Nerd and the Marine (19 page)

Suspicion etched into Ben's
face as he pursed his lips. “You know, an hour ago I would have
said no, but now I'm not so sure. She
always
fills me in on Treeny. Like
how she's starting a new job, and such.”

“
You, um, ever ask her
about Treeny, or she just fills you in?” Mitch felt his lips twitch
from the effort to keep from laughing.

“
Okay, you got me there. I
have asked about Treeny, but if I don't, she still tells me,” Ben
said defensively.

Mitch howled. Ben reached over and
shoved him off the cot, which didn't stop the laughter.

“
Great,
another
matchmaker in the family,”
Ben said in disgust which just set Mitch off again. He didn't know
if Ben referred to him or Rachel, but realized he didn't
care.

Chapter Twenty

Lainy watched as her message
disappeared and something inside her flipped. Nauseatingly.
Pressing a hand to her stomach she forced the rising bile down and
rethought her sent e-mail. She wanted him to read it. She wanted
him to respond. She needed him to understand the only reason she
felt attractive and amazing was because of him. If he didn’t
respond, it would kill her.

Her head landed on the arm stretched
across her computer table. She didn't doubt Mitch would be kind to
her heart. She didn't doubt he'd take care of anything she
entrusted him with. Unless he was only being nice. When swallowing
didn't work, she jumped to her feet and raced to the bathroom where
she emptied the contents of her stomach.

*****

Ben and Mitch stayed up late talking
and laughing. Mitch saw Ben off early the next morning. He shoved a
huge cup of coffee into the SEAL’s hand.

“
Not that I think you need
this coffee, but I figure it'll make life a little easier,” he
commented and then handed Ben a bag of cookies from his
stash.

“
Thanks, Mitch, and welcome
to the family.” They shook hands.

“
I appreciate all your
family has done for me.”

“
Not just my family, Mitch,
but yours now, too,” Ben reminded him before hauling himself into
the transport. The door slid shut and the vehicle rumbled away.
Mitch returned to his quarters and lay on his bed. He'd wanted a
family for most of his life. What would happen if they met him and
decided he didn’t fit in?

He booted up his computer and checked
e-mail.

When he saw Lainy’s he sent her a
quick one word reply.

To:
[email protected]

From:
[email protected]

Re:Subject: My
self-esteem

>Hello
Mitch,

>I don't date because
the two times I did so I got really burned.>

Why?

Yours,

Mitch

Rolling off his bed, he picked up the
newest DVDs and popped one in without looking at the title. He
figured he'd surprise himself and watched a kitchen scene
unfold.

Lainy stood at a cook top stirring
something in a huge pot, surrounded by chaos. Several kids ran
through the door at what seemed like a constant pace. The other
adults in the room maneuvered around them with ease. Melly shredded
lettuce at the sink, while what looked like Laurie's back did
something at the counter. Greg, Laurie's husband, appeared to just
get in the way. Lainy's grandmother grated cheese near the
stove.

One little kid scrambled up the other
side of the cook top where Lainy stood and peered into her
pot.

“
What is it?” Freckles
stood out in stark relief to his pale skin and red hair.

“
Eye of the newt, spider
legs, lizard limbs, and various and sundry insects I collected from
the window sills,” Lainy answered without hesitation.

“
Cool. Wait till I tell the
guys,” the kid chirped and dashed out, a baseball mitt flapping
against his side.

“
Looks like plain old
spaghetti sauce to me,” her grandmother commented dryly from where
she grated.

Lainy grinned and added more basil as
she read from a book that lay open on the countertop.

“
Aunt Lainy?” A girl about
ten tentatively approached.

“
Yes, Cassy?”

“
What is that?” She pointed
to the pot Lainy stirred.

“
Grandmom Morrison's secret
spaghetti sauce.” Lainy wiggled her brows. “Which means in another
year, you'll own this recipe.”

“
Oh. It doesn't have
anything... disgusting, right?”

“
Nope, remember, I have to
eat this too.” Lainy added more spices to the sauce bubbling in
front of her.

“
So, if you're eating it
too we won't be poisoned?”

Lainy peered at her niece over the
rims of her glasses. “I'm not your Uncle Tom, lovey.”

“
No, but you're a Morrison,
so...”

“
Most of us can cook, it's
just your uncles who won't try.”

“
Okay.” The little girl
seemed appeased and went on her way.

Mitch watched in fascination as one of
Lainy's sisters-in-law joined her at the stove.

She held a huge pan in both hands and
briskly filled the heavy looking beast with water. She turned the
gas on beneath the pan. “So, Lainy, did you remember the meatballs
this time?”

“
Uh-huh.” She spooned up
something and Mitch saw a lone ball on the spoon.

“
There's more than
one?”

“
Of course there's more
than one. Your husband and kids alone will eat us out of at least
one bag of these things, Rachel,” Lainy reprimanded. She added
something else to the pot.

“
Excellent.” Rachel didn’t
appear to be offended by Lainy's comment. Rachel. Sister to Ben's
Treeny, he wondered?

One of Lainy's brother's ambled in,
Tom, he thought, who looked a lot like Will, only smaller, and
wearing a loud shirt.

“
Okay, who let Lainy in the
kitchen?” he asked no one in particular.

Lainy continued stirring her pot, but
her eyebrow rose.

“
She's a good cook, dear,”
her grandmother said, defending her.

“
No she isn't, she's a
nerd. Nerds can't cook.”

“
Nerds can follow recipes,”
Lainy retorted and then looked over the rim of her glasses again.
“Unlike some people, who managed to poison the entire camp last
year.”

“
I didn't poison the
entire
camp.” Tom’s
sputtering didn’t help his cause.

