Part 15 (1/2)
”Why me?” Marilyn asked. ”I can't cook any better than he can!”
Chuck explained, ”Because if Colette takes over your job, somebody has to take over hers. If I stay with Jack and teach him how to cook, you'll still have to run interference with the others-your father, for instance, and your uncle-which is something I can't do. At least if you're there when your dad meets Jack you will know how to work him so that he doesn't corner Jack into cooking something up for him just as a courtesy. I wouldn't have a clue as to how to deal with your dad, much less that uncle of yours. I can, however, take over Colette's duties.”
Marilyn cut Colette a sharp glance.
Colette shrugged. ”I work for them. So sue me-I told Chuck how your uncle is always railroading your father and giving him a hard time. Dave would like nothing better than to discover his brother's protege is...well, that he can't...well. You know.”
”What?” Jack asked. ”You didn't tell me anything about this.”
”About what?” Marilyn asked, as nonchalantly as possible.
”That your father and your uncle have some sort of rivalry going. That I could mess up the works for your dad.”
”You didn't ask,” she said quietly. ”Besides, you have enough to worry about without this.”
”You're doing it again,” Jack said, marveling at his guests. ”The three of you have this knack for just taking over my life, for absolving me of responsibility.”
”You have a better idea?” Marilyn challenged him.
Jack set his jaw and shook his head. ”No. That's the h.e.l.l of it.”
He rubbed his eyes and groaned. ”I need to grab some clothes and take them over to your place so they won't all smell like burnt alcohol. And thank you-all of you. I don't mean to seem ungrateful.”
Chuck clapped a hand on his shoulder. ”We'll get you through this. h.e.l.l, you might even like it before it's all over.”
Jack grumped, ”This is so not how I saw this week going.”
He went back inside, and when he returned he had a pile of clothing in his arms.
”Okay if I take this on over to your cabin?” he asked Marilyn.
”Sure! I'll... ”
”I know the way,” he said gruffly.
When he returned, he sat at the picnic table with them for a few minutes, listening to their animated chatter and good-natured comments about the dessert they'd retrieved.
”I went back for the ice cream,” Chuck explained. ”Hope you don't mind-seemed a waste to just leave it in there. You sure you don't want any of this? It's really quite good!”
Jack shook his head. With a hard lump in his throat and unable to speak to them further, he pushed away from the picnic table and walked quickly down the embankment toward the river that flowed a few feet from his cabin.
The entire trek down the hill, Jack cursed himself. He certainly couldn't confess to her now that he could cook, not after that f.u.c.king fiasco. s.h.i.+t, s.h.i.+t, s.h.i.+t, s.h.i.+t, s.h.i.+t!
He'd considered his past year's self-tutoring to elevate him to at least the rank of a decent cook, if not a pro. What must she think of him?
Chapter Fourteen.
Great-Grandmere's Cranberry Sauce Ingredients: 1 1/2 cups sugar 1 navel orange 1/2 teaspoon grated ginger Tiny dash of cloves 4 cups cranberries 1/2 cup toasted pecans Grate orange peel, add to pot with rest of ingredients EXCEPT pecans and cranberries. Simmer over medium heat until sugar dissolves, add cranberries and cook until cranberries pop their skins. Add pecans, stir, chill, serve. When Chuck moved to follow him, Marilyn placed her hands against his chest and shook her head. ”But he must realize that we'll see him through this!” Chuck protested.
Marilyn looked at him with sad eyes. ”I understand he's your best friend and that you probably know him a lot better than I do, but women's intuition tells me Jack would rather see himself through this. He just doesn't know how.”
Colette hooked an arm through Chuck's and asked, ”Then what do we do? He can't cook if he doesn't learn.”
Chuck sighed and agreed, ”You're right, Marilyn. But there's something you don't know that Jack may not appreciate me telling you.” He stopped and shook his head.
”No. Tell me,” Marilyn said.
”This wasn't Jack's first attempt at cooking. It's just his first time with an audience.”
”How do you know this?” she asked.
Chuck shrugged before replying, ”Eggsh.e.l.ls in his kitchen trash can. Flour or sugar spilled on the counter that he missed during cleanup. Little things like that over the years.”
”Has he ever said anything to you about it?”
”Oh, no. Jack is a proud man. He was the middle child, and not much was expected of him when he was young. If he got into a sc.r.a.pe at school, his older brother Vince or his cousin Daniel usually saved him. But he expects more out of himself now.”
”Yeah-I met Daniel.” She grinned at the memory.
”When his grandfather died, he had his brothers and his father,” Chuck continued. ”When their parents died, all they had was Mimi, and he and the other two found themselves growing up pretty quickly. It wasn't that mistakes weren't tolerated-far from it. All of them were encouraged to do whatever they wished. Vince went into the service, Chance took over running the trout camp and Jack, well, Jack did what he knew he could do when he got out of the Navy. He wrote-”
”About something he'd always wanted to be able to do well,” Marilyn finished for him, giving Chuck a sad look.
”Yep,” he answered. ”When he was a kid, Jack was as strong and smart as any boy, but he always had someone older around to drag his a.s.s out of trouble before it started. Jack was so trusting that he didn't usually see things coming.”
”Like what?”
”Oh, the occasional bully, for one. When you're taller and smarter than most everyone, there's always that one guy who thinks if he whips your a.s.s he'll have a reputation. So the big guys get picked on just as much if not more often than the little ones.” Chuck reached for his handkerchief and blew his nose before continuing. ”d.a.m.n allergies. In the Navy, you're trained to rely on the buddy system, a.s.suming everyone will do their job but prepared in case they don't. So... Jack went from having someone taking care of him at home to someone there for him at work.”
Colette murmured, ”And right now, I'll bet he feels like the loneliest man in the world. Because he's in the spotlight and expected to do something he's just not prepared to do.”
Chuck pulled her close. ”It's not your fault. Or yours,” he said, throwing Marilyn a sympathetic glance. ”And I would gladly kick anybody's a.s.s who tried to hurt him. I'd even pa.s.s myself off as Jack at that contest, if I thought I could do it or that it would do any good.”
Marilyn hugged him quickly. ”I'll talk to him. And I won't tell him what you just told me.” Then she waggled a finger at him. ”Eat all of that ice cream, though, and you die. I have plans for that later tonight.”
Taking the flashlight Chuck had found for her, she wound her way down the embankment to the area where Jack had first kissed her.
”You gonna fall and bust your a.s.s,” Jack mumbled in the dark as Marilyn skidded toward the water. ”And you probably got those fancy Doc Marten shoes all muddy.”
”I'll take my chances. Where's that moon that was so helpful before?”
She felt one of Jack's hands clasp her arm firmly and steer her towards him.
”Looks like we may get another shower before tomorrow morning, so she's hiding behind the clouds,” he said.
Marilyn sat next to him on the log facing the river. ”That what you're doing? Hiding?”