Paige frowned. “I don’t see myself that way.”
She really didn’t. She helped at the bakery, and she helped her girlfriends with advice and loaning them dresses and things like that, but people didn’t come to her for help. That wasn’t a role she filled. For anyone.
“You don’t see yourself as someone who wants to help?”
“Well, cats, sure.”
He laughed. “You know why you help all those cats, right?”
“Because cats are awesome.” But she felt a little niggle in her mind that said there was more to it. And that Mitch really might know.
“Everyone in Appleby thinks that you take care of cats to fill a gap in your life where you should be taking care of people, right? A husband and kids?”
She nodded. When he’d been in Appleby, one of the chattier women in the community had filled him in on a few commonly-held beliefs about Paige’s “situation”— i.e., her being unmarried and childless and very happy with that status. It was weird in Appleby to not want marriage and family. Even at age twenty-two with plenty of time for all of that.
“I think they’re not totally wrong.”
“Hey.” She frowned at him. “I thought you were on my side about me being young and it being okay to have a few adventures and some time to do whatever I want before I settle down. If I settle down.”
She’d actually really appreciated the way Mitch had been an ally when she’d told him about her plans for a Year of Aloneness and not wanting to get married for a long time.
“I am. I just think that they’re on to something. I think you do care. A lot. And you want to take care of something… someone. More than one someone. The thing is, everyone in your life is so busy worrying about you and taking care of you that there’s not really room or time for you to take care of them.”
“They all take care of each other,” she muttered. “They don’t really want my help.”
Maybe it was because she was the youngest of her sisters and of all the grandkids, so they didn’t think of her as capable of really being helpful. Or maybe she just didn’t have any true skills that were useful to anyone else. That one she knew was partly true.
And maybe, she just never really offered. Because when her mom or oldest sister asked her to babysit or help with her niece and nephew’s school projects, she assumed they were trying to jump-start her biological clock. That wasn’t entirely untrue. But maybe that wasn’t the only reason they reached out to her.
Man, that all made her sound kind of shitty when she really thought about it.
Mitch nodded. “Right. They don’t really give you a chance to take care of them, so you take care of cats.”
Except that maybe they did sometimes reach out, and she assumed they had ulterior motives, and she said no. Suddenly she was feeling like she needed to call her mom.
She swallowed. “And now that I’m here, I’ll have people to take care of?” she asked. Then she laughed lightly. “There’s so damn many of you. There’s no way you’re not all being taken care of.”
He lifted a brow. “You heard all the wedding drama first hand. No one’s taking care of that.”
Well, he had a point.
“We all have a place,” Mitch told her. “We’re all pieces in a big puzzle. Sure you get the general idea of the big picture, even if something is missing, but it’s not complete without each piece.”
Paige felt a warmth in her chest. “That’s really nice that you all just find a way to fit.”
“Well, we make ourselves fit.”
“What do you mean?”
He shrugged. “Zeke became a contractor so he could help out with repairs and remodeling around here as well as putting up new houses and buildings for the town. He’s also an accountant, though he mostly does the books for family businesses. It’s why Zander became a cop, too.”
“Really?”
“He always wanted to do something like that. Firefighter or EMT or something. He was a cop—a detective, actually—in New Orleans for a few years, but when George, the cop here, retired, Zander stepped in. That way, he could stay close and take care of the town and his friends and family.”
“Wow. Is that why you’re a fix-it guy?”
“Exactly why. I wanted to help out, and someone always needs something fixed.”
“Fletcher became a teacher, so he could stay close too?”
“The idea of teaching the kids here, being involved with the school and district here, part of making it better and giving these kids the best education they can get, is a big deal to him.”
“That’s all really impressive.”
Mitch reached over and pulled her bottom lip from between her teeth with the pad of his thumb. He stroked over her lip, causing tingles. “Sometimes, you have to figure out what the place where you want to be needs from you. You should do something that makes you happy, of course, but there are a lot of ways to fit.”
She thought about all of that. Was she taking care of cats because that was all anyone would let her do? Because cats kind of didn’t have a choice? Because she wasn’t confident enough in what she wanted to do to push any harder?
She loved her cats. She really did.
But she did go overboard when it came to determining if someone would be a proper adoptive cat parent. Her questionnaire had been called ridiculous, and the fact that she insisted on an in-home visit at the six-month mark to be sure everything was okay was maybe a little over-the-top.
“I’m not giving up my cats.”
“But you’re going to plan these weddings?”
“I guess I could make a few phone calls.”
Mitch’s answering grin made something deep and hot in her belly clench, and she sucked in a little breath. God, making him grin like that made her want to do it over and over and over. And it really wasn’t hard. He was thrilled she was getting involved with his family.
But in spite of the trepidation she’d felt and the yearning for peace and quiet she’d been convinced she needed, she’d had a great day.
“How did Garrett propose to you?”
Mitch’s out-of-the-blue question made Paige sit up a little straighter. “What?”
“We’re on the subject of weddings. I want to know about you and Garrett.”
Oh. That was fair, she supposed. “Okay, but you have to tell me some stories too.”
“I’ve never proposed. Or been proposed to.”
That was good to know.
She frowned at that thought though. She wasn’t supposed to care how Mitch lived his life before her. Or after her. This was temporary. And casual.
But even in her own head, she knew that they’d already blown past casual. The part that still remained to be seen was the temporary part.
The fact that she was already less certain about that only spoke to how dangerous Mitch Landry was to her plans.
And potentially to her heart.
If she and Mitch thought this was something more than it was—or if it was more than they’d intended it to be—and then she left in August as planned, she’d break his heart. And, she knew too well, breaking other people’s hearts didn’t just hurt them.
She still wasn’t over how disappointed and sad her parents and Garrett’s family had been over their canceled wedding plans. She’d never forget the hurt in Garrett’s eyes. She could still feel her own jab of pain now, four and a half years later.