Page 48 of SEAL'S Baby Surprise
Ark sits up and lays his chin on my knee. He looks up at me with his big, brown eyes, his brows drawn together in a little crease.
“I’m okay, big guy,” I say. “They’re okay, so I’m okay.”
Hesitantly, Lee puts an arm around me. I draw her in, and we watch Julia play. Both of us are quiet, locked in our own heads with our thoughts.
22
LEE
I feel just awful.If Julia had been harmed in any way, or if she’d drowned, I would never have been able to forgive myself. As we leave the Y with a thoroughly worn-out little girl, and an anxious big dog, I try to think how I can make things better.
“I can cook tonight,” I say.
“Are you sure?” Austin asks.
I feel a twinge of hurt, but he’s not wrong. My cooking attempts had not turned out the best.
“We can keep it simple,” I say. “Just hotdogs, and maybe burgers. I think I can do that.”
I’d managed to make it through cooking dinner once, with the worst casualty being a hamburger that fell into the ashes and got fed to Ark. Ark didn’t seem to mind the light gray dusting on his food.
We stop in the Farmer’s Market just as it is starting to close and pick up hamburger and hot dogs, ears of corn, bread, and watermelon.
The packages are heavy to carry home, especially the watermelon. But fortunately, the melon is an impulse buy on the same side of the square as home.
Austin carries it, and I carry the rest.
When we get back to the van, Austin puts mint tea bags in a gallon jar of water and sets it in the last rays of the sun so it could turn into tea.
Meanwhile, I do my best to get the charcoal going in the grill. It isn’t as easy as it looks when Austin does it. I manage to get it going without melting the tip off the long lighter thingie.
While the coals are getting going, I shape the hamburger into patties, just like Austin had showed me. Then I carefully place the burgers and the hot dogs across the grill.
Austin couldn’t manage to leave the cooking completely to me. He shucks the corn, and wraps the ears in foil, with a pat of butter in each one to make it even tastier.
Soon everything is sizzling beautifully. I manage to get all the burgers and the hot dogs off the grill without any problems. Then, without even thinking about it, I picked up one of the foil-wrapped ears of corn.
It is hot! So very, very hot, and scalding butter and liquid run out one corner of it all over my hand and down my arm. I scream and drop the corn.
Austin bolts up out of his chair and grabs me away from the barbeque before I could knock it over and make things worse.
“I’ll get Mrs. Hubbard,” I hear Julia say. Through the haze of pain in my hand I think, maybe say out loud, “Julia’s more grown up than I am. I’m worthless.”
“Shhh, shhh,” Austin says, holding me close. “You did great. You do fine. I should have told you the foil would be hot.”
“I’m so stupid,” I sob. “Of course, it was hot. It was on the fire, wasn’t it? Is the corn ruined?”
“Bother the corn,” Austin growls. “Let me see your hand.”
I slowly take it out from where I had been clutching it with my other hand. My palm is red. The worst of it is between my index finger and thumb where I had grasped the foil package. A red trail runs down my arm where the butter had dripped.
Julia comes zipping back to us, followed by Mrs. Hubbard at a slower, but still brisk pace. “Oh, my goodness,” she says as she comes puffing down the slight incline from her van, “What have you done, kids?”
“I tried to pick up the corn,” I say. “It was hot.”
“Oh, child,” Mrs. Hubbard says. “That’s what tongs are for. Julia, honey, go back to my trailer and get that green plant off my kitchen counter.”
As Julia speeds off to get the plant, Mrs. Hubbard says, “Do you have any soft cloths? And water — not ice water. There aren’t any blisters, so I don’t think it is too bad.”
