“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.

“I insist,” Cass said. “I made most of that mess in the kitchen.”

“It’s true, she’s a lot messier than they make it look on television,” Javier said, and everyone laughed, including Cass. They all made short work of the dishes, and someone suggested espresso, which they took out to the pool so they could watch the twins have “Please, just one last swim.”