Chapter 22
Chapter Twenty-Two
“Oh no!” she cried. “Oh no! Oh no!”
The smoke alarm was screaming.
Shit.
That noise was so obnoxious. How far did the noise reach? To the moon?
Casey slid into the kitchen, nearly falling as her feet threatened to give out on her.
Stupid fluffy socks.
They were really cute, though.
They were green with a tail at the top and two eyes on top of her toes. They could be lizard socks but she was choosing to think of them as alligators.
“How do I turn it off? Where’s a towel? Oh no! Everything is burned!” she cried.
Wyatt rushed in after her. “Wow! What’s that smell? What did you burn?”
“Dinner,” she said as she opened the oven door. If she could get rid of the source of all the smoke, then maybe she could get the alarm to stop.
But all that did was make the smoke billow in her face. She coughed and ran her hand in front of her face, her eyes streaming.
Quickly, she shut the door again and turned off the oven. There were no flames at least. Grabbing a chair, she climbed onto it and could just reach the smoke alarm. She unscrewed it, lifting it off and tossing it away.
The noise immediately stopped.
Thank god.
Casey got off the chair and sat on it, exhausted.
Wyatt came and stood in front of her, his eyes wide. “Are you all right?”
“Yeah. Are you all right?” she asked.
“Yeah. The smoke alarm doesn’t look too good, though.”
She glanced down at the smoke alarm which she hadn’t meant to throw.
Drat.
“Looks like I owe your dad a new smoke alarm,” she said with a sigh.
Casey had been here four nights. She’d really thought that she might be getting better at cooking by now.
It hadn’t seemed to be that hard to master.
Turns out she was wrong.
She was crap at cooking. She was crap at laundry. Today, she’d done some washing and hadn’t thought about the fact that she shouldn’t mix her whites with colors.
And, yep, now Jeb’s white sheets were streaked with pink.
Oops.
Casey was starting to worry that she was crappy at everything. It didn’t help that she hadn’t seen Jeb much. He’d been busy with the ranch. However, it was Friday evening and she’d hoped that Jeb would come home in time for dinner.
Which is why she’d attempted roast beef.
Turns out she really shouldn’t have tried roast beef.
Getting up, she walked to the oven again. This time she stood to the side as she opened it. Not as much smoke erupted from it this time.
Whew.
Reaching for a towel, she drew the tray out and placed it on the top of the stove. When she checked under the foil she could see that the top of the meat was dark. And all the vegetables around it were shriveled up and black.
“Maybe I could scrape the top off and it would be fine underneath?” she said to Wyatt.
He shrugged.
It was Friday, the last day of his suspension, and she was going to miss him when he went back to school on Monday.
Today they’d gone looking for tadpoles in the creek. They’d found a couple of frogs which had been exciting. And then they’d decided to start building a fort.
On the ground because she was a good girl and knew how to listen. She was certain that Jeb was going to be proud.
But that had all made her a bit late to get dinner on. So she’d turned the oven up high. Which, in hindsight, probably hadn’t been a good idea.
Casey got a sharp knife and cut off the top of the meat. Underneath, though, it was bloody.
“Uh-oh,” she said, stabbing it. “Why is it hard? Oh no, it’s still frozen! I thought being in the oven would unfreeze it?”
Wyatt shrugged. “I’ve never cooked meat before.”
“Me neither,” she said.
“Yeah, that’s kind of obvious.”
Shoot. “What am I going to do?”
“Order pizza?” Wyatt said hopefully.
“Do they deliver out here?” she asked.
“Yeah, but you have to give a good tip.”
“Well, that’s fair enough. Let’s do that, huh?” It would cost her when she didn’t have a lot of money. But she hated to think how much that piece of beef that she’d ruined cost.
Maybe there was a way of fixing it. What if she put it in the oven on a really low heat? Only she was scared to use the oven again.
What if she burned the freaking house down?
After ordering a couple of pizzas, she tidied up, then answered a message from Jordan. Her friend had wanted to send her some money for her car, but Casey had turned her down. She could do this herself.
