Page 21 of Single Mom's Mountain Men
“Katie you shouldn’t have gone off like that without telling me.”
“I tried to tell you Mom but you wouldn't wake up,” my daughter retorts steadily. “I was hungry and when I saw Mr. Mitch in the kitchen. I came to ask him for food.”
"Mr. Mitch?"
"We got introduced," Mitch says. "I told her to just call me Uncle Mitch, but she thought that wouldn't be proper since I’m not her real Uncle." I detect amusement in his tone, but I'm not sure why.
“Why didn't you just eat the snack we got earlier?"
"I didn't want snacks. I had too many yesterday?"
"Yesterday...Wait, you mean it's the next day?" I look out through the windows to find that it’s not early evening like I initially thought, but early morning.
It's not sunset I'm looking at, it'ssunrise.
Oh God, I didn’t just sleep a few hours. I’ve slept through an entire night, and I didn’t even realize.
Mitch is watching me carefully, with eyes that seem to miss nothing. It’s even worse than Charlie’s gaze.
“Sorry,” I say putting Maddie down on a stool next to her sister.
“For what?" he asks.
“I was supposed to start work this morning and I slept in. Have you already had breakfast?”
He shakes his head. “I don’t eat breakfast. You can rest for today. You seemed pretty tired yesterday and the boys and I can figure something out."
"No, I'm fine," I insist. "I also want to make something healthy from my daughters too. They ate junk food all of yesterday."
Mitch shrugs. "In that case, knock yourself out. But I gotta warn you that we don't have much. Charlie was supposed to go grocery shopping yesterday but he couldn't make it before the store closed since he turned around and followed you back from the gas station instead of heading on into town. Between you and me I think he was a little worried about the state of your vehicle. So anyway, right now all we have is cereal and a couple of other items."
“Oh,” I say. "Then, in that case, I could go grocery shopping today."
“You don’t have to."
"I want to," I say firmly. It’s my fault it didn’t get done yesterday, and if I’m going to be earning my keep I wouldrather get started on it right away. I can sleep more tonight.”
Mitch eyes me again. "Alright, if you say so."
"I do."
He smirks secretively and then gestures in a way that symbolizesas you wish.
I head to the fridge, noting that they actually do have a few groceries. I see some left-over strips of bacon, some ketchup and a near-empty gallon of milk.
I take the bacon out and turn to grab a pan from the hook, putting it on the stove and turning on the gas.
"Do you have a pantry?" I ask and he nods and gestures a little to the door on the right of the fridge.
I open it and find several cereal boxes and an unopened sack of flour.
I eye the flour and think. "Y'all got any sugar?"
"Yup. It's in one of the cabinets above the fridge."
"Good." I turn around with a smile. "I can make pancakes. Although..." I frown. "I'm not sure we have enough milk so maybe I'll just try to make some biscuits instead."
He didn't say anything, simply watching me steadily as he drinks his coffee. The gaze starts to unsettle me and reminds me of the dream we had.
