Chapter 10
Staci stood in her kitchen with the cupboards opened, staring at all the canned goods and heaved a heavy sigh.
She closed all the doors, grabbed her coat, and hurried out, then walked over to Caleb and Katherine’s cabin.
Caleb let her in after she pounded on the door, and when she saw Katherine, she grinned.
“What’s up?” Caleb asked.
“I’m here with a question for Katherine.”
“What’s up?” Katherine asked as she parroted Caleb.
“I need something, and I don’t have any at home.”
“I’ll leave the room,” Caleb said and they saw his cheeks had turned pink. “I’ll let you two talk in private.”
“It’s not that.” Staci quickly reassured him with a laugh. “You can stay.” She turned to Katherine. “I want chocolate.”
Katherine laughed as she rose and went to a door in the kitchen.
She pulled out several baskets and when Caleb went to inspect them, she slapped his hands away with a laugh.
“Do you want a quick fix, I have candy, and junk chocolate.” She pulled out another basket and set it on the table.
“I have brownies, but you have a choice of dark, milk, fudge, with chunks or without. Then I have cake, devil’s food, milk chocolate, and that comes with frosting.
Unfortunately, that only comes in milk chocolate.
Well, it comes with more, but that’s all I like.
” She looked at the two before her and laughed.
“Sorry, I’m a chocoholic. I found that it’s easier to have all different varieties on hand for when the mood strikes. Which do you want?”
“As much as I want the dark chocolate brownies, I hate to admit that I don’t know how to cook, so I’d be afraid to try to make them. If you don’t mind, I’ll settle for one of these Ding Dongs.”
“Absolutely not,” Katherine said with feeling. She pulled out the brownie box, put the rest of the stuff away, and went to the kitchen. She got out a bowl, a pan, and some ingredients. In under five minutes, after washing their hands, Staci looked at Katherine with a grin.
“That’s it?”
“That’s it for mixing the brownies, now that it’s all mixed up, then you just have to slip them into the oven. Check the times on the box based on the size of the pan.”
“What is this? An eight by eight?”
“No, this is a nine by nine.”
“Okay,” Staci looked at the box, and slipped the pan into the oven.
“The most important thing to remember,” Caleb said as he stood in the doorway and studied the two women cleaning up after themselves.
“What’s that?” Staci asked.
“Making sure you don’t burn them. Set the timer and check them when it dings. I know you’re smart, and I’m not saying you’re not. I am saying that they might not be completely done when the timer goes off. You’ll have to check them to make sure.”
“How do I do that?”
“Stick a knife in the center, that’s what I do, if it comes aways clean, they are done, if there’s sticky brownies on them, then they should bake a little longer.”
“Huh,” she said and nodded. “That actually makes sense.” She turned to Katherine.
“I may be smart, but like I said, I don’t know how to cook.
Tony showed me how to make spaghetti, and I used that, but you told me and showed me how to add different noodles to make goulash. Now I know how to make brownies.”
“They aren’t done yet,” Caleb laughed, and caught the wet sponge she threw at him.
The three of them sat around the table and talked until the buzzer went off.
They sat there and allowed Staci to take control, and when her knife came out dirty, she shut the oven, looked off to the side, then reset the timer on the stove for another five minutes.
When that went off, she checked them, then grinned and did a happy dance once she removed them from the oven and set them on the top of the stove.
“Now is the absolute hardest part,” Katherine said with a laugh.
“Now what?”
“Waiting for them to cool enough that you don’t burn your mouth when you bite into them.
” The three of them shared a laugh and they sat for another forty-five minutes while Katherine showed Staci what they had in their refrigerator and cupboards, and was telling Staci what she could cook with the ingredients.
It wasn’t long before Caleb cut into the brownies, dished them up, and passed them out.
“Oh, god,” Staci said with feeling as she took her first bite and closed her eyes. She did a small dance in her seat and savored the flavor. She opened her eyes, and smiled with her mouth closed. “These are so good.”
They ate their brownie, and after cleaning up, Katherine took three of them to wrap for Staci to take home. She tried not to take them, but Caleb handed them to her with a grin.
“Trust me, you’ll want them.” She didn’t argue as she took them, then walked home.
Once she returned home, she went through her own cupboards and sat down to make a grocery list, and accessed the website that Katherine had given her to check out some easy recipes.
By the time she went to bed that night, she was hopeful that she might be able to learn how to cook for herself and stop eating cereal or canned soup all the time.
It was a good feeling to do something for herself.
Two days later, Staci opened her front door at the knock and grinned when she saw Tony standing there.
“Hey, come on in,” she stepped back to let him enter and watched as he wiped his feet and removed his coat. “Not that it matters, but what brings you over here?”
“We are the guests of honor at the BBQ over at Erin’s Way.
It starts at two, but I thought I’d come and offer to drive you over.
I have directions to get there without going out on the road.
We can go over early, and I wanted to talk to you about something I did on your behalf before it’s said at the party. I don’t want you to get upset.”
“Oh, should I be worried?”
“Not at all, at least I hope not.”
