"It wasn't urgent," Darcy tags along like a dog at his heel, half a step behind on the side of his bad eye.

"It was searing the outside of chicken, which you have to do quickly otherwise it overcooks in the oven. For family meal. I used too many ingredients for it to go to waste. Plus it would probably catch on fire if it was left there. So."

He wasn't just thinking about himself, after all.

"... for a minute I fought her off with just the pot lid. It was kind of sick," even if nobody else was around to see it.