“Well, my advice is to take your time. There’s no rush. The right answer will come to you.”
“I wish I believed that,” Carrie said with a sigh, then shrugged off the way her indecision weighed on her. “That’s not why I’m here, though. I was wondering if you’d have a little time to teach me to cook. Me, and a friend, that is.”
Nell’s eyes sparkled with delight. “I’d love that,” she said enthusiastically. Her expression turned curious. “Tell me about this friend. It must be a man, since I can’t imagine you wanting to spend time in the kitchen if it weren’t.”
“Maybe I just think it’s time someone learns all your recipes,” Carrie responded.
“Luke’s chef knows a good many of them.”
“He’s not family.”
“And your uncle Kevin has picked up a few.”
“I want to know them all.”
“And this friend, what’s his motivation?”
Carrie explained about Sam and Bobby.
“Oh, the poor little thing,” Nell said at once.
“He has a weakness for chocolate-chip cookies,” Carrie reported. “I gave him a couple of yours at the pub the other night. I gather they were a hit.”
“Well, he can’t very well live on cookies and pizza and whatever Sam can take out of the freezer or pick up in town,” Nell said briskly, her expression thoughtful. “If Sam is working for Mack and trying to manage a child for the first time, I imagine he doesn’t have a lot of time. You find out when he has a couple of hours to spare, let me know and bring both of them by. Promise them there will be a good meal at the end of the lesson.”
“Thanks, Gram.”
“Now, tell me what this young man is like. Is he handsome?”
Carrie blushed. “I suppose.”
Nell leveled a direct look at her that had her squirming. “Is it him you’re drawn to or the boy?”
“Maybe both,” she admitted.
“Oh, my darling girl, be careful.”
“I will be, Gram. Nobody knows better than I do that I shouldn’t even be thinking about a relationship right now. I have enough decisions to make.”
“That’s not at all what I’m saying. Love comes along on its own timetable. I just want you to be sure that you’re spending time with this man for the right reasons. There’s a little boy who’s been through too much to be considered. When two adults try and fail, it’s one thing, but you don’t want to make a mistake that could hurt a child who’s already suffered a terrible loss.”
“It’s not as if Sam and I are dating,” Carrie protested. “We can barely call whatever’s going on a friendship. I just want to help.”
“And that’s a lovely gesture. Just think carefully before it goes any further.”
“Believe me, I will,” Carrie promised. “Now let me take the tea things back inside. Are you coming?”
“I still have my roses to tend to,” Nell said. “You can reassure Dillon that I’m not overdoing it and that if he’s all that worried, he can get out here and pull a few weeds himself. I won’t even tell him he’s doing it all wrong.”
Carrie laughed. “I’ll pass that along.” She hugged Nell. “I love you. I’ll be in touch about the cooking.”
“I’ll be looking forward to the lessons and to meeting your young man.”
“He’s not my young man,” Carrie reminded her, probably to no avail. No one in this family listened to such denials unless it suited their purposes. Romantics, the whole darn lot of them!
Determined not to dwell on Nell’s speculation about her relationship with Sam, Carrie decided she’d wait before calling him. She didn’t want to seem overly eager. And since she didn’t have Jackson today, maybe she could go shopping for a few things that didn’t practically scream designer when she put them on. She didn’t want to think about why she felt that was necessary. Not scaring Sam off should not be a consideration.
She was on her way back from the nearest mall way out on the main north-south highway, when she spotted a day-care center on a large fenced-in patch of lawn with a colorful swing set in the backyard. With Luke’s suggestion about a possible career still very much on her mind, she made a U-turn and went back, mostly out of curiosity. A look around wouldn’t hurt anything, and maybe it would even inspire her.
Inside, she could hear shouts of gleeful laughter coming from the back. That sound made her smile.
The girl at the reception desk, who looked to be barely out of her teens, hung up the phone and grinned at Carrie. “It’s snack time. It always gets noisier then. Can I help you?”