“Tell me,” Staci crossed her arms over her stomach and stared at him, wondering what he had done.
“It’s not bad, I swear.” He smiled at her, then nodded after taking a deep breath and letting it out in a rush.
“Remember when you were at my house and I told you that I was going to talk to a woman about making homemade spaghetti sauce?” He pointed to the chair at the table and when she nodded, he took a seat.
He looked at her and saw tightness around her lips and eyes.
“There is nothing going on between me and this woman. Do you know Lois Gibson?” At her cocked head and frown, he smiled. “Grocery lady.”
“Grandma Lois?” Staci asked and poured them both a cup of coffee and joined him at the table. “That’s what she told me to call her.”
“Okay, yeah, Grandma Lois, she’s dating Cole Mercury, my boss over at New Double.” He explained what he learned from Lois herself about how she was going to be planting a garden in the spring, and what she was going to do with the harvest.
“You can do that?” Staci asked in shock. “Can vegetables by yourself so you don’t have to purchase them in a store?”
“Yes. This is where you might think I overstepped into your life. I asked Cole if he could talk to Lois about helping you to learn how to cook. I would love to, but I don’t have a lot of experience.
” He gave her a smirk. “I know spaghetti, goulash, steak, salad, baked potatoes, and I open a can of vegetables to go with it. Other than that, that’s all I know how to cook.
Oh, I also know how to cook eggs, omelets, and breakfast stuff.
I can make pancakes and waffles if it comes from a premade mix, but not from scratch.
” He paused because Staci hadn’t said anything since he started talking, and looked at her.
He didn’t see any anger or anything in her expression to show if she was upset with him that he had asked Cole to ask Lois for her help. “Well?” he asked into the silence.
“Well, what?” She smirked. “I’m not upset.
You were looking out for me, and you took it upon yourself to look out for me.
Thank you. I know it sounds stupid that I’m a successful woman in my mid-twenties that doesn’t know how to cook.
I will take all the help I can get. I went over to Katherine’s a few days ago, craving chocolate.
We ended up making brownies, and she made me make them, it was easier than I thought.
” She rose from the table and went over to the counter.
When she returned she handed him the piece of paper.
“What’s this?”
“A grocery list. Katherine and Caleb showed me their groceries and told me what I could make with them. I came home and went on a website and printed some easy recipes that I thought I could handle. If Lois wants to help me, I won’t say no.” She grinned when she saw the relief on his face.
“Okay, thank you for not being mad at me. Now that I told you about that, there’s something else I’m going to have to tell you about today.”
“What?”
“You read my file, right?”
“Yes, the medical aspect, but I’m still a little fuzzy on how you got in that condition to begin with.”
Tony scrubbed his face, and rubbed the back of his neck.
With his hand cradled around the cup of cooling coffee, he told her about his time in the National Guard and about the man that had caused all the problems he went through.
When he lifted his head, Staci saw the anguish on his face and immediately reached out to take his hands with hers.
“The person that jumped from that plane with me, was Marcia Ramos. She lives over at Broken, with Lloyd Berry.”
“What happened to her?”
“She was the one that first realized our parachutes were compromised, and she was able to get hers to open part way. She helped me get mine opened the same way, but by the time we had things under control, it was too late and the mountain was right there. I remember hitting the rocks, then nothing until I woke in the hospital. I do remember hearing screams, and was told later that they came from the guy who sabotaged our chutes. You saw my medical records, Marcia hit the same rock I did, we did it together, she broke all the bones in her body except her skull or spine. Though every rib was broken in two or three places, same with her arms, fingers, and legs. All her joints were saved.”
“Unlike you where your joints were shattered, but the rest of your bones were spared.”
“Correct, anyway, Marcia and Lloyd came over to my place the other night because Marcia realized I was here.”
“She didn’t know you were coming?”
“Yes, she did, however, the day I arrived I was wiped out. Lloyd saw me, and he told me that he would hold off telling her of my arrival until I had time to rest. That was last week. I’ve since started working with Caleb, working with the horses at New Double, and getting a good night’s sleep every night. ”
“How did the meeting with Marcia go?”
“Good, she wasn’t as enthusiastic as I expected her to be, but we caught up, and they left, the entire meeting was less than an hour.”
“Do you think something is wrong?”
“I don’t know.” He sighed as he shook his head. “Maybe we can talk at the BBQ today. I only hope I didn’t do anything to offend her.”
“Do you have sexual or romantic feelings toward her?”
“Absolutely NOT!” Tony looked at her like she had said something offensive. “She’s like a sister to me.”
“Ah, just wondering. I guess the only thing you can do is get her aside and try to talk to her today.”
“Yeah,” he said quietly, and sat there staring into space. When an alarm sounded, he looked at his watch, then back at her with a grin. “It’s a little after one, I thought we could get there the same time as everyone else so we’re not walking into everyone staring at us.”
“Yeah, that sounds good.” They hurried around and went out the door in ten minutes. Tony ended up following Caleb and Katherine, and behind them were Jason and Ilsa, so they caravaned over to Erin’s Way.