Page 59 of Broken SEAL'S Secret Baby
It doesn’t help that James visits almost every day and often stays late in the evening. He stayed over the previous night, sleeping on the couch, so these stolen moments in the kitchen are all Kate and I could expect.
By the time Cece makes it into the kitchen, Kate is at the stove stirring gravy, while I run chunks of cooked pumpkin through the Cuisinart. I surreptitiously watch the movements of her hips as she moves the spoon around in the pan. Oh, how I wish I could just whisk her out of there and backto the bedroom where I can make love to her properly. I can’t believe we’d been so bold as to do it on the kitchen table! But we had, and I’m feeling exceptionally smug about it.
“Is that my pumpkin?” Cece asks, pulling out a chair and hopping up onto it.
“It sure is,” I say, bringing my mind to things other than what I long to do with Kate. “I think it is soon going to be pie.”
“Yay!” Cece cheers, clapping her hands together. “It was a good pumpkin, and it did its best job.”
“And doing its best is the most we can ask of it,” I say gravely.
“Yep!” Cece says. “Can I help?”
I have visions of small fingers getting chopped, or someone stumbling over a little girl and her pets.
“I’ve got a job for you,” I say. “You are going to be our hostess with the mostest. I’m going to set you up with the big TV screens, and you can greet everyone as they log on. Can you do that?”
“Yep!” Cece says. “I can say hi to everyone!” She settles in at the dining room table with her breakfast, coloring book, and a menagerie of plastic farm animals to keep her company while she waited.
It is not a long wait. Kate’s parents are the first online, then aunts and uncles, Manuela and her family; friends and co-workers connect and are greeted by our pint-sized gate-keeper.
Cece is in her element, entertaining everyone with stories about her pets, the huge pumpkin she and Kate bought at the farmer’s market that got carved into a jack-o-lantern, then made into pies.
I watch James flirt with Grace and wonder if there is some way I can wrangle a few more minutes of private time with Kate. But I know I’m going to have to be content withour stolen moment in the kitchen. On the table! I can’t help but grin to myself. Kate had scrubbed the table down with disinfectant, but if they only knew…but then, they would have to know about Kate and I, and I know she isn’t ready to tell everyone. I wonder what James will say. Would he be angry? Not that I’m going to let it bother me.
I’d made a secret trip into the City and had a special gift made for Kate. I’d gotten her ring size by pocketing a braided grass ring I’d made for her one day when we were playing with Cece. I worry about it from time to time. What will she say? I still haven’t mustered up enough courage to even say “I love you,” to her, even though she is becoming one of the most important people in my life. I bring my attention back to helping with the meal – hopefully before anyone notices me daydreaming.
When everything is cooked, dished, and put on the table, Cece sits on my left, and Kate is on the other side of her. James is on my right, and Grace is next to him. The viewing screens are set up at the foot of the table.
Conversation is generally positive and upbeat, staying away from anything serious.
“I hear they are opening up Silver Dollar City for the holidays, now that quarantine regulations aren’t as stringent,” Grace says, as she surreptitiously sneaks bits of turkey to the cat and dog who are hanging out under the table. “It wouldn’t be as much fun as it is in summer, but it sounds like there are going to be some good shows.”
“Remember when we went there for your high school graduation?” James says, looking at Kate.
“I remember,” she replies. “You shot me with a water cannon and tried to get my horse to run away on the trail ride.”
“Did the horse run?” I ask, hoping to learn more about Kate’s younger years.
“No,” James says, disgust coloring his tones, “Those trail nags are so worn down, they’ve got one gait, and they know the ride better than the guides.”
“I was grateful to the horse,” Kate says. “But it did get James moved up beside the trail guide, who threatened to make him walk back.”
Grace giggles and pokes James in the side.
“Hey,” James protests, “What was that for?”
“For being mean to your sister, of course,” Grace says. “Pass the potatoes, please.”
James obliges by passing the potatoes, and then the gravy. “This is good, Sis,” he says, looking across the table at Kate. “You’ve come a long way since you burned the fried potatoes.”
“I remember that,” her father says from the Zoom display. “It’s why we sent her to college, so she could learn a trade since she can’t cook.”
“Kate has kept us well-fed this year,” I put in. “Her mashed potatoes are even better than Manuela’s.”
“She is an apt cooking pupil,” Manuela puts in from her square on the screen. “And I hear that Miss Cece is learning to cook, too.”
“I made gingerbread men,” Cece says proudly. “I wish I could send you some, Manuela.”
