Keep My Heart

Chapter 13

Unedited. Read at your own risk.

Chapter 13.

Mariah and Clayton left that Thursday to be married in a town Millie had never even heard of and to spend a week camping for their honeymoon period. Millie smiled when she thought about it. Mariah and Clayton were acting like they were spring chickens and had the energy to be gallivanting around the countryside. She guessed they would be back before they had quite reached a week.

With the cook gone, it was every man for himself, as none of them knew how to cook very well. Millie figured that Quinn was growing tired of burnt toast, so she decided one morning to try to make breakfast for everyone.

She got up earlier than usual, before daylight, and walked down the hall, careful not to wake anyone. She passed Trey’s door without much noise, but the floor squeaked as she passed Jess’ door. Millie cringed.

Not hearing any movement from the room’s occupants, she stepped lightly to the staircase, where she took each step slowly and silently. By the time she had reached the kitchen, she heard footsteps behind her. She whirled around.

“Jess! I’m sorry I woke you,” she said quickly.

“I was already awake,” Jess said, rubbing her eyes.

“I was planning on trying to make breakfast. I’d love a partner in crime if you don’t mind helping” Millie smiled.

“I’d love to” Jess smiled.

Millie entered the kitchen and lit a lamp, smoothing a few strands of hair that had escaped her loose, short braid behind her ear.

“Okay, so where does Mariah keep her recipes?” Jess asked.

Remembering the day that Mariah had tried to teach her to make biscuits. She remembered Mariah reading from a paper from a small wooden box.

“She has a box somewhere,” Millie said, opening a few cabinets.

“Like this?” Jess held up a box she had found on the counter.

“Oh, yes. That looks about right” Millie smiled.

Jess placed the box on the table and looked through the recipes. “Here. ‘Light and fluffy buttermilk biscuits’. Sounds good to me.”

Millie agreed and read the various ingredients off to her. Jess got the ingredients from the pantry and placed the measurements into a mixing bowl. Once all the ingredients were mixed in the bowl, they both stood over the dough and examined it.

“We might me so bad at this,” Jess said.

“Don’t speak too soon. We’ve gotta cut them out now” Millie said.

They rolled out the dough and used a coffee cup to cut out the round biscuits. By the time all of them were cut out, even Millie began to have faith in their abilities.

Once the biscuits were in the oven, Jess and Millie stared at each other for a moment.

“What now?” Jess asked.

“Well, I guess we make some eggs and bacon. Then we brew some coffee, I suppose” Millie said hesitantly.

“I can scramble eggs, and there’s nothing to frying bacon. Coffee… can you brew coffee?” Jess asked.

“No. Papa said he wouldn’t water a flower he wanted to die with my coffee,” Millie said.

“Mr. Shannon always teases me saying you had to eat mine with a fork,” Jess said.

“Maybe Trey can brew the coffee. He seems like he can. Leastways we can blame him for that disaster if it goes south,” Millie suggested.

Jess grinned. “I like the way you think.”