7. Hunter
Hunter
H unter and Abby spent their first day together sorting through her recipe cards.
They stacked them all in neat piles according to category – appetizers, entrées, side dishes and desserts – and then Abby gave Hunter a tour of the oversized house.
They were just sitting down to an afternoon snack of tea and cookies when Kiera came home.
She gave Hunter cash for her first day on the job, and all three of them agreed that this little impromptu trial run had been a success. Kiera asked Hunter to come back the following morning, then gave her a key to let herself in.
Hunter caught the bus home and there was an extra little spring in her step as she walked up the front steps to Piper’s house. The money Kiera had given her today would pay for Andrew’s football jersey and Hunter was more than happy to forego a little sleep if that was the reward.
She found Piper and the boys on the couch, gave her sister the money and kissed both boys on the tops of their heads.
Then Hunter climbed wearily upstairs to fall into bed and catch a quick nap before her next night shift at the nursing home.
She was asleep the moment her head hit the pillow, comforted by the thought that there was plenty of caffeine in the world to help her adjust to the new schedule.
Besides, now she could afford something better than the bitter, perpetually burned coffee in the nurses’ station at work.
The next morning, Hunter went straight from the nursing home to Abby’s house, feeling more bright-eyed than she probably should have for the amount of sleep she’d gotten.
But she was excited about the opportunities that this new job offered, she liked Abby, she definitely liked the money… and she liked Kiera.
Hunter didn’t expect to see much of her since the whole point of her presence in the house was to look after Abby while Kiera was away, but she looked forward to crossing paths with her again anyway. Hunter found it hard to take her eyes off Kiera.
Hunter found both women in the kitchen when she arrived. Abby was sitting at the breakfast table with an egg white omelet in front of her and Kiera was at the counter, pouring coffee into a travel mug.
“Good morning,” Hunter said as she came into the room.
“Morning, dear,” Abby called. “Would you like some breakfast? I taught Kiera how to make omelets and I bet she wouldn’t mind the practice of making another.”
Hunter smiled at Kiera, then asked Abby, “Is this one of the recipes we found yesterday?”
“It is,” she said. “I’m making sure my granddaughter knows her way around a kitchen since her mother was never much of a cook.”
“I like mine with cheddar and bacon,” Hunter said to Kiera with a wink, teasing her. She was rewarded with a smile that awoke the butterflies that had been so active in her belly yesterday.
“As much as I would love to make you a cheddar and bacon omelet,” Kiera said, “I’m going to be late for class if I don’t get out of here soon.”
“I understand,” Hunter said. “I’ll take a rain check.”
Kiera screwed the lid onto her travel mug and went over to hug her grandmother goodbye, then as she headed out of the kitchen, she said, “You two have a good day. Call if you need anything.”
“Have a good day, dear,” Abby called after her, then turned back to her omelet.
Hunter helped herself to what was left in the coffee pot, then kept Abby company at the table while she finished her breakfast. After that, Abby went into the den to watch the morning news and work on a sapphire-blue hat for her daughter and Hunter sat in an overstuffed recliner beside her, nodding off periodically despite the coffee.
When the news ended, they went into the dining room to continue Abby’s recipe project.
She directed Hunter to go into the office and retrieve her laptop so they could begin typing up the recipes, and that turned out to be a much bigger challenge than organizing the hundreds of cards and paper scraps into categories.
“I’ll do my best,” Hunter said as she returned to the dining table with the computer under her arm. “But I have to admit that I never got much typing practice. This might take a while.”
“That’s okay, dear,” Abby said. “My eyesight isn’t the greatest anymore so I doubt I’ll be able to read the cards without a lot of pausing and squinting. That’ll give you a chance to catch up.”
“Well, aren’t we a pair,” Hunter said as she opened the computer.
Abby laughed and agreed, then asked, “Shall we start with the breakfast dishes?”
For the next hour, they worked together, Abby straining to read the small print on her hand-written recipe cards and Hunter hunting and pecking her way across the keyboard. In that time, they managed to get three recipes typed up. Then Hunter felt her phone vibrating in her pocket.
“Can you hold on just a second, Abby?” she asked, fishing out the old flip phone and checking the name on the screen. “It’s my sister. I’m sorry, but do you mind if I take this call?”
“Of course not, dear,” Abby said, shooing Hunter away. “Go ahead - tend to your family.”
"Thank you," Hunter said. She went into the foyer, then flipped open the phone to the sound of static. “Hey, Pipes, everything okay?”
“Not really,” Piper said. She sounded agitated and she asked, “What time are you coming home?”
Hunter looked at the grandfather clock in the hall – it was only a quarter past noon and Kiera wouldn’t be done with class for two more hours.
“Not til around three,” Hunter said, walking up and down the hall until she found a spot near the front of the foyer that gave her decent reception. Her phone was a piece of junk and all this marble certainly wasn’t helping - her voice echoed off every surface. “Why, what’s wrong?”
“I have to be at the café in an hour and a half, and I just got a call from the school nurse,” Piper said. “Josh is running a fever and they want me to pick him up.”
