Page 41 of Meant to Be
“We just ate.” She was about to sit on the couch, when she was distracted by the stone fireplace. It looked like it was lifted from a fairy tale cottage, with mismatched stones that fit together like puzzle pieces. Several picture frames sat on the mantel. One showed Lexie and Mitch as teenagers. In another, Mitch along with a few other people she didn’t know flanked Lexie and Drake, smiling brightly.
“They threw their wedding together in one day.”
Sydney turned to Mitch.
He held up a plate. “Mema’s macs and cheese.”
“You just ate.”
“But you didn’t. If you’re going to drown your sorrows in moonshine, you should eat first. I have a table or you can eat here. It’s one rule I changed when I bought the place. You can eat anywhere you want.”
Sydneywashungry, even though she wasn’t sure she could swallow food around the lump sitting in her chest. She smiled and took the plate. “I’ll eat here then.” She sat on the couch. “Why did they get married so fast?”
“Oliver, Drake’s grandfather, didn’t have much longer to live, and since he’d brought them together, it was important to them that he be there. They had another, more formal wedding a few months later.”
“I don’t know the Carmichaels well, but the Oliver you talk about isn’t the one I remember.”
“That’s what Drake said. But I guess dying changes people.” Mitch’s voice fell soft and the light in his eyes dimmed.
Sydney wanted to ask him why. Had he been close to Oliver too? Or was he thinking of someone else? She didn’t want to ruin their tenuous truce by pushing him, so she didn’t respond.
He shook his head as if trying to rid an unwanted thought. “I’ll get your cookies and moonshine. You eat.”
Mitch left the room. She wished they could talk the way they had in college. There hadn’t been anything she couldn’t say to him. She’d never had anyone in her life she trusted so fully, even Julia and Patrick didn’t hear her deepest, darkest secrets, desires, and fears.
Sighing, she scooped up macaroni and cheese. “Oh, wow.”
“Great, huh?” Mitch returned, carrying a bowl filled with her unicorn cookies and the bottle of moonshine.
Sydney couldn’t form the words to adequately explain how delicious the golden creamy noodles tasted.
“When my grandparents visit, they stay in your room. I always offer them their old room, but they insist it’s my house now. It’s still her kitchen, though, and she never leaves without fixin’ some good grub. I’ve got a freezer full to carry me until she returns again.”
It was definitely different from her experience with her grandparents. Sydney’s took her traveling and for summers in the Hamptons. But they had a staff that cooked the meals. If she’d had a sibling, they wouldn’t have shared a room, as her grandparents’ home had dozens. Not that her family lacked tradition, or was cold and aloof, but they weren’t… homey.
“Do you have the recipe?”
Mitch sat in a recliner opposite the couch, with a bottle of beer. “Of course. I make it sometimes, but it’s never as good. I don’t have Mema’s macs mojo.”
“Mema?”
“That’s what we call our grandparents. Mema and Paw-paw. How about you?”
“It’s what you’d expect. Grandmother and Grandfather.” She ate another bite of Mema’s macs and cheese. “Thank you for sharing this with me.”
“It wasn’t easy.” He winked, giving her another glimpse of the jovial Mitch she used to know. “But you looked like you needed it. Macs and cheese has medicinal powers, you know.”
“So I’m discovering.” She ate, focusing on enjoying the comfort food, but thoughts of Jenny kept interrupting. Thoughts that led to guilt. “Do you think I should go home?”
“No. That’s why you’re here.” Mitch’s body looked at ease in the recliner, but his green eyes were sharp as they studied her.
“I meant to New York.” She set her bowl on the table, the remorse eating away at her hunger. “I brought danger here. I didn’t know I was in danger, but clearly the guy who attacked me followed me here. And now Jenny is hurt—”
“She’ll be fine.”
“Physically, but what about emotionally?”
Mitch didn’t respond, except with a nod. He understood. Of course he would. He’d been in a war. He knew how being attacked and living in fear could change you.