“
Did, too,” Melly shot from
the sink.

“
You most certainly did,”
Laurie added from where she stood at the counter. She turned and
Mitch saw a tray of garlic sticks. She inserted the tray into the
oven and set a timer. The sister-in-law beside Lainy dumped several
boxes of pasta into the boiling water.

“
I did not poison
the
entire
camp.”

“
Okay, one of your
daughters and Sophy didn't get sick because they found Granddad’s
Ho Ho stash and didn't eat what you cooked. Everyone else got
sick.” Lainy continued stirring the pot and Mitch got the
impression she wasn't paying full attention to the conversation.
She kept looking from the pot to the book in front of
her.

“
What's this I hear we're
having eye of the newt, spider legs, and various insects for
supper?” Will demanded as he entered the already tight
kitchen.

“
We are?” Tom sent a
horrified look Lainy's way. Mitch figured that was for the benefit
of the boys standing behind Will.

“
We are.” Lainy didn’t look
up. She continued to glance between the book and pot. “Ah-hah!
That's it.” She

trotted to the cupboard above Laurie
where she grabbed a bottle from the shelf, twirled the lid off, and
removed a bunch of leaves. She dropped those into the pot and the
boys eyes grew wide.

“
What are those, Aunt
Lainy?”

“
Yeah, what'd you put into
our eye of the newt stew?” Distrust clouded the boys’
words.

“
Magic leaves.”

“
What'll they
do?”

“
Turn you into a werewolf
whenever the full moon comes out. Of course, that could happen
anyway considering who your fathers are.” Lainy stroked her
forefinger and thumb along either side of her chin.

The boys hooted in raucous laughter
and concluded they should go start howling at the moon now. They
left the room in an awesome display of pre-adolescent boy
antics.

“
Please don't give them any
more ideas,” Laurie begged but everyone ignored her and egged the
boys on.

Mitch watched Lainy easily dodge a
poking finger and slap a hand hovering near her sauce. She managed
a few good kicks and a few more excellent shots of her own, though.
He couldn’t tell which brother bugged her. This woman was
amazing.

“
Go buy a real shirt.” She
whapped Tom's fingers with the spoon in her hand.

Tom looked affronted. “This is a real
shirt.”

“
It's a disaster,” Lainy
concluded and several of the women smothered laughter.

“
I can't believe you don't
like my shirt. But then, who would listen to fashion advice from a
nerd anyway?”

“
Don't blame me when the
fashion police fine you and take away your license. I
tried.”

“
Just one meatball,” Will
coaxed, breaking into their sibling spat. Lainy and the other women
all glared at him.

“
Would you three kindly get
out of the kitchen - you're in our way.” Grandmom pointed an
imperious finger toward the door.

“
But Grandmom, we're
staying out of the way,” Greg whined, and the ladies laughed. He
managed to snag a piece of pasta from the pot.

“
Out!” Grandmom said and
Lainy seconded, Melly added a third and Laurie took to pushing the
men through the door.

Rachel sent a sweet smile to Will, who
Mitch assumed was her husband, as she stirred the pasta beside
Lainy, but otherwise kept quiet. Mitch wondered absently if Treeny
was anything like her. He'd have to ask Lainy.

The men filed out of the room,
grumping, and when they'd finally cleared the door, a round of
relieved sighs filled the room.

“
Finally, now we can get
some work done.”

Laurie pulled the best-looking garlic
sticks he'd ever seen from the oven. She placed them in towel lined
baskets while Rachel drained the pasta, then dumped it into huge
bowls. Lainy scooped her concoction into more bowls. Grandmom
placed several bowls of salad beside them.

His mouth watering, Mitch wanted to be
invited to supper.

The ladies carried the food to a table
outside. The table appeared to go on for a mile and drop off into
the lake. Laurie yelled and almost miraculously, the table filled
with bodies of all sizes and ages. When everyone was seated,
parents made a few adjustments, and somehow Lainy got stuck between
Tom and Will.

She didn't appear fazed by the
arrangement, however. He soon learned she had lightning fast elbows
which she used whenever necessary.

“
Oh, Mom, pass the garlic
bread, please,” she said and Mitch watched as a trim, athletic
looking woman who looked a lot like Dory picked up the
basket.

“
Did you finish dessert?”
Laurie asked from her part of the table. Mitch watched her in
fascination. No wonder the woman was so thin. She seemed to be in
constant motion. Catching a knocked over glass here, cutting up a
meatball there, breaking up a spat beside her, sending her husband
hot looks.

“
Yes, I did. Brownies and
ice-cream for whoever finishes their supper.” The kids ate faster.
Or, as Mitch observed, slyly moved the contents of their plates to
the mouths of the dogs lying conveniently nearby. His
included.

Most of the pre-adolescent boys and
all the teenagers ate second and third helpings.

“
How is it that they'll eat
whatever you make, but not what I make?” Laurie asked Lainy in
consternation.

“
You just have to know how
to sell the stuff.” Lainy bit into a garlic stick.

Glancing around the table, Mitch
noticed Ed, the brother he hadn't seen much of, since the man
usually stayed behind the camera. He looked a lot like Will and
Tom. He also sported a beard and gold-framed glasses. Mitch assumed
he must have mounted the camera somewhere.

Max, Lainy's other brother, sat across
the table from her and Mitch noticed the two of them exchange looks
from time to time as the conversations flowed around them. Max
looked like the male version of Lainy. Down to nearly identical
glasses. He said very little at the table, his main conversation
consisted of asking someone to pass him something. Every once in a
while he'd do something to rile the kids up but he didn't often get
the blame. Usually the kid’s dads landed in trouble, or Ed.
Especially Ed.