show.
Darcy made the sacrifice. “Okay, what else can I do to help? The sooner we finish up in here, the sooner we can go back to bed.”
Elizabeth pulled out the ingredients for the pies while she instructed Darcy on the finer points of cornbread dressing. “The secret ingredient is canned soup?” Darcy asked incredulously.
“It always was in my house,” Elizabeth said. “My mother is a big believer in convenience.” She pointed at a prepared tin of pie dough in emphasis. “Case in point. Mom doesn’t like spending all day in the kitchen on Thanksgiving,” she explained.
“I think I’d like your mother,” Darcy muttered, as she struggled to correctly cube the white bread. Why cornbread dressing contained white bread, she couldn’t fathom.
Elizabeth looked startled, but she recovered quickly. “I’ll introduce you the next time you’re in Longborn.”
It was Darcy’s turn to look startled. But when she glanced over at Elizabeth, she relaxed. For the first time in a long time, she hoped there would be a next time.
After another hour, Elizabeth announced that things were under control. She poured herself another cup of coffee. “I need to baste the bird. You can go ahead and get in the shower if you’d like.”
“Is this a ploy to get out of going back to bed?” Darcy asked suspiciously.
Elizabeth took another sip of coffee and looked at Darcy over the rim of her cup. “No, this is a ploy to get you naked and in the shower,” she replied. Darcy’s only response was a radiant smile as she backed quickly toward the bathroom. She wanted to run, but that would have been so undignified.
Darcy turned the water on to warm up while she looked around for a way to brush her teeth. She opened the medicine cabinet and spotted a couple of toothbrushes still in wrappers. This Michelle is apparently a woman after my own heart. She hated sharing a toothbrush, so she always kept a few extras on hand for overnight guests. She brushed her teeth quickly, dropped her robe, and stepped under the steaming spray of water. She leaned back against the tile and closed her eyes. A few minutes later, she heard the bathroom door open. Before she knew it, her arms were full of wet, slippery blonde. And she couldn’t have been happier about it.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Darcy woke to the blare of a now regrettably familiar alarm. This time, she slapped it into silence. She snuggled under the blankets and reached out for her companion. She encountered no resistance. She ran her hand quickly across the sheets. They were cold. She opened one eye to confirm the fact that she was alone. Damn it. She heard the clatter of something in the kitchen and knew that Elizabeth must be in there checking on dinner. Maybe she needs a hand, Darcy thought with a smile. She climbed out bed for the second time that day.
Darcy glanced at the clock. It was only 10:00. Don’t these people ever sleep late? She put on her borrowed robe and shuffled down the hall toward the kitchen. She rubbed her eyes, trying to wake up. She pushed open door. “Hey, babe, I missed you,” she said before she realized that Elizabeth wasn’t alone in the kitchen.
“Hey, darlin’,” Charlotte said. “I missed you too.”
“Charlotte! And Jane, hi. How are you?” Darcy sputtered in surprise as she tightened the belt on her robe.
“We’re doing fine,” Charlotte said, “but not as fine as you are apparently.”
Elizabeth poured a cup of coffee and walked it over to where Darcy stood frozen in the doorway. She handed Darcy the cup and pulled her gently over to the table. “Jane and Charlotte finally showed up to help with dinner. Wasn’t that nice of them?” she said.
“Just peachy,” Darcy responded dryly. But she winked at Elizabeth when she said it.
Charlotte laughed. Jane, however, took pity on Darcy. “We did stop and pick up breakfast,” she said in an effort to refocus everyone’s attention.
The four women sat around talking for a while. Charlotte couldn’t believe that Darcy had gotten a cooking lesson. Before they knew it, it was time to start phase two of the dinner preparations. The kitchen was too small to accommodate four cooks, so Darcy announced she was going home to change. Charlotte couldn’t prevent another huge grin and offered to drive Darcy home. “If my car’s okay, that is,” she said. “I can’t believe you parked it on the street.”
“I’m sure it’s fine, Charlotte. If not, you have every possible kind of insurance on the thing. I’ll be back in minute,” Darcy said as she left to get dressed. She had slipped on her pants when Elizabeth entered the room.
Elizabeth shut the door and leaned back against it. She peered at Darcy speculatively. She knew that seeing Jane and Charlotte so unexpectedly had thrown Darcy for a loop. “You are coming back for dinner, aren’t you?” she asked.
Darcy looked up as she buckled her belt into place. She shook her head. “I can get dinner anywhere,” she said, stepping closer to Elizabeth. “But I will be coming back for you.” She kissed Elizabeth forcefull
y and slipped out the bedroom door.
The ride to Darcy’s was quiet until Charlotte started chuckling. “I wish I’d had a camera. Your expression when you saw us in the kitchen was priceless.”
