Chapter 7 #2
“That’s not happening,” she muttered, as she walked into the kitchen and poured herself a glass of water from the big jug in the fridge.
“I can rustle up something. You go deal with whatever, and I will handle the kitchen.” Sterling opened his mouth, but she shut him down.
“And, yes, if I run into trouble, I’ll let you guys know, okay? ”
The two men looked at each other. Sterling shrugged and suggested, “It’ll be a good test then, won’t it?”
“What kind of test?” she asked suspiciously.
“Whether you would actually call for help,” he said, with a sigh, “or whether you’ll just be stubborn.”
“What kind of trouble can I get into in the kitchen?”
“Don’t say that,” he declared immediately. “That’s like testing the gods to find out.”
She laughed and waved them off.
*
In the kitchen she took a few minutes to orient herself, taking several deep breaths, trying to shake off everything that had happened so she could refocus on getting a meal together.
She pulled out the ingredients she had selected the previous night.
She had planned to do a variation of a lazy-man lasagna, and it still seemed like a good idea, so, with that decided, she got to work.
When she looked up a little bit later, the men came back in again.
“Done so fast?” she asked.
“No, just checking up on you.” She glared at him, and Sterling laughed. “See, you don’t even have a sense of humor anymore.”
She rolled her eyes. “Well, if I did have a sense of humor, you guys would have killed it already.”
“Too bad,” Sterling replied gently. “That’s what happens when you have family.”
She smiled. “I don’t know whoever told you about family but obviously not my aunt or my mother.”
“No, not at all,” Sterling stated, with a smile. “I had to learn that one the hard way, but now that I’ve learned it—”
Just then Lindsey drove up.
“Now that’s good timing, since we’re talking about family,” Chelsea noted, with a laugh.
Sterling walked out to greet Lindsey, and Chelsea stood at the open doorway and smiled when the two hugged each other gently. She looked over at Joel. “They’re really making a go of it, aren’t they?”
He smiled and nodded. “I think so, and I couldn’t be happier for them. They’re both good people.”
Then Sterling called out from the front yard, “I’m going to show Lindsey the new puppies. We’ll be back soon.”
Chelsea waved to them from the kitchen window. Then she nodded. “They really are good people, separately and together. In some ways, I’m jealous.”
“Why is that?” he asked, walking closer to her. “Just because they don’t have that same history?”
“No, they have other history,” she noted, “but they have each other. So I think, in their minds, they can work through whatever it is that might be thrown at them.”
“And their histories won’t matter then,” Joel interjected, “and will likely make them stronger.”
“Do you think that’s true? That when you go through that kind of shit, does it actually make you a stronger person?”
“I think so.” He nodded. “It certainly doesn’t hurt to have been through trouble. Then you know what you can handle and can still face the world again.”
“Maybe,” she muttered, “it just all seems so difficult sometimes.” She groaned and went back to the saucepan.
“What are you making?” he asked, as he came up behind her.
“Lazy-man lasagna.”
“Oh, cool. Do you need any taste-testing?”
She laughed. “I think men are all the same.”
“No, I think people are all the same,” he clarified. “I’m hungry, and, even if I’m being offered a meal, I am not above asking for a taste.”
“What if you don’t like it?”
“The chance of that happening,” he declared, “is very minor.”
“Ah, but you don’t know if I can cook.”
“Sounds like you belittle your skills. You’ve really got to stop doing that. Yet it doesn’t matter whether you can cook or not. You’re making a good attempt,” he stated. “So I won’t mess with a master in her kitchen.”
She just shook her head. Looking around, she shared, “I spent a lot of years cooking in this kitchen.”
He nodded. “And have you been able to adapt to the concept that it’s his?”
She looked at him in surprise and then nodded.
“Yes. Possibly because it was never going to be mine anyway. My mother always made it very clear that it was hers and that I was expected to move out when I was no longer of any use. That changed a bit when she needed money. So then it was much better if I moved out and got a job somewhere, so she could be assured that I would have enough money for her.”
“Yeah, what a lovely lady. Jesus.”
“It took me a long time to figure it out and even longer to escape it all.” She shook her head. “I know that I’m so much better off to be beyond all that and away from such a negative influence. Yet it’s just … it’s still hard.”
“Yeah, I’m sure it is,” he agreed.