“What do you want me to do about it, Pipes?” Hunter asked. “I can’t come home right now.”
“I know,” Piper said. “I was thinking maybe I can drop him off with you.”
“No,” Hunter said. “Are you nuts? I just got this job yesterday - I can’t start bringing my family to work with me.”
“It’s just a couple of hours,” Piper said. “I bet he’ll sleep the whole time and won’t be any bother.”
“Something the matter?” Abby called from the dining room.
Hunter closed her eyes for a second, taking a deep breath, then put her hand over the mouthpiece of her phone and went into the doorway with a smile. “No, just trying to work out a childcare issue with my sister. My nephew’s got a fever and they want to send him home.”
“It must be hard trying to work and take care of your sister’s kids,” Abby said.
“It’s definitely not the easiest thing to manage,” Hunter agreed.
“Have her bring him here, dear,” Abby said.
“Really?” Hunter asked. “I don’t want to be a nuisance.”
She could hear Piper talking through the covered microphone, her voice crackly as she said, “See? It’s not a big deal.”
“It’s perfectly fine,” Abby assured her.
“Are you positive?” Hunter asked. “I don’t want him to get you sick.”
“My immune system is just fine,” Abby said. “Maybe if he’s feeling better later, we can whip up a batch of my famous chocolate chip cookies. I haven’t made them in ages.”
Hunter sighed, feeling conflicted about this, as she put the phone to her ear again and said, “Okay, Abby says he can come. I’ll text you the address.”
“Thank you, thank you, thank you,” Piper said. “I’ll go pick him up and we should be there in around half an hour.”
Hunter hung up and sent Piper the address, then sighed.
If she had any other options, she would have chosen them over inconveniencing her new client.
Surely this was not a good show of professionalism, but Piper couldn’t stay home with Josh and miss a shift at the café.
She had a spotty attendance history as it was because of all the things that came up with the boys from time to time.
She went back to her seat in front of the computer and said, “Thank you so much, Abby. Piper and I both appreciate it.”
She wanted to say I promise this will be a one-time intrusion, but knowing their life, she couldn’t make that promise.
If Hunter was going to lose this job on account of her hectic family life, it would be better to lay all her cards on the table right away instead of trying to pretend she and Piper had everything together.
The doorbell rang almost exactly thirty minutes later, after Hunter and Abby had managed to get one more recipe typed into the computer. When Hunter got up to answer it, Josh and Piper both had looks of complete awe on their faces at the house and the oversized marble foyer.
“Is this a mansion?” Josh asked as his sneakers squeaked on the marble.
“That’s not a polite question,” Hunter warned him quietly as she put her hand on his forehead. “How are you feeling, bud?”
“Okay,” he said. His head wasn’t too hot and he didn’t look like he was at death’s door.
“He was kind of groggy when I picked him up,” Piper said. “But he perked up on the way from the bus stop. I think the fresh air helped.”
“We’ll get you set up on the couch and you can rest,” Hunter said. “Just remember that you’re a guest here. Don’t touch anything that doesn’t belong to you, and don’t go wandering, okay?”
“Okay,” he said as Abby came out of the dining room holding her recipe card.
“You must be Josh,” she said. “And you’re Hunter’s sister?”
“Piper,” she said, holding out her hand to Abby. They shook and then she added, “Thanks for letting Josh stay here this afternoon. I don’t have any more sick time at the café and I can’t miss my shift.”
“It’s no problem,” Abby said. “I was just thinking that we could make chocolate chip cookies in a little while, if he’s feeling up to it.”
Josh’s eyes immediately lit up and he looked a little more lively.
“Rest first,” Hunter said, then Abby asked Josh if he wanted a cup of tea to make him feel better. He nodded, so she led him down the hall to the kitchen, then Piper handed Josh’s backpack to Hunter.
“His insulin is in there if he needs it, and some work the teacher sent home,” she said.
“Thanks,” Hunter said. “Tonight we’ll have to sit down and figure out a contingency plan to make sure this doesn’t happen again. If I’m going to make this job work, I can’t be dividing time between my client and my family.”
“I know, and I appreciate this,” Piper said. “I should go before the bus comes.”
She didn’t leave right away, though. The ornate banister and the dining room’s elegant furnishings caught her eye, and she lingered for a minute to take a look around.
She went over to a small console table in the foyer and picked up a silver tray, then said, “We can’t afford to screw up your gig. These people must be loaded.”
“This is the house that the rubber industry built, apparently,” Hunter said. “Abby and her husband raised their two daughters here.”
“Two?” Piper asked, her eyes wide. “I could raise a hundred kids in this space.”
Hunter laughed and then Piper checked the time and said she really had to go or she’d miss the bus.
Hunter saw her out and then went to the kitchen to check on Josh and Abby.
He was sipping a cup of peppermint tea and she was pulling ingredients out of the cabinets for her chocolate chip cookie recipe.
Hunter wondered if Josh had ever made cookies from scratch before – she could only remember making the kind that came out of a tube, and even though he was sick, it would probably be a fun treat for him.