For a moment, Darcy debated being pissy about having her morning disturbed. She decided to laugh instead. “Not half as funny as the sight of you passed out in Carolyn’s chair last night.”
Charlotte giggled. “We are a pair, aren’t we? A couple of good-looking women from Texas breeze in, and we’re acting all out of character.” She paused, “It’s not so bad actually. So did you really help make the dinner?”
Darcy nodded. “Have you ever heard of giblets?”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Darcy took another quick shower at home and dressed casually for dinner. She also packed her toothbrush and a change of clothes in her bag. She suddenly had high hopes for the rest of the weekend, and shopping didn’t play any part in her plans. Charlotte was watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade when Darcy came out of her bedroom. “Should we take some wine or something?”
“No,” Charlotte said quickly. “Nothing alcoholic for me today.”
Despite Charlotte’s answer, Darcy grabbed a couple of bottles she’d brought back from a recent trip through Napa. “Ready?”
Charlotte clicked off the television. “Your phone was going off like crazy while you were in the shower. You might want to check your messages,” Charlotte suggested.
Darcy thought a moment. “Mom’s in Rome and my brother’s not speaking to me right now, so no, I don’t think I’ll check. It’s probably work, and I have something better to do this weekend.”
“For a change,” Charlotte said.
“For a nice change. Let’s go, Charlie. Our girls are waiting,” Darcy said, borrowing Charlotte’s phrase from the previous evening. Only this time, it was accurate.
Holiday traffic was brutal, and it took them an hour to get back to the apartment. They were both antsy by the time Jane opened the door to let them in.
“Where’s Elizabeth?” Darcy asked.
“You just missed her. We couldn’t find the cranberry sauce,” Jane said, “so she’s making a mad dash to the corner market. She left five minutes ago.”
Darcy suddenly remembered that she needed something from the market too.
Charlotte wasn’t buying it. “What on Earth do you need from the market?”
Darcy’s mind went blank. “I forget, but I’ll know it when I see it,” she said, handing Jane the wine.
“Could you see if they have any lemons?” Jane requested. “I’m not sure we have enough.”
Darcy shot her a grateful look. “Sure thing,” she said, heading back out the front door.
She spotted Elizabeth halfway down the block. Sometimes being tall has its advantages. She tried to act casual as she rushed to catch up. “Hey,” she said, as she came even with Elizabeth. “Jane sent me for lemons.”
Elizabeth laughed. “We had a dozen lemons. She was trying to get rid of you. Jane’s quiet, but she’s tricky.”
Darcy reached for Elizabeth’s hand. “I’ll try not to underestimate her again,” Darcy said, pulling Elizabeth closer. They continued down the street. They were in no hurry to get back.
Chapter Thirty
Unlike Carolyn’s party the night before, this party was a lot more informal and a lot more fun. Half the people there had been friends since college. The rest were spouses and girlfriends and, according to Elizabeth, they changed with alarming frequency. Because this was the first year in several years that Elizabeth had brought someone, Darcy had to endure a lot of good-natured questioning. She tried to take it in stride, but she wasn’t accustomed to dealing with so many new people at once. Still, she did her best to be open and charming.
“So how did you two meet?” Mike asked. He was half of Gary and Mike, and they’d apparently been together for the past 10 years. They were the longest of the long-term partners.
“We actually met in a bar on Halloween,” Darcy said.
“Elizabeth’s up to her old tricks again, eh?” Gary said.
“Sounds like she’s matured. She never used to hang around for a month,” Mike said.
“A week was her record in college,” Gary joked. “We used to call her ‘Love ‘em and Leave ‘em Liz’.”
“Do you remember when she was seeing three women at the same time?” Mike asked. He started laughing. “One time, she got her appointments mixed up, and they all ended up in her dorm room at the same time! We thought she was dead for sure.” He almost doubled over with laughter. Gary had to finish the story for him.
“Obviously she survived,” Darcy said.
“Survived? She ended up taking all three of them out simultaneously. It was quite the scandal, even for Berkeley,” Gary said.
“Of course, she dumped them all by the end of the semester,” Mike added, wiping his eyes.
Darcy was no stranger to short-term affection. It’d been her modus operandi since the debacle with Kate, but suddenly it didn’t seem so appealing.
***
Elizabeth saw Gary and Mike entertaining Darcy and moved quickly to the rescue. Those guys loved gossip more than anyone she knew, and they’d seen her through some of her most youthful of indiscretions. From the stunned look on Darcy’s face, Elizabeth could tell that they weren’t holding anything back. Oh God. I hope it’s not the one about the cheerleading squad. I’ll never live that one down. Elizabeth swooped in with the wine and offered them a refill, which they gladly accepted. “Do you mind if I steal Darcy for a moment? I need some help in the kitchen.”