“I mean, family is family, and you don’t expect to get kicked to the curb when you’re no longer useful.”
“And yet you were very useful.”
“I was really useful—and from a very young age. I was useful, … until I wasn’t,” she added, with a laugh.
“That’s the thing about Penny. She could be very mercurial, which kept me off balance all the time.
She would go back-and-forth, so I never knew who I would get.
Then once she moved her boyfriend in, all bets were off, and I was definitely nothing but an unwilling source of cash. ”
“If she weren’t already in trouble, I would love to have a serious talk with her.”
“And she would kick you in the back while you were down,” she declared, with a smile.
“Right, definitely not my kind of person. So, what about this Gladys?”
She frowned. “I’ve been working with her for months.
I’ve seen her for a couple years here and there,” she added, “but I didn’t have much to do with her until this last rotation.
… Then it seemed like hate at first sight.
I don’t even know what I did or what she thinks I have done, and maybe it doesn’t even matter.
Maybe it’s just the fact that I exist,” she proffered, “but it certainly has been a challenging few months.”
“Well, with any luck—”
“I know,” she interrupted, with a wave of her spoon. “With any luck it will all be settled soon, and everything will be nice and peachy keen again.”
He laughed. “Are you mocking me? Your positivity seems to carry a hint of sarcasm.”
“I’m as positive as I can be, considering.” She scrunched up her nose. “But I’m not foolhardy or na?ve, so no way I’ll just assume it will be smooth sailing ahead or that life will be easy.”
“I’m never really sure if anything in life is easy,” he noted, with a smile in her direction. “If you think about it, there’s always an awful lot more that can still go wrong every time we turn around.”
“Yeah, there sure is,” she muttered. “Thank you for pointing that out.”
Just then the other two walked in. Lindsey smiled at Joel. “Hey,” she greeted him. “Whenever you go back to the Haven, would you mind stopping by my place first and collecting some supplies to Timber?”
“Nope, not at all.”
“Good. I was talking to one of the pet food distributors, and I was telling them about Timber. So he dropped off what he has for supplies right now—since we’re both in town—and figures that he can ship out quite a bit more for him later.”
“Now that is good news,” Joel replied in surprise. “That will definitely make his day.”
“Well, I don’t know about making his day, but as long as I’m feeding a few animals, … that works for me.”
He smiled. “I think you’ll be feeding a lot more than a few, depending on what supplies they send out.”
“I’m hoping that they’ll send out a fair bit, but again, … who knows?”
He smiled and nodded. “It doesn’t matter because, regardless, we’re happy to have it.”
“We?” she asked in a teasing tone.
“Yeah, we. It seems like everything is a we around here,” he explained.
Lindsey nodded. “Those puppies are the cutest things ever. So, yeah, there is a certain amount of we going on here. I’ll have to add Sterling and his K9 training to spiels to get more free pet supplies now.”
Sterling grinned broadly. “Thank you so much for that. All donations are gladly accepted—whether it’s pet supplies or your help. Thank you, Lindsey.” Then he hugged her again and kissed the top of her head.
She looked over at Chelsea and checked out her knees. “Sterling just told me about your day.”
“Yeah, fun, huh?” Chelsea sighed.
“Too bad you didn’t go into veterinary care,” Lindsey suggested. “Tiffany and I could really use an assistant.”
“Not exactly my field,” Chelsea noted, “although I do love animals, and I look forward to helping with these puppies—but after the two weeks from hell has passed.”
“So sorry you have to go through all that. Yet I don’t imagine it’s very different, working on animals or humans.”
“Maybe not, but I did get offered a job at the hospital today.”
“Right, and I suppose I should accept your career choice with good grace, but I have to admit I’m getting a little desperate for skilled people to help us out.”
Chelsea frowned. “There’s got to be quite a few out there, even in a small town.”
“There are, but I’ve also got to find somebody whom I can trust, you know?
Animals are special,” she noted, with a smile.
“I run the books for several rescues in addition to veterinarians. Plus, I support and volunteer at other nearby rescues as well. These animals have been through so much. So, we can’t hand them over to somebody who doesn’t love them as much as we do. ”
“Of course,” Chelsea said, “and anybody who has any experience with animals will know perfectly well that they’re safe with you guys.”