Personal Chef

Chapter 95

We spent our second anniversary at the cabin. We'd only been there once since Cady had been born, so it was wonderful to go back for three days of seclusion. The other trip had been for my birthday. Shawn's parents had joined us that time since mine were back in Vancouver. They'd entertained the baby so that Shawn and I could rest, which had been crucial at that stage. One of the extra bedrooms was now Cady's and the other was a guest room. The couch in the living room folded out into a queen sized bed, so we could host quite a few people, though I was glad it was just us this early December visit. I did like to envision spending the holidays there with our families sometime in the future.

A snowstorm hit our first night there so we didn't venture outside at all other than when Shawn shoveled a path and cleaned off the car. I actually loved being holed up in our getaway home surrounded by a thick blanket of white.

Cady was almost four months old and was interacting with us a lot. She smiled and laughed frequently, but she was still cranky every night. The pediatrician said it could be colic, but it was more likely that she was just tired. Our daughter still wasn't sleeping through the night. She woke me from my sleep like clockwork around 11:00 and again at 3:00. I hadn't had more than four hours of continuous sleep since I'd given birth. Shawn couldn't feed her, so I rarely woke him. There was no point for both of us to lose out on rest.

"Do you think Cadence will react if I make this kind of spicy?" I asked Shawn as I seasoned the Middle Eastern lamb and cauliflower stew I was making.

He was on the floor of the living room with the baby. We'd moved the coffee table to the side so that there was a large open area on the carpet for her to play. Playing consisted of rolling over and swatting at the arch over her activity mat, which was placed on a large quilt my mom had made us.

"She's never had problems before, right? I think she'll be fine. Spicy sounds good to me."

With those words he winked at me. Given how things were these days, his cute attempt at flirting made me somewhat uneasy.

I added some more harissa and stirred it into the simmering stew. I'd add the cauliflower in a couple hours since it cooked quickly. I put the lid on and turned the temperature down before joining my family on the floor. Cady was wearing a pair of gray cotton pants with a yellow top. Her shirt had risen up so that her little round tummy was exposed. I leaned forward and blew raspberries on it which resulted in peals of baby laughter.

"She's pretty great, isn't she?" Shawn asked.

"Understatement of the year," I said before kissing her belly again.

"No regrets?"

I sat up and stared at him. "What do you mean?"

"I know this has been hard on you, Chels. You're working part-time, getting up at night, and you never get any time for yourself."

He wasn't wrong.

"I go back to work full-time at the end of January. I'm not going to complain about how things are now since they are only going to get harder," I said matter of factly.

"Maybe you shouldn't do it. You could continue to work part-time. I mean hell, you could reduce your hours if you needed to. Your restaurant is in excellent hands," he said.

"We made a plan. I want to stick to it. I can't stay on part-time because that would keep Paige from finding a job. I feel like I've taken advantage of her long enough."

He scoffed. "I don't think Paige wants another job. She's clearly happy at the bistro. Plus, you can promote whatshername if needed."

"Maybe. But I'm not going to push Paige in a certain direction just because I changed my mind about work," I told him. "And her name is Melinda."