Page 24 of Wounded Cowboy
“Don’t worry,” Kelsey assured her.“I’ll figure something out.” She returned to the fridge, quickly scanned its contents, and spotted a container of fresh blueberries.Bingo!
“Hey, have you girls ever had blueberry syrup on your pancakes?” Kelsey asked, pulling out the container and setting it on the counter.
The girls shook their heads in unison.
“Well, it’s thebest,” Kelsey assured them.“Let’s make some from scratch. It’ll only take a few minutes.”
“Blueberries are my favorite,” April volunteered.
“Great! For the syrup, we’ll need the blueberries, some water, sugar, and cornstarch.” Kelsey pulled a saucepan out of the cabinet. She set it on the stovetop.
“April, can you please measure out one cup of water and pour it into this pan?”
She turned to Abby.“And can you bring me the bag of sugar and the yellow box of cornstarch from the pantry?”
When all the ingredients except the cornstarch were in the saucepan, Kelsey turned on the stove. "Now, we’re going to cook the blueberries and sugar until the water turns deep purple and the mixture bubbles.”
“What about the cornstarch?” April asked.
“That gets added at the end, to help the syrup thicken up.”
The anticipation grew as the blueberry mixture simmered away. Its sweet aroma filled the kitchen.
When it was done, Kelsey poured the syrup into a glass measuring cup with a spout for easy pouring. Then the three of them gathered around the dining room table and dug into their pancakes.
“Ms. Kelsey, this is the best pancake syrup I’ve ever had!” April declared, her mouth full.
“I think so, too!” Abby chimed in, grinning from ear to ear.
“Thank you for all your help.” Kelsey smiled.“What would you think about making pressed flowers after breakfast? You’d need to show me where the best flowers grow around here.”
“What do you do with pressed flowers?” April asked, sounding doubtful.
“Once they dry, in about two or three weeks, we can use them to make bookmarks.”
April brightened.“Great-grandma Abigail loves to read.”
Abby’s cheeks were stuffed with pancakes, and her lips were purple with smears of syrup. In a muffled voice, she said,“I’d rather play hide and seek.”
“We can do both,” Kelsey assured her.
∞∞∞
Fresh storm clouds were already gathering on the horizon by lunchtime.
Perched on the hay barn’s slippery metal roof, Spring and Rory were struggling to replace one of four damaged metal roof panels.
“Looks like we might get more rain soon,” Rory said.“You think we’ll be done with this roof by then?”
“We’d better be.” Spring desperately needed to finish this repair job before water leaks spoiled the hay stored in the barn.“Hand me those metal snips, will ya?”
Rory eyed the distant thunderheads nervously.“I ain’t staying up here too much longer.”
“Then we’d better hurry up.” Spring knew as well as Rory did that sitting up here would be suicidal if the storm got too close.
“Sure thing, boss.”
Below, a familiar white Toyota Tundra pickup rolled up and parked next to Spring’s truck.
