I have a kerosene camp stove I can use on the back porch as well as a barbecue I can cook just about anything on.”
Samantha looked curious and engaged, as though the details truly interested her. “How about if I make things easier by boiling the spaghetti now and mixing it with the sauce? Then we can reheat in one pot.”
Opening the door of the refrigerator, she said, “I saw some Monterey Jack in here. I can add cheese to the pot to make it tasty.”
“Sure. Lily will like that. She loves that cheese.”
She stopped what she was doing and became pensive. Seemed out of character for the woman. “Oh. It’s Lily’s cheese. Okay, let’s leave it for her.”
She put it back into the fridge almost reverently.
“She won’t mind if you use it,” Michael insisted.
Her smile looked a little sad. “I’d like it to be hers.”
Weird. What was wrong with the woman? Lily wasn’t going to die if she couldn’t have a piece of cheese.
She seemed adamant, so Michael reached past her for the cheese, calling, “Lily, come here.”
Samantha’s perfume floated around him like a soft cloud. He held his breath, grabbed the cheese and backed away from her.
Lily ran into the kitchen, cheeks flushed.
“What, Daddy? Hurry. I have to play.”
“Your Monterey Jack cheese. You okay if we use it in some spaghetti sauce or should we leave it for you to eat?”
“S’ghetti sauce!” She turned and ran to the back of the house.
“You have permission. Use it,” he ordered, dropping it into Samantha’s hands.
“Okay.”
“You like children? Especially girls?”
Her lips twisted, her smile rueful. “Oh, I do. I really do. I wish I’d had one. Don’t get me wrong,” she rushed on. “I love my boys to heaven and back. I wouldn’t trade them for anything. They are my heart. I do like little girls, though. I guess I just relate to them.”
What had that sadness been about with the cheese and Lily? Somehow he didn’t think she would have reacted in the same way had it been Mick’s cheese.
He didn’t want that kind of curiosity about her. The less he knew about the woman, the better.
Samantha started to chatter about everything and nothing and he wondered what the heck was going on. Something had made her nervous.
When she paused for a breath of air, he said, “You going to quit talking any time soon?”
She caught her breath and stared at him.
He hadn’t meant to sound harsh. It was meant to be a joke. He might not want her here, but he didn’t willingly hurt others. He was about to open his mouth to apologize when she burst out laughing.
“Travis says that exact same thing to me all the time. He says I’m long on air and short on content.”
Her smile, like sunshine bursting through heavy clouds, turned his guts to pudding.
Abruptly, Michael turned away, jittery and resisting this woman with all his might.
He didn’t even know Samantha. She was a stranger and yet she was turning him inside out.
“I need to put that living room together. Who knows how much more time we have? Better to do it now than when we lose power. With the strength of this storm, we’ll lose it for sure.” Now he was the one babbling.
“Put the room together? What do you mean?”
“I’ll blow up air mattresses and haul out all of our quilts and extra bedding. We might be sleeping in front of the fire tonight.”
“May I ask you to do something first? Or I can do it.”
She was doing enough already. Her industriousness surprised him.
Why? What had he expected? That because she was beautiful, she’d be spoiled and temperamental? Well, yeah. That had been his experience.
He stopped and turned to face her.
“What is it?” he asked, wary.
“Can you vacuum before you put all of that on the floor?”
So she didn’t like his housekeeping. Michael stiffened. Tough.
Samantha placed slim fingers on his forearm. At her soft touch, he stiffened further and she dropped her hand.
“I don’t mean to criticize. It’s just that Jason has asthma. He’s growing out of it, but it still affects him. I don’t want to risk an attack when we’re stuck so far out here.”
Out here in the back of beyond, she means, he thought bitterly.
She must have guessed what he was thinking because she clarified, “In this storm it would take forever to get him to the hospital. It’s terrifying when he can’t breathe.”
“Fair enough.” He dropped what he was doing and got out the vacuum cleaner. Where a child’s health was concerned, he didn’t take chances.
In the living room, he started to pick up all of the children’s toys, but she interrupted him.
“Can we do something else first?”
He stilled, wary again. “What?”
“Follow me.”
Going into Lily’s room, she picked up an empty laundry basket.
“Children,” she hollered like a drill sergeant, startling him. The woman had a healthy set of lungs. “We need you in the living room.”
They ran after her. In front of the fireplace, she plopped the basket onto the floor.
“You see all of these toys, books and clothes?”
They nodded.
“They all—every single last one—are going into this basket. Who do you think is going to pick them up?”
Colt emitted a long-suffering sigh. Michael watched Samantha bite her cheek so she wouldn’t laugh. Her kids knew her well.
“Us?” Colt asked.
“Yep,” she affirmed. “But there will be a reward.”
She turned to Michael.
“Do you have any cookies?”
He nodded. “A box of Oreos.”
Samantha clapped her hands. “Good! When you’re finished picking up everything, Michael will carry the basket to the back room and you’ll each get a couple of cookies.”
The kids jumped to the task.
Michael turned to her with one brow raised. “Bribery?”
“Works every time.” She grinned and returned to the kitchen.
All right. Again, fair. She’d gotten the kids to clean the room to allow him to vacuum for her boy.
Michael carried the full basket to the playroom, returned with another basket that they also filled, and gave the children their cookies.
He went back to the living room to vacuum.
While he did that, another new scent emanated from the kitchen. It smelled like biscuits baking in the oven. His stomach grumbled.
Samantha made a couple of dozen biscuits that came out as light and airy as any Michael had ever tasted, including Vy’s at the Summertime Diner in town, and that was