“I love it! I’ll do it. Swooping in to the rescue to save the wedding of a small-town beauty queen? It’s like something out of a Hallmark movie.”
“Well, she’s not a pageant queen, but otherwise, sounds just about right.”
“Perfect. We’ll be in touch. Let me get some breakfast into my tired old body and then I’ll take a look at this email you’ve supposedly sent me.”
Delilah and Mimi said an affectionate goodbye and hung up. Delilah tucked her phone into her pocket, grinning as a suddengust of wind blew against her face. She had a wonderful feeling that things were going to work out beautifully.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Hazel poured flour into a measuring cup, thinking to herself that she always found the dusty aroma of flour calming. She smiled and began to hum as she continued to measure out the ingredients for pizza dough.
Things had been going well with the Fishers. Shannon and Weston were both kind, pleasant people, and they’d been eager to help with various things about the house, which had been immensely helpful because Jacob had been stretched thin doing so much repair work around town. Weston had mowed the lawn for them that afternoon, and Shannon had volunteered to help Hazel weed out her vegetable garden.
Sometimes it’s a little awkward when none of us really knows what to say,Hazel thought with a chuckle,but for the most part it’s been so fun and comfortable having them here.
She rose up on her toes a little as she thought about the Fishers first night there, when they’d all watched a favorite kiddie movie together and Camille had fallen asleep on the couch. The next night Hazel and Shannon had made an Oreo pie together that had been out of this world, and Samantha and Camille were both still talking about it.
Hazel glanced up at Camille, who was in the kitchen with her. Hazel had set out a coloring station for her at the kitchen table, with two coloring books and a giant bucket of crayons left over from when Samantha was little. Camille was coloring slowly, frowning slightly at the page, and Hazel’s heart gave a pang of sympathy for her.
Things must be so hard for her right now,she thought.These kinds of struggles are tough when you’re an adult because you have to try to fix things, but I think they’re worse when you’re a kid. Then you’re just helpless, waiting to see what’s going to happen. That must feel pretty scary sometimes.
She wanted to talk to the little girl, to reassure her that everything was going to work out great and that she and her parents would be back in their home in no time, but she knew there was nothing she could say that Camille’s parents hadn’t already said to her countless times.
Shannon and Weston were at their home at the moment with Jacob, since he’d wanted to show them the progress his team had been making on their house. Hazel had volunteered to watch Camille, since Shannon had been worried that seeing the damage to their house again would upset the little girl.
Hazel heard a thump upstairs and chuckled, guessing that Samantha had knocked something off her desk. Her daughter had been assigned a great deal of homework, since classes had been canceled for the week while repairs were done to the school, which was also facing various challenges after the storm. Her class had met a few times over video calls, but for the most part, her teacher had simply assigned take-home tasks that would be due on Monday. Samantha had been fairly good about getting her work done, but she still wasn’t quite finished with it, even though it was Saturday evening. Hazel hadn’t wanted to push her too hard, knowing that a week away from school wasalways a source of delight to children, even children who loved school, like Samantha.
She continued to prepare the pizzas, gathering the toppings while her standing mixer made funky machine noises as it mixed the pizza dough. She set aside barbecue sauce, cubes of cooked chicken, mozzarella cheese, and red onions for one pizza, and for the other two she chose tried and true marinara sauce along with pepperoni, sausages, and an Italian cheese blend.
When the dough was ready, she carried it over to the kitchen table to roll it out. She noticed that Camille had turned away from her coloring books and was now staring out the window, holding the teddy bear that Hazel had given her tightly.
Hazel’s heart went out to the little girl, who looked forlorn and unsure. She knew that Camille would perk up as soon as her parents got back, but in the meantime, Hazel wanted to do what she could to make her small guest feel more at ease.
“Hey, Camille,” Hazel said in what she hoped was a fun, conspiratorial tone. “Would you like to roll out the pizza dough with me?”
Immediately Camille brightened, and Hazel breathed a quick sigh of relief. Camille hopped off her chair and scampered over to Hazel, looking thrilled.
“Awesome,” Hazel said, knowing that Camille had said yes even though the child hadn’t responded verbally. Enthusiasm was written all over her face. “Let me just get you an apron. We wouldn’t want to get your cute hoodie dirty. Is yellow your favorite color?”
Camille nodded, watching with interest as Hazel rummaged in a drawer for one of her extra aprons. She picked out a pink and white striped one that had been Samantha’s favorite a few years ago before she got a new one. Hazel helped Camille put on the apron, and her heart melted when she saw how comically big it was on the little girl.
“Have you ever rolled out pizza dough before?” Hazel asked as she sprinkled flour across a well-cleaned portion of the table.
Camille shook her head. “Mommy buys crusts at the store.”
Hazel nodded, privately feeling delighted that Camille had said that many words together at once in front of her. So far, the child’s sentences had been three words tops.
The sound of feet clattering down the staircase was heard, and Hazel smiled as Samantha sashayed into the kitchen. “Victory is mine,” she sang out. “I’m all done with my homework.” She threw herself into the kitchen chair closest to where Hazel was standing.
“Good job, sweetheart,” Hazel said, bending down and kissing her forehead. “Proud of you.”
“Thanks.” Samantha heaved a sigh of relief and glanced curiously at the flour all over the kitchen table. Then she noticed Camille wearing her giant apron and grinned. “What are you two up to?”
“Camille looked kind of bored,” Hazel said, “so I decided to ask her to help with dinner.”
“Okay.” Samantha turned to Camille and smiled. “That makes sense. You can only color for so long.”
Camille nodded, looking at her half-finished coloring page, which featured a fairy with a green face and a hot pink toadstool. “Yeah. I can color more later.”