She and Wyatt opened up the windows and doors to let some fresh air in. The back door opened just after she’d figured out that the lingering smoky smell seemed to be coming from her.
Awesome.
Jeb walked in, carrying two pizzas.
“Hey, I didn’t hear the driver arrive,” she said. “I had the tip ready.”
“I tipped him. Eddie always messages me when he’s on his way here.” He placed the pizzas on the table and stared around. “I didn’t realize we were having pizza tonight.”
She winced, feeling guilty. Yep. She was crap at all of this stuff.
“Sorry! I totally failed at cooking roast beef. It was absolute crap. Everything went wrong and I’m so bad at all of this!”
His other eyebrow rose up. “Wyatt?”
“Yep?”
“Can you get plates and napkins please? And some drinks.”
“Sure,” Wyatt replied.
Jeb crooked a finger at her. “Out on the porch with me.”
Wyatt sent her a look of sympathy which she didn’t think she deserved. With a sigh, she followed Jeb out, her feet dragging.
“Now, we’ve got a little problem,” Jeb said, turning to face her.
She nodded sadly. “I know. I’m really sorry, Jeb. That was probably an expensive piece of meat I ruined. Now, instead of roast beef for dinner you’re having to eat pizza and I nearly burned the house down!”
“All right, I’m going to address everything you said, but let’s start with that last part. You nearly burned the house down? Is that why the smoke alarm is missing?”
She’d tidied up the broken smoke alarm so she had no idea how he knew that smoke alarm was gone.
“Um, well, I burned the meat. See, I didn’t have much time to cook it so I turned it up on high. And that seemed to be the wrong thing to do. Because it got all burned on top and was still frozen inside! How was I meant to know that meat would stay frozen even though it’s in a hot oven!”
“Why didn’t you have time to cook dinner?” he asked calmly.
Part of her was expecting him to yell. But he’d promised he wouldn’t. Although he probably should.
She was meant to be in charge. And she was messing everything up.
“Well, first we decided to go to the creek and catch tadpoles. We didn’t have much luck with that but we did see a couple of frogs.
And then we thought it would be cool to build a fort.
But on the ground, not up in a tree, I promise. Safety first.”
“Good girl.”
Oh, she loved being called a good girl. It made her insides go all gooey.
“So you were playing all day?” he asked.
“Well, yeah. Not all day! I did do some washing. Only, I kind of messed that up too and your white sheets are now pink. Sorry.”
Casey waited for him to start yelling. She wasn’t going to like that part but she knew that she deserved it. Her gaze dropped to her feet. She was determined to stand here and take it.
“I needed some new sheets anyway,” he said.
Huh?
Casey glanced up at him. “What?”
“Elise bought those sheets. They were nice but white isn’t really a color I would choose. And they were probably getting old.”
“Oh. I’m not in trouble?”
“I didn’t say that.”
She nodded miserably. “I wasted a day.”
“I wouldn’t say that,” he told her. “You kept my son happy, safe, and entertained. Should he have done some schoolwork? Maybe. But he’s also seven. He’s got plenty of time for that. I’m sure he’ll remember a day like today forever.”
“Oh.” Casey sniffled. “That’s really nice.”
“It is. Now, to the part you are in trouble for.”
Uh-oh.
“From now on, no cooking without supervision.”
She nodded. “Yeah, that’s fair enough.”
“If the smoke alarm goes off, you get out and you call me.”
“Really? But I had that part under control.”
“How did you get to it?” he asked.
“Um, I climbed a chair.”
Jeb gave her a stern look. “Which isn’t very safe.”
Drat.
“Neither is pulling out a hot tray from the oven.”
She didn’t think it was that unsafe.
“But mostly you’re in trouble for the way you spoke about yourself. I won’t have you speaking badly about yourself, understand?”
“Yes.”
He cupped her chin. “Wyatt has a playdate tomorrow. You and I are going to spend a few hours together. Just Daddy and his little girl. And we’ll deal with your punishment then.”
Something to look forward to.