He was no expert, but he could recognize the good stuff when he saw it. Copper ladles and sharp, heavy knives with pearl inlaid in the handles. There was something mouthwatering percolating in a slow cooker, and when she opened the fridge to get the hummus, Seb’s jaw dropped straight open.

“Good Lord!” His hand landed on hers as she started closing the fridge door. He yanked it back open. “What, are you running your own farmers market or something?” There was every green thing imaginable, roots curling akimbo, three different shades of every vegetable. “You have two different kinds of beets. Who in God’s name needs two different kinds of beets?”

She laughed, but there was a very healthy blush working its way up her cheeks. “I like cooking, okay?”

“Apparently.” He knew his eyes were as big as pancakes, but he seriously had never seen this much produce outside of a grocery store. “You really cook with all this?”

“Of course. I’m usually cooking for two.”

He felt some of his rising giddiness pinprick away into the air. Of course. She cooked for Evan the Supermodel. Ponytail-having bastard.

“Fin comes over most nights to eat with me. And most mornings, now that I think about it.”

Hmm. What the hell did that mean? That she didn’t cook for her boyfriend? It was a stupid mystery to try to be solving when he could just be enjoying her company.

“This doesn’t look like our hummus,” Matty said dubiously as he eyed the Tupperware she’d just cracked open. He’d slid up onto one of the chairs at the small breakfast table and was drumming skeptical fingers on the linoleum top.

“It’s homemade,” she replied absently as she fished in one cabinet for pretzels.

Seb’s heart sank. This was where his picky-ass kid was going to turn up his nose at a beautiful woman’s homemade food and make Seb feel like an inept father who stuffed his kid full of mac and cheese.

But then Via did something amazing. At the same second she was selecting a pear from her fruit basket, Via dipped a pretzel in the hummus and just jammed it right in Matty’s mouth. His eyes widened in surprise as much as Seb’s did. And then Matty’s eyes widened even more.

“It’s good.”

“I know,” Via replied from the kitchen sink where she was washing the pear.

Seb slid down next to Matty and tried it. Damn. It was better than good. This Evan asshole better marry Via DeRosa, or he deserved a punch straight in the dick.

Via brought a plate of sliced pears and slid down across from Matty and Seb. Crabby’s tail thumped under the table and she reached down to give him some pets.

Seb watched her while he crunched his pretzels. He saw the toll the day had taken on her. Her wrinkled silk shirt, her lipstick chewed off, the eye makeup slightly smudged over one eye. And that hand, already tipping from dark pink into purple. He wanted to speak to her but didn’t want Matty to overhear. Seb pulled out his phone.