Chapter 11 Mattie
ELEVEN
Mattie
The power came back on fairly quickly later that day.
The internet, however, held out for much longer.
I headed home for a bit to shower while Sam and Toby did the same at their place. Unsure if I should go back after I’d cleaned up, I puttered around the house for a bit.
Toby knocked on my door, his cheeks pink above a shy smile. “We’re going to watch movies if you want to come over.”
The three of us piled onto Sam’s couch for a Christmas movie screening. Christmas movies in the days leading up to Christmas was something their family had done for a long time, and I got a warm, squishy sensation in my chest when they included me in their tradition.
After a few hours, Sam’s anxiety nearly stole the air from the room.
“Why don’t we go get some fresh air?” I suggested. “Maybe by the time we get back, the internet will be on.”
Toby grumbled a bit, as did Sam, but we pulled on our cold weather gear and headed out for a walk.
The day was truly gorgeous. Melting ice provided a soft trickling to the bird song and breeze through the trees.
While the day before had been cold enough for an ice storm, the temperature was now well-above freezing, and the sun shone brightly in the sky.
By the time we reached the woods, Toby had stripped his jacket and grabbed a walking stick.
We spent an hour or so wandering through the woods and following the river.
As a teenager, it was Toby’s duty to keep his excitement at bay, but the three of us enjoyed spotting a family of deer drinking at the water’s edge.
We also spied the tail of a fox as it scampered away.
And we followed the rat-a-tat-tat of a woodpecker until we found him pecking away at a tree.
Toby exclaimed the bug the woodpecker pulled from the tree was so disgusting, but he tapped out a text to Jasper and sent a photo of the bird’s insect lunch.
Despite the hour still being late afternoon, the winter sun had inched low in the sky. Sam seemed less tense, but there was no doubt he was ready to head back when I suggested maybe we turn around.
Toby and I held our breaths and waited as Sam scurried off to his office.
“Yes!” Sam’s triumphant cry had Toby and I sighing in relief.
“You want to help me cook dinner so he can work?” I asked Toby.
The kid nodded. “Sure. Probably not getting anything but pizza rolls if I’m counting on him for a meal,” he said with a snarky smile.
“He’s been working really hard on the website. If we get the grant, Sugar Pine will get a good chunk of money. It’s important for the town.”
“I know.” Toby shrugged and glanced out the window. “Pizza rolls aren’t the worst.”
“Not the worst, huh?” I elbowed him, and he huffed out a chuckle. The kid could put away a whole bag of pizza rolls in a day.
“What do you want to fix?” Toby asked.
“Figured we could do lasagna or chicken and broccoli casserole.” I opened the freezer. “Pretty sure we have everything for both.”
“The good lasagna or the scratch kind Sam likes to pretend is the best?” Toby wrinkled his nose.
I couldn’t help but laugh. “Some people would pay good money for homemade lasagna as good as Sam’s.”
“I’d rather pay money for the good ol’ frozen kind,” Toby said. “If we have the good kind, I want that. I don’t really like that casserole.”
“Not a fan of broccoli?”
“I love broccoli, I just don’t love chicken. I mean, I like it, but we eat a lot of chicken.”
“Lasagna it is,” I said as I pulled a box from the freezer. “You’re lucky I don’t have a single clue how to make it homemade.”
Toby and I set to work baking the lasagna and garlic cheese bread.
“We’re supposed to have a vegetable,” Toby said. “Mom says we should always have a vegetable with dinner.”
My heart twinged for the kid. “How about we do an appetizer of carrots and ranch while we wait for this all to bake?”
Toby grabbed a bag of carrots and the bottle of ranch from the fridge. “I’ll put a salad on the grocery list.”
We took Sam a plate of carrots with a side of ranch. He looked up from his work and blinked as if surprised to see us.
“How’s it going?” I asked as Toby peeked over Sam’s shoulder at one of the multiple monitors.
“You’ve got nestled spelled wrong.” Toby pointed while crunching on a carrot right at his uncle’s ear.
Sam closed his eyes and groaned. “About as good as that.” He stood and stretched, tiny pops sounding as his spine uncrunched.
“You keep working until dinner,” I said.
“After dinner, Toby and I will do our best proofreading while you finish up. Bed as usual, no staying up super late to finish. I can already see the headache lines around your eyes. Anything not finished tonight can be finalized tomorrow morning before submitting it.”
“I’m good at spotting mistakes,” Toby said before heading back to the kitchen.
“I need to finish this tonight—”
“You need to spend time with your kid. He’s on break, he’s bored, he’s missing his mom. I’ll head home, and you guys can watch movies or play video games.”
Sam blinked before his eyes skittered away. “Damn, how much do I suck?”
