Vanessa just nodded, her eyes never leaving the man that had changed the course of her mother's life--the man that had lied to her so that he could pimp her out--the man that had left a legacy of pain and dysfunction in his wake.
"So you are a chef?" She asked politely.
"Yes. I'm the sous chef—second in command but hardest working." He chuckled and Vanessa reached to take her son from him.
"Juan Carlos has been going to culinary school here at the Art Institute."
"Art?" Vanessa asked.
"Culinary arts."
"Oh, right." Vanessa said.
She bounced Crash up on her hip when he kicked to be released in order to explore.
They didn't stay much longer. And although Vanessa was polite, Juan Carlos noted that she spoke to him as if he was Scotty's dad and not hers as well. At one point she referred to him as Mr. Tremont before he insisted she call him JC or Juan. But what he really wanted was for her to think of him as 'Dad'.
But that was something he was prepared to work for.