Page 64 of There I Find Patience

“Guys. We’re right here,” Mark reminded them.

“I know. But it does seem kind of odd that she quit her job, and then all of a sudden, you guys get married.”

“Actually, I think we were talking a lot about me quitting my job, and that’s kind of where the one thing led to another, and we realized that we wanted to get married.” Pam lifted her shoulders, then turned back to the stove, flipping the bacon.

Mark studied the eggs in the skillet. It irritated him that they thought that Pam might be using him. He wanted to defend her, but he couldn’t say that he stood to benefit just as much as Pam did. Maybe not monetarily, but who knew what Stacy was going to do when she came this time, considering how much havoc she caused the last time.

“I don’t suppose that you’re going to be able to host Stacy this summer?” Paulette spoke up, almost as though she were reading his mind. “Maybe she could stay on Pam’s side of the duplex?”

“I think we’re going to be too busy. Plus, if you guys come, we won’t have enough places for everyone to stay.” Pam spoke immediately. And he appreciated it. He didn’t want to tell his sister her friend couldn’t stay, but he definitely didn’t want Stacy coming. There was the havoc that she brought in his business, but he didn’t want anything she did to touch Pam either. And if Paulette was truly trying to get Stacy and him together, he didn’t want Stacy to come between Pam and him.

“I think there’s plenty of room at the bed-and-breakfast. If she books now, she could probably book for the entire summer.”

“She can’t afford it. That’s the problem.” Paulette’s mouth pulled back, but she didn’t say anything more.

“Mark and I haven’t talked about it at all, but we can discuss it.” Pam looked at him, and he nodded. They could talk about it later. Both of them would want to help someone who seriously didn’t have a place to stay and would be out in the cold without a helping hand. But he also didn’t want to have someone there who was just going to cause trouble.

It wasn’t long until breakfast was done and the dishes were cleaned up. He remembered that Pam had a meeting with the renovators at eleven o’clock.

He wanted to get her alone so he could talk to her a little bit before she left. They barely had any time to actually just talk that morning, and he wanted to be sure they were still on the same page.

They were all sitting at the table, and Mark was ready to ask Pam if she’d like to take a short walk with him, when there was a knock at the door.

Pam got up before he could stand. “I can get it,” she said.

He got up behind her. It could be someone for her, but it was most likely someone for him since they’d knocked on his door.

But when Pam got to the door and opened it, he saw it was Lana Landry, from the bed-and-breakfast down the street.

She held a casserole dish in her hands.

“Hello!” Pam said as she opened the door wider so Lana could come in.

Mark got there in time to take the casserole dish from her.

“That’s for you, and you, since we have heard that you two finally got married,” she said, emphasizing the “finally.”

“We sure did. Come on in. We just finished breakfast, but I’m sure we can scrape together a few things to feed you.”

Lana followed him down the hall. “Oh, I already ate. And Sunday is cleaning the rooms in the bed-and-breakfast, but I wanted to be sure to give this to you before I took a walk on the beach.”

“This is awfully nice of you,” Pam said as she peeked under the aluminum foil after setting the casserole on the counter. “Oh my goodness, it smells amazing.”

“Thanks. I put together a little casserole, just a little something to save a little bit of work for you guys since you’re newlyweds.” She greeted all the people in the kitchen, knowing them all since they’d all spent time in Strawberry Sands.

It was a thing for small towns to deliver casseroles, and Mark was a little bit surprised they hadn’t gotten more.

“I just heard last night. Congratulations,” Lana said, looking like she was seriously happy for them.

“The rumors are true. And I couldn’t be happier about it,” Mark said, taking another step and putting his arm around Pam. He seemed to take every opportunity he had to do that, and it wasn’t to solidify the fact that they were in a relationship, it was because he enjoyed standing with his arm around her.

“Well, you guys are just the cutest. And I’ve always thought that you made an excellent couple. But you have such a solid friendship, I hated to say anything because sometimes when you get a little bit of romance in a friendship, it can make the entire thing blow up. Even though the friendship is really strong.”

“We thought about that, but we decided we would just go ahead and do it,” Pam said, smiling up at him. He grinned back down, thinking about how accurate her words were, even though they probably didn’t say exactly what Lana was expecting them to say.

By the time Lana left, it was time for Pam to hurry off to her meeting at the inn.

Mark stayed behind, entertaining their family and cleaning up the kitchen.

---