Pinewood Corner Kitchen Chapter 25
The knock at the front door startled Gabriella, who immediately wondered where she’d left Ricky’s paintball gun. It wasn’t Adele, of course not. And not just because she’d probably fled the country, but because the shadowed figure on the other side of the frosted window was far too large to be her. But Gabriella wasn’t stupid, so she picked up Madelyn’s spare cane – the closest weapon she could find – and walked over to the door.
She opened it with the latch still on to see McGovern standing on the stoop, sweating slightly in the heat. “Hi,” she said, hoping her confusion didn’t come off as completely rude. And that he didn’t see the cane in her hand as she tried to subtly set it down.
After all, he was the reason that the non-injured members of the team had been able to stay at St. Hildegard’s with her, James, and Graham as long as they had. He’d come to headquarters and either triaged or handled everything that came in that day, taking on the work that would have gone to Amelia otherwise.
“Gabs, hang on, I’ve got it.”
James made his way down the stairs. “Hang on,” he said again, to McGovern this time, then closed the door, undid the latch, and opened it again.
“Captain,” McGovern greeted, looking unsure what to do.
Looking at James, she could see something similar there. “Come in,” James said, moving aside so that McGovern could walk into the front hall.
“Hi, Gabriella,” McGovern said.
She nodded. “Thank you,” she said. “For your help the other day.”
James looked like he was trying to keep his cool. And considering that, just days earlier, she’d told the ghost of the man who tried to kill her, then all of them, that she forgave him, she could relate to him being jumpy right now.
“Let’s go to my office,” James said.
As they got to the top of the stairs, Gabriella coming up behind them, Bradley stepped out of the kitchen holding a chipped coffee mug. McGovern flinched slightly as he hung his hat on an empty hook, but Bradley just nodded toward the coffee maker. “Coffee’s on,” he said. “Help yourselves.”
He looked at James. “Do you need me, or…”
“I’m good.”
Bradley continued to look at James for a second, then nodded again. “I’ll be out back.”
There was a slight limp he was clearly trying to hide as he walked away, and Gabriella could see that McGovern caught it. He must know what happened, they’d scheduled that surgery in the first place so they must have filed a report. Hell, James was probably the one to fill it out.
McGovern followed James into his office and James closed the door. She knew what they were talking about in there, but still, she found ways to occupy herself in the living room until about twenty minutes later, when McGovern came back out, followed by James. He glanced around the room as he passed by her, a puzzled look on his face.
“Your hat is over on the hook,” Gabriella said.
“What? Oh, thank you,” McGovern said, taking his hat down and putting it on.
Fang wandered over to him and Gabriella realized she didn’t know the official rules about branch animals. Was Fang against Foundation regulations? But McGovern just scratched Fang behind the ears, then straightened back up with a smile.
“I’ll see you next week,” James said as he walked McGovern to the door.
She shouldn’t be spying, but whatever. Gabriella looked over to see McGovern smile again with obvious relief. “Excellent,” he said. “I’ll see you then.”
Then he was gone and James was standing alone on the landing. After a moment, she got up and went over.
“Are you good?” she asked, leaning over the railing to peer down at him.
“Fine,” he said, waving her off. “Don’t lean over that, you’re going to fall.”
She scoffed at him, but when he got up to the top of the stairs, she offered him a hug. And he accepted it.
***
“We still don’t know where Robin’s buried,” Gabriella said to James the next day.
He was at his desk while she was laying on the ugly floral couch. Her own lunch container was empty on the floor beside her, while his was partially finished on his desk. He’d told her she didn’t need to make him lunch, but she’d been making a batch of chili in the slow cooker she’d gotten from Graham anyway, and there was only so much room in her freezer for the leftovers.
“No, we don’t,” James said, frowning at something in his email.
He’d been doing that for the past ten minutes, even though there were supposedly fifteen left of his lunch break. But he’d said he needed to check one thing quickly, and that turned into ten minutes of muttering and typing.
“Do you want any more of that?” Gabriella asked, pointing toward the chili on his desk.
“No, I’ll eat it later,” he said. “I have to finish this.”
“You’re on your lunch break.”
“Yeah, I know,” he said. “But-”
“Is that email going to anyone who gives a shit about you?”
James paused, considered, then got up and walked away from his computer. She thought maybe he was going to come sit on the couch, but instead, he stood in front of the encyclopedias on the bookshelf, looking up at them. “What’s up?” she asked.
“Nothing,” he said. “Thanks for the chili. It’s good.”
“Yeah, no problem.”
“I think I’m going to go for a quick walk. You can stay there if you want.”
She kind of did. There were ten minutes left on her own lunch break and she knew that if she got up and started doing something, she’d end up doing exactly what he had just done. But she wanted a few minutes to decompress alone anyway, and it was a lot cooler in James’s office than out in the yard.
She took out her phone as he walked out of the office. It actually didn’t take long for her to find where Robin was buried. She pulled up his obituary, which was short and fairly generic. But it said he was at Evergreen Cemetery in Wrentham, Massachusetts.
She could have done this earlier, but Gabriella realized that, while she technically could have, there was no way she could put that information into a search engine and not freak out over it. But now there was a picture of Robin – clearly one from well before she’d started working for the Foundation – on her screen, along with a notice of burial. And she was alright.
***
Two days later, it was Gabriella’s day off. She’d originally planned to take the day and get her kitchen in order. But the more she thought about it, the more she felt like if she didn’t do this today, she’d find excuses to put it off forever. She wasn’t going to ask the others to come with her. She might not even tell them that she was going. But she needed to do it for herself.
The car ride took about an hour and a half, the traffic crawling along Route 495 as she sweated in her car’s lousy air conditioning, her tiny bouquet of flowers wilting on the passenger seat. But finally she arrived in Wrentham, a smallish town in southeastern Massachusetts, driving along wooded roads and lakes reflecting the sunlight until she reached Evergreen Cemetery.
Gabriella realized as she got there that she didn’t know where in the cemetery he was. And it was a large enough cemetery that it could take a while to find him. But she had all day and she wasn’t working again until ten tomorrow, so if she didn’t get home until late, then she would be fine.
It didn’t take that long, maybe thirty minutes of walking through the neat rows, dipping in and out of the shade into the late spring sunlight, before she found it. The headstone was neat and cared for, with a sprig of flowers already laid along the base. There were two other people’s names on it, Jennifer and Marco Lombardo. Judging by the birth and death dates, those were his parents. And Gabriella felt an unexpected relief that Robin wasn’t resting here alone. He had his family too.
Robin’s name and dates were on the other side of the stone, the strong sunlight warming the red granite and Gabriella’s back as she stood there for a long moment, looking at it. She had nothing to say. She’d hoped that she’d think of something when the time came. But no, she’d traveled two hours to be here, and now she had nothing.
But that didn’t feel wrong. So instead of forcing it, Gabriella just put a hand on top of the warm stone, then set down her own flowers underneath Robin’s name. Then, after another moment, she turned and started walking back to her car.
***
END
Get a bonus epilogue to Pinewood Corner Kitchen by signing up for my newsletter!
(Go to https://dl.bookfunnel.com/owmdiymt7d)
***
Read my Pinewood Corner Kitchen author letter over on Enfield Arts: https://www.enfieldarts.com/2026/01/15/pinewood-corner-kitchen-author-letter/
***
Did you know I have a Patreon? For a few dollars a month, you can get early access to all the main series books, ebooks of everything, weekly microfiction and more!
You can join here: https://www.patreon.com/enfieldarts
