Stranger Danger

Part 7

After cleaning around the large house - mainly brooming and dusting, which took a while to complete - Cassidy was tired and felt like going upstairs for a nap. But instead of getting any form of rest, Glinda asked her to help out with lunch, to which she couldn't say no. As Glinda placed the ingredients out on the counter, Ruby joyfully bounced into the kitchen with a satisfied look on her face, followed by Tyler. "Hey," she said brightly as she headed over to where her mother was standing. "Whatchu makin'?"

"Some potatoes with beans and fish on the side," Glinda answered without looking up. "I'm pretty sure we have some gravy left also. We could add some of that."

"Yum, sounds good."

Tyler went over to Cassidy and they talked quietly in their own corner. Glinda finally looked at her daughter and a smile slowly crept across her face. "You seem to be in a really good mood." Ruby looked down, failing at hiding her own smile. "How did things go in the barn?" Glinda wanted to know.

Ruby looked up, her face gleaming. "Things were fun. Tyler was great with the animals." She glanced behind her. Tyler looked up at the mention of his name and automatically smiled. Ruby's grin widened and she turned back to her mother while Tyler returned to his amicable conversation with Cassidy.

"I'm glad everything went well," Glinda said to her daughter as she turned on the faucet to rinse the potatoes. "I didn't know when you guys would finish so I had asked Cassidy to help me out. But since you are now here..."

Cassidy's left ear was alert to the conversation. Yes! she thought. Was Ruby going to help her mother, giving her a chance to rest upstairs and perhaps hang out with Tyler? Rudy's next response crushed Cassidy's hopes. "No!" she interrupted her mother. "I was planning on showing Tyler something."

"Ohhh," Glinda said knowingly. "Well then, you two have fun okay? Cassidy and I need to get started on lunch if you want to eat in the next hour or so."

"Okay." Ruby turned around. "Tyler. Are you ready to go so they could start cooking?"

Tyler looked up. "Um, yeah. Sure." His eyes wandered back to Cassidy's innocent face. "I'll see you later." Cassidy shyly lowered her eyes. Tyler lightly caressed her arm as he passed by and headed out of the kitchen with Ruby. Cassidy felt her arm tingle where Tyler had touched her, but was brought back to reality seconds later. Cooking with Glinda wasn't as awkward as she thought it would be - though it was a little hard to keep up since Glinda worked quickly. But on the other hand, this made the cooking go a lot faster, and by 12:30, the dining table was set, with the food laid out in front of everybody.

After lunch, everybody was free to do whatever they pleased for the afternoon since it was, "still raining," and there was, "not much to do" - according to Glinda. Cassidy tried to go upstairs to be alone with Tyler, but Glinda insisted that they play a board game with everybody in the living room. After an hour and a half had gone by, Cassidy told everyone that she was going to head upstairs to relax. "Does anybody have a good book I can read? I hadn't brought any because I didn't think I'd have time for that sort of thing."

"Of course!" Glinda exclaimed.

Cassidy ended up choosing a novel from a bookshelf in the room that belonged to Ruby's collection. Upstairs, in her guest room, she plopped down on the bed and looked at the book in her hands. A horse was on the cover, with a girl in the background. She opened it. After reading the first three paragraphs, she rolled her eyes and tossed the novel beside her on the bed. How much more boring can this house get? she thought, feeling annoyed. With nothing else to do, she closed her eyes and decided to try to rest.

After thirty minutes of no success, she sat up just as two soft knocks sounded on the bedroom door. Before she could answer, the door slowly began to open, and a head full of dark, thick hair appeared. Cassidy grinned, not able to hold back her joy as Tyler's friendly face emerged. He smiled back and walked into the room, gently closing the door behind him. "Hey," he said.