Without waiting for an answer, Elizabeth pulled Darcy into the kitchen. It was the quietest room in the house. She slipped her arms around Darcy and kissed her soundly. “How ya holding up, darlin’? The boys can be a bit much at times, and they love to exaggerate,” Elizabeth said. She placed small kisses up and down Darcy’s neck.
Darcy tilted her head to give Elizabeth better access. “I’m fine,” she said. “They seem nice. And informative. They were telling me that you used to be a player. Love’ em and Leave ‘em Liz? Quite a nickname,” Darcy said.
Elizabeth groaned. “I was younger then. I had more stamina. And I was fairly stupid,” she admitted.
“Weren’t we all?” Darcy said. “So, did you really need help in here or did you just want to neck? Not that I’m complaining, mind you.”
“It was a legitimate request. I could use some help getting things on the table,” Elizabeth said.
“Damn!”
Elizabeth chuckled. “Don’t worry, we’ll get back to this later,” she promised.
Four hours later, Elizabeth shut the door behind the last departing guest. She leaned back against it and sighed. “I love this, but it is always a lot of work,” she said. “That’s why we alternate – so no one gets burned out doing it. Next year it’s at Mike and Gary’s, and that’ll be a blast. Last time it was their turn, they had a theme party. Come as your favorite Puritan. Not surprisingly, Mike was Hester Prynne, and Gary was Dimmesdale.”
“And they seemed like such nice guys,” Darcy said.
“Oh, they are nice guys,” Elizabeth said as she sauntered down the hallway toward Darcy. “They’re wonderful guys, but I don’t want to talk about them.”
Darcy slipped her arms around Elizabeth’s waist. “Oh really? What would you like to do?” Darcy asked with a sultry look.
“Clean up,” Elizabeth said.
“Clean up!” Darcy was horrified, and she didn’t bother to hide it. She’d gotten up early, and she’d played nice with strangers all day. She cooked for God’s sake! And her reward was more housework? That is wrong on so many levels.
Elizabeth pulled the obviously irritated brunette closer. “If we go ahead and clean up now, we have the rest of the weekend to relax. And by relax I mean have mind-blowing sex. Just to be clear,” Elizabeth said with a grin.
“Well when you put it that way,” Darcy said grudgingly. “Who co
uld resist?”
“I’m hoping no one,” Elizabeth said pulling out of the embrace. She moved into the living room and began to gather up wine glasses and coffee cups.
Darcy went into the kitchen and came back with a plastic garbage bag. She started tossing out napkins and plastic utensils. “Dinner was great,” she said. “I haven’t had a meal like that in ages. I usually go out to dinner somewhere.”
“Your family doesn’t live close?” Elizabeth asked. They hadn’t discussed their families much.
“My mother lives Monterey, and I have a brother in San Diego,” Darcy said. “But we’re not exactly close.”
Darcy’s closed expression told Elizabeth to drop the subject, at least for now. “You get a lot of the credit for dinner, you know,” Elizabeth said. “I couldn’t have done it by myself, especially after Jane bailed on me.”
“I didn’t know cooking could be so much fun,” Darcy said, taking the now full garbage bag back to the kitchen.
Elizabeth followed her. “If you think that was fun, wait until I show you how to make whipped cream.”
Both women stopped inside the kitchen doorway. They were stunned by the sight of a small mountain of dishes in the sink.
Darcy sighed. “I’ll wash, you dry.”
Chapter Thirty-One
Darcy woke up late the next morning. There was no annoying alarm, just the delicious warmth of a body in bed beside her. That was one thing she sometimes missed living alone-the feel of someone close by in the dark. She could hear Elizabeth’s deep, even breathing. For once, Darcy wasn’t in any hurry to put on her clothes and sneak home before anyone else woke up. It was the forced interaction of the awkward morning after more than anything else that led her to cut back on casual sex. That and the fact that she worked so hard. It’s hard to maintain a social life if you never leave the office.
Elizabeth rolled over on her side and slid her arm over Darcy’s belly. She wiggled in closer and mumbled something unintelligible in her sleep. It sounded like “breast side down.” Darcy didn’t know if Elizabeth was cooking in her sleep or re-living last night. Either way, it was a pleasant memory. Darcy smiled affectionately and snuggled into the embrace. She admitted that she wanted Elizabeth all to herself. At least for the next two days. After that, Elizabeth was going back to Texas, and Darcy would probably never see her again. Unless the land purchase goes through. Then I’ll have to oversee the construction. Darcy suddenly felt a lot better about Carolyn’s crazy scheme. Darcy shut her eyes again and fell asleep listening to the sound of Elizabeth’s breathing.