Page 19 of Guarding Over You
“Iguess you are looking forward to food,” his mother said on Sunday morning. “You’re the first one here.”
“Too early?” he asked. Blaze knew that his mother didn’t work the cafe on Sundays now. Finally getting a day off a week.
Though he’d lay money on the fact she went over there daily to at least get some of the baking done, just not cooking or waiting on customers.
“It’s never too early. Reenie and Ford won’t be here until she closes.”
Which said that his new sister-in-law was the one who got through to his mother to take a full day off. Another thing to be thankful for in his family’s life.
“Where are Meredith and Clay?”
“I think Meredith is helping at the cafe. With school out now, during the days she’s filling in for something to do when she’s not busy with weddings.”
Meredith had been hired as the part-time wedding planner for the converted barn that now hosted events. She was a kindergarten teacher full time.
“Which means Clay is probably working.”
“The mill is closed on Sundays,” his mother said. “You know that.”
“Doesn’t mean he’s not on the land doing something. With Dad also?”
His mother smiled and poured him a beer, then handed it over. “Most likely. It’s hard to take a full day off as a farmer. I’m sure you know that as a doctor.”
“I get days off,” he said. “It’s the one thing I like. Other doctors are dealing with patients and notes and everything else on their off time. I get to leave my shift and not do much more until I return.”
No attachments to patients. Not unless they were frequent fliers to his ER. Which happened more often than he liked.
But they were treated and either discharged or admitted to someone else’s care.
The only problem, he rarely walked away like he’d said.
“I’m sure there is a tradeoff there. Though you don’t do much after hours, you take every shift you can and we know those shifts are draining. I worry about you.”
“Nothing to worry about,” he said.
“You’re going to be thirty-three in a few months.”
“I’m fully aware.”
“Don’t be a wiseass. I get enough of that from Clay.”
“We all learned from him, but he’s mellowed plenty.”
His mother turned back to the fridge and pulled out an assortment of cheeses and meats, then started to cut and arrange them on a plate.
No reason she should do all the work, so he took the knife out of her hand and did it while she placed them the way that worked for her. They’d long since given up doing much more inherkitchen.
“He has. A woman will do that to you.”
“Is Mom trying to get you to settle down?” Gale asked, walking in with Rory. “You’d think she’d be happy with one wedding down and another in less than a month.”
“Yeah, Mom. You’d think that, wouldn’t you?”
Brooke Ridgeway narrowed her eyes. Normally they’d all run for cover when they were kids if she’d done that, but having it chased with a smile proved she’d mellowed just as much as Clay had.
“I can make you sit in the other room and eat alone like I used to do when you kids were fighting.”
“My mother used to do that with Renee and I,” Rory said of his sister. “We’d be tossing food at each other and we’d have to split up. I got stuck by myself though.”
