Mail Order Mommy. Christine Johnson

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СКАЧАТЬ that pan had put in the varnish.

      She blinked and then blushed while lifting the skillet. “I’m sorry. I got a bit discombobulated.”

      “A little smoke can do that.” He glanced in the skillet and his stomach stopped rumbling. She hadn’t gotten all the burned potatoes out of the pan.

      He took a deep breath. Give her a chance. Give her the benefit of the doubt. After all, Amanda was the only woman in town both available and willing to take the job, and she was good with the children.

      “Shall we say grace?” He bowed his head.

      Isaac followed, but Sadie stared at Amanda. “Aren’t you going to eat, too?”

      Garrett didn’t realize she was still standing halfway between the kitchen and the table. He hadn’t considered how awkward it might be to have her watch them eat just so she could clean up afterward.

      “Yes, please join us.” It was the least he could do after making her go hungry the night before.

      She hesitated. “Are you certain?”

      “Yes.” He had to speak firmly so she wouldn’t back out of this. “Please sit before the food gets cold.”

      She dropped into the fourth chair. “Let’s hold hands while praying.”

      “Hold hands?” Garrett didn’t like that. He didn’t like that at all. “We’re asking blessing on the food, not playing a child’s game.”

      Her color heightened. “I, well, it’s something Pearl and I liked to do back in the...” Her voice trailed off.

      “Back where?” Isaac demanded.

      Judging from the way she’d blanched, Garrett suspected she’d been about to say the orphanage. Roland had told him about Pearl, how she’d been raised in an orphanage. It made sense that her childhood friend had also grown up there.

      “Back when we were your age,” she said.

      Before his son could point out that she hadn’t exactly answered the question, Garrett told them to fold their hands and bow their heads for the blessing. By the time he finished the overly long list of things for which they were grateful, Isaac had forgotten to point out Amanda’s misdirected answer.

      Amanda stood. “Allow me to dish up the food.”

      “No, I can do it.” Garrett’s hand met hers on the spoon, and a peculiar sensation made him look up at her. The jolt reminded him of the stingers he sometimes got from the machinery. Except this wasn’t unpleasant. Judging from the way her eyes widened, she’d felt it, too.

      She yanked back her hand. “Thank you.” It came out in a whisper.

      Garrett cleared his throat. “Hand me your plate, Sadie. Ladies first.”

      Sadie giggled. “I’m a girl, not a lady.”

      “Of course you are,” Amanda said. “You don’t have to be as old as me to be a lady. Ladyship is more about one’s manners and grace.”

      She proceeded to explain table manners to Sadie, though Garrett noticed that his son was listening, too. “Hold your fork like this.” She demonstrated.

      Sadie attempted and dropped the fork. “I can’t.”

      “It takes practice, like learning sums. Keep trying, and soon you’ll have it.”

      “That’s not the way men eat,” Isaac insisted. “A real man holds on to his fork so no one can take it away from him. Right, Pa?”

      Garrett quickly shifted the way he held the fork. Eva had always complained that he acted uncivilized at the table. He’d stubbornly refused to change, even saying that nonsense about needing to hold on to his fork. True, Roland had snatched a fork from him once when they were children and refused to give it back, but that had been roundly reprimanded by their mother. Garrett never dreamed his resistance to Eva’s attempts to change him would influence their son.

      He cleared his throat. “A gentleman holds his fork like Miss Amanda is showing you.”

      “I don’t want to be a gentleman. I want to be like you.”

      Amanda’s eyebrows shot up.

      Garrett felt both pleasure that his son wanted to emulate him and distress that he had set such a poor example. “Well, from now on, I’m going to eat like a gentleman.”

      Amanda smiled, and warmth spread through him. She approved. That was amazing enough, but even more startling was how much he enjoyed that approval. What was happening to him?

      He took a bite of the hash and choked.

      “What is it?” She looked horrified.

      He swallowed without chewing more than necessary and washed down the rest with half of the cup of water in front of him.

      “It’s...different.”

      She took a small taste, and the expression of horror intensified.

      “It’s salty,” Isaac pointed out.

      “Thank you, son.” Garrett motioned for him to say nothing further while Amanda guzzled water.

      Sadie, always a dainty eater, picked out little pieces of onion and ate them as if there was nothing wrong with the hash.

      Amanda recovered. “Oh, dear. I added too much salt, but Mrs. Calloway said everything needs salt.”

      “Except perhaps salt pork,” Garrett said.

      She looked mortified. “I’m sorry. I—I don’t know how to fix it.”

      Garrett had learned a few tricks from those days when Roland was busy and he had to cook something for the children, mostly because he made a lot of mistakes. He grabbed the skillet and stood. “We’ll dilute it.”

      * * *

      We? Amanda rose and set her napkin on the table. Garrett Decker was helping her?

      She followed him the few steps to the kitchen. Her face must be flaming red. It certainly felt that way. How could she have made such a blunder? Mrs. Calloway had suggested she taste before serving. With the fiasco over the burned potatoes and Sadie’s distress, Amanda had forgotten that all important tip.

      Now she stood beside Garrett at the kitchen worktable. It was such a small surface that their arms nearly touched.

      “Get a bowl from the cupboard,” he commanded.

      When she picked out a soup bowl, he sent her back for a serving bowl. Then he scraped the salty hash into it.

      “Chop two more potatoes,” he said. “Did you get any other vegetables, like carrots?”

      “Yes, of course.”

      “Good. We’ll add four of those, too. Chop them fine so they СКАЧАТЬ