AGENDA FOR NEXT MEETING
Keep Stirring the Frenzy
Get Ready for Harry
ADJOURNMENT
Meeting was adjourned at 3:01p.m. by Georgie Mays. The next meeting will be at 2:00p.m. on June16 unless Georgie decides to call an emergency meeting sooner.
Minutes submitted by:McKenna Boston
Approved by:Evie Dawson
Meeting must be over. Nate didn’t hear anything after he popped out his earbuds and started gathering all their wallpapering supplies off the upstairs hallway floor.
Tossing a tape measure, paintbrush, ruler, yardstick, and utility knife into a giant bucket, Nate prayed all the wallpaper he and McKenna had slathered over every surface from here to kingdom come these past couple days never went out of style. If it did, he’d sell a kidney and pay for someone else to redo it.
Working separately in different rooms while Tricia and Guy Scampy, country music’s current hottest duo, blasted at top volume because that’s what Gus claimed was the best type of wallpapering music, was not what Nate had envisioned for this project. The only reason Nate happily volunteered to keep at it this afternoon while McKenna ducked away for another meeting was to simply get it finished.Forever.
He hauled the bucket of supplies downstairs, glancing into the dining room in hopes of seeing McKenna, but only spotted empty chairs. Biting back a frustrated sigh, he hauled the bucket down to the basement and set it next to the bottom of the stairs to get it out of the way for now.
She wouldn’t have gone into town, would she? When he came up the stairs, he stopped off in the kitchen and peeked out the window above the sink. Her rental car sat in the driveway, so maybe she’d just stepped outside to check on the goats. Take some more pictures or something. He’d search her out in a few minutes.
Nate opened the fridge, debating between a bottled vitamin water or a can of cream soda as he thought about the words he’d finally worked up the courage to read last night. Words, for some reason, he was now desperate to share with McKenna.
Perfect love casts out fear.
Nate reached for the cream soda only to set it back and consider the glass jug of iced tea Gus had set out to brew in the sun earlier. Then he closed his eyes, recalling more of the words penned out on paper in his mentor’s handwriting.
You have a big heart. One that loves big. Stop reining it in. Stop being afraid to share that love with others—even when they don’t deserve it. Especially when they don’t deserve it.
“Do you think Harry likes pickle salad?”
Nate opened his eyes and slowly let the refrigerator door close before he turned just as slowly to face McKenna because sometimes it takes a slow second to transition from a dying man’s last words to pickle salad. “Hey, I was just looking for you.”
“You must be terrible at hide-and-seek if you thought you’d find me in the refrigerator.” She held up a piece of scratch paper. “Have you seen this yet? Georgie wrote out aMust Have For Harrylist that she wants us to start working on. She wrote down pickle salad three times. Why would she do that?”
Today McKenna was wearing light blue joggers with a white tank top. She had a red bandana wrapped around her forehead like one of Rocky Balboa’s sweatbands. And her curls were gathered at the top of her head, springing upward and outward like an out-of-control firework.
She was, in a word, adorable. And he was, in more words than necessary, so completely and utterly smitten. “Can I tell you something?”
“Sure,” she said, frowning down at the list in her hands.
“My mentor wrote me a letter before he died. That’s what was so important to me in the suitcase.”
McKenna slowly looked up from Georgie’s list because it apparently took just as slow of a second to transition from pickle salad to a dying man’s last words. She lowered her hand holding the list to her side, her bright blue-green eyes focused on him with full attention. “I wondered about that.”
Nate reached back inside the fridge to grab the vitamin water. When he offered it to McKenna, she shook her head. He closed the door, then took a seat on one of the kitchen island stools. She slid in next to him.
“I was actually at his funeral the day that I met you,” Nate continued. “He grew up in Nebraska. Still had family there. His sister was the one who gave me the letter. I was too chicken to read it at the time. Even after I’d lost it and got it back, I couldn’t bring myself to read it until last night.”
“How come?”
“Because I already knew what he was going to say. He was going to tell me I needed to forgive my dad.” Nate unscrewed the cap and took a drink.
“And?”
“And...” Nate twisted the cap back into place. “I don’t want to. I’m not sure I even can. To be honest, I’m a little ticked off that he would even bring it up. As if I need the burden. He should’ve just left it alone. Now all he’s done has made me feel like a huge disappointment to him because I know I’ll never be able to do it.”