I cocked my head.
“Thank you,” he said, pulling me close for a long kiss. “Thank you for reminding me what’s really important.”
“You don’t suck—well, except when it’s the fun kind—” I nuzzled my nose against his, heat pooling in my belly when Sam’s eyes flamed to life. “You’re passionate and dedicated, both really good qualities. Sometimes we just have to remember where certain priorities rank.”
“I love you,” Sam said, hugging me close.
“Love you too,” I whispered.
“And you don’t have to head home. Toby adores you. Stay.”
I kissed him again. “I’ll call you when dinner is ready.”
When the oven timer buzzed, Toby and I set the table and poured drinks. Sam’s hunger was likely the main reason he came to the kitchen easily. The three of us fell into a comfortable mix of silence and random conversation as we ate.
“Jasper’s dad asked if you two are together,” Toby said through a mouthful of garlic bread.
My eyes caught Sam’s.
“The mayor told someone who told Jasper’s dad,” Toby said in way of explanation.
“Darcy definitely wasn’t gonna keep that to himself,” I muttered.
“What did Jasper say?” Sam asked.
“They asked me.”
“And what did you say?” Sam pressed.
Toby shrugged. “I said you guys knew each other a long time ago, and it didn’t work out, but it was working out now.”
This time Sam’s eyes caught mine.
“They are, right?” Toby asked. “Working out? That was okay?”
“They’re working out just fine,” Sam said.
His warm touch on my thigh turned my heart to mush.
“You okay with that?” I asked.
“Sure,” Toby said. “I mean, it’s whatever.” He shrugged as if trying not to care, but he hid a tiny smile behind a bite of lasagna.
As we finished our food and started in on clean-up, Toby’s phone buzzed.
“Tell Jasper you’ll call back,” Sam said.
“It’s Mom,” Toby said, snatching up his phone. “Mom?” He put the call on speaker. “Say hi to Sam and Mattie.”
“Hi, Sam and Mattie.” Tabby’s voice filled the air, sounding as far away as she truly was. “How’s the rental working out, Mattie?”
I couldn’t help but grin at the teasing in her words. “It’s working out just fine, thank you very much.”
Tabby laughed.
“No, really. Thank you,” I said. “Not sure our dumb asses would have ever taken the right steps to end up back in each other’s lives if it weren’t for your scheming.”
Tabby laughed again. “Best damn decision ever, signing you as a tenant. Glad you two got things figured out.”
Sam and Tabby chatted for a bit about bills, people around town, and future dates for her time at home before Toby took the phone and ran off to his room.
“I swear he somehow manages to get a message to her and have her call right when it’s time to do the dishes,” Sam grumbled.
“I’ll do the dishes every night if it means seeing him so happy to talk to her,” I said.
Sam frowned. “Oh, sure, make me look like the grump.”
I yanked him close, hugging him to my chest. “Dishes first, then we’ll work for a bit. One hour only. Then video games if Toby can stand having a couple amateurs playing his game.”
Dishes went quickly with two people tackling them, and the three of us soon found ourselves in Sam’s office. Toby and I were in charge of different sections of the website as we searched for errors, and Sam finished his list of glitches he wanted to fix.
The timer on my phone went off, and we all groaned. “Time to call it quits for sure. I don’t know how you stare at a screen like this all day.”
As much as I could tell Sam wanted to keep working on the site, he clicked a few more times and shut everything down. “I say we let Toby smear us in whatever game keeps him so busy these days.”
Toby’s eyes lit up. “Really? You want to play?” He looked my way. “You’re staying?”
“If you want me to,” I hedged. Of course, I wanted to stay, but I needed Toby to know I wasn’t trying to crowd his space with Sam.
Toby’s eyes gleamed, but he shrugged one shoulder. “I mean, you’re probably better than Sam, you might as well try to beat me.”
We played thirty minutes of a game that reminded me of the Blair Witch movie—the movements on screen and things jumping out had me equal parts dizzy and on-edge.
Toby finally sighed and switched us to Mario Kart.
Neither Sam nor I were much better at the driving game, but at least it was bright and colorful, and we weren’t being attacked by zombies.
“How are you guys so bad at this?” Toby asked as he won yet another race. “Didn’t they have video games when you were kids?”
Sam elbowed his nephew, and I put the kid in a headlock.
“We had video games, you little brat.”
Toby erupted in laughter when I ruffled his hair. He wiggled and squirmed until he escaped my hold.
“We didn’t have these video games. The controllers are different for one. I haven’t played a video game in probably ten or more years.”
Toby wrinkled his nose. “What do you do? You know, when you’re bored?”
“Paint, frame artwork, take photographs, read an art magazine.”