She kind of hated that Mitch felt they’d been doing him a favor by taking care of him.
Paige: I love you. Thanks for having my back. Always. I promise I’m really good, and I will keep in touch.
That was a promise she felt completely fine making.
Josie: I love you too, and I’ll always have your back.
Paige smiled at her sister’s text, feeling better than she had in a while about her relationship with her family.
The door to the office opened just then, and Paige looked up.
When she saw the older woman coming in, she had to admit that she’d been hoping it would be Mitch.
A second later, she felt a flash of nerves.
An older woman. Was this Ellie?
Paige sat up straighter on her stool and pasted on a smile. “Hi.”
“Hello.” The other woman’s smile was sweet. She crossed to the desk, and Paige noticed she was carrying a box like the ones Mitch had brought home for Griffin last night. “I’m Cora.”
Paige relaxed a little for some reason. Cora was the cook at Ellie’s and Ellie Landry’s best friend. She was as much a part of Mitch’s life as his grandmother from the sounds of it. But she wasn’t Mitch’s grandmother.
“It’s so nice to meet you. I’m Paige.”
Cora smiled and set the box on the counter. “It’s lovely to meet you too. I brought you some lunch.”
Paige loved the woman already. “Wow, that was so nice of you.”
“Mitch said that you might be a bit intimidated coming over to the restaurant on your own today, and he wasn’t able to get away.” Cora smiled and leaned in. “I think he just wants to be there the first time to be sure we all behave.”
And Paige loved Mitch.
Well, she didn’t love love Mitch, of course. That would be ridiculous. But it was so sweet of him to think about what she’d do for lunch and know that going to Ellie’s alone would have been a lot.
“He’s such a sweetheart,” Paige said, almost without thinking. She wasn’t sure she’d ever called a guy a sweetheart before.
“Oh, he is.” Cora said it with sincerity and a soft smile.
Paige smiled in return. Mitch was well-loved. It was obvious already. She’d thought of him for months as the hot, confident, charming Louisiana boy who’d gotten her out of her panties in under an hour of meeting him. She’d assumed he was a playboy who had any woman he wanted and a different one every weekend. That had been in July.
When he’d shown up again last week, they’d had more time together. She’d definitely found him fun and funny and his competence and willingness to jump in to help her hometown out sexy as hell. During his entire time in Appleby, he’d twisted her up emotionally in a way no guy had before.
But seeing him here now, around the people who knew him best and loved him, was adding a layer. Clearly nothing he’d demonstrated in Appleby had been fake. He was a genuinely good guy.
Paige’s stomach rumbled, and she opened the box.
It was shrimp and rice and some vegetables.
Oh.
“Oh, no.”
She looked up. Cora seemed concerned. Oops, she clearly hadn’t hidden her reaction well.
“It’s great,” she assured the woman. She could pick around the shrimp.
“Are you allergic to shellfish?” Cora asked. “We run into that sometimes, but I never ask. Ellie or the girls take the orders.”
“Oh, no, I’m not allergic.”
“You just don’t like shrimp?” Cora laughed. “I know that’s possible too, but I don’t understand it.”
Paige smiled. She liked Cora. “No. The times I’ve had it, I liked it fine. I’m just… I’m a vegetarian.”
Cora frowned. “Yes. Mitch told me. That’s why I didn’t bring sausage.”
Paige laughed lightly. “Some vegetarians do eat fish and seafood. I just don’t.” She winced. “I’m sorry.”
Cora waved her hand. “Don’t be sorry. Come on.” She took the box from Paige and closed it up.
“Come on?”
“I’ll take you up to the kitchen. You have free reign over anything in there. You can teach me some new things.”
Oh. Paige hadn’t expected that. “You don’t need to do that. I’m fine with cheese or eggs or—”
But Cora was already at the door. She pulled it open and looked back. “Come on now. We’ll go in the side door. No one will even know you’re there.”
Paige didn’t really feel she had a choice, so she followed Cora out, locking the office door behind her with the key Kennedy had given her.
Fifteen minutes later, she’d made rice and vegetables, and Cora had insisted on adding vegetable broth, tofu, and yes, even kale to her shopping list. She waved off all of Paige’s attempts to insist she didn’t need anything special.
“What are you going to eat while you’re here?” Cora asked.
“I can… make do. Or buy my own ingredients.”
“We’re already buying everything,” Cora said as if that was a ridiculous suggestion.
“But… no one pays you for food here?” Paige asked.
“Well, not family.” Cora gave her a look that suggested that was the most ridiculous thing she’d ever heard.
“How do you afford to feed them all?” Paige asked with a laugh.
“Oh, honey, we haven’t bought a shingle, or a single screw, or paid for any labor or a delivery fee or gas for our vehicles or anything in years and years,” Cora said. “It all works out. We all take care of each other.”
That made Paige feel warm. And she realized she could relate. That was how her family was. How Appleby was, for the most part.
“Well, I’m not family, so I will pay you for my groceries,” Paige said. “But it would be great if you can get everything.”
“You’re family,” Cora said simply. “You’ll do no such thing.”
Paige’s heart did a little flip. She wasn’t sure if it was a good flip or an oh shit flip though. She swallowed. “I can’t do anything with shingles.”
Cora smiled. “We’ve got shingles covered.”
Paige shook her head. “But I don’t know what I could contribute to make it even.”
“There will be something.” Cora didn’t seem a bit concerned as she stirred a big spoon through one of the huge pots she had bubbling on the stove. Whatever it was smelled divine.
“I don’t have many talents,” Paige told her. That was actually true. She knew a little about bookkeeping for her business. She knew yoga. She knew cats. She knew vegetarian cooking. She knew… nope, that was about it.
“Everyone has talents.” Cora bent and pulled the oven door open, checking on two different pans she had inside.
“I don’t know if I have valuable talents,” Paige amended.
Cora gave her a sweet smile. “Value is relative. A gold watch to someone who already has one isn’t worth as much as a hot meal is to someone who hasn’t had one in a week.”
Paige blinked at her. Well, that was… very wise.
“Maybe I can help in here.”
She looked around. She’d been cooking for herself for years. She’d told her family she wanted to be a vegetarian at age ten. Her mother had said that she would make her a meatless lasagna on lasagna night, but if it was meatloaf night, she wasn’t making a second meal. She didn’t have time for that. They’d agreed Paige would make peanut butter and jelly on those nights and that she’d have to slowly learn to cook for herself.