Annie's Answer Read Online Free Page B

little brown sugar. I don’t like it
runny, but I don’t want it so thick I have to cut it with a knife.”
    “My
grandfather makes good oatmeal,” Annie said, noticing that the coffee was
ready. She poured out a full mug and put it in front of Mattie. “I think I can
do almost as well. Do you want cream or sugar?”
    “No, I drink
it black. Your grandfather lives with you?” Mattie sounded interested for the
first time since they’d met.
    “Yes, he has
for nearly ten years. He’s a widower and a retired minister. Mom and I would
probably live on cold cereal and sandwiches without his cooking.” She checked
cupboards until she found a familiar red and blue container of fast-cooking
oatmeal.
    “Your mother
is on her own?” Mattie asked, her eyes following every move Annie made.
    “Yes, my
father died when I was quite young.” Annie hadn’t expected Mattie to ask
personal questions, but she was there to keep her entertained. A conversation
was a good start, although Annie wasn’t comfortable talking about herself with
a stranger.
    She could
barely reach the pans hanging overhead, but she managed to snag a small kettle.
Filling it with a random amount of water, she put it on to boil after figuring
out which knob went with a front burner on the gas stove. She’d never cooked on
anything but electric, but how hard could it be?
    When the water
started boiling—and Mattie had extracted her reason for taking the
job—she threw a handful of oats into the water.
    “So you don’t
measure,” Mattie said in a challenging voice. “How does that work for you?”
    As it
happened, it didn’t work nearly as well for her as it did for Gramps. The bowl
she put in front of the older woman was thick enough for the spoon to stand
upright, and all she could find was white sugar and two percent milk. Mattie’s
only reaction was a muffled huff.
    “So what do
you think of my nephew’s son?” she asked after frowning over a few bites of the
hot cereal.
    It wasn’t a
question Annie was prepared to answer, and she had to think for a few moments.
    “I’m sure he’s
very nice.”
    “Nice? That’s
a lukewarm word if I ever heard one.”
    “I really
don’t know him.” She stood watching Mattie take reluctant bites of her rubbery
oatmeal.
    “Do you mean
to tell me he hired you without knowing you?” She poured more milk on the
cereal and mixed it in.
    “We go to the
same church, but he didn’t recognize me at first.”
    “Well, I guess
that’s sort of a recommendation. You’re so young and pretty, my first
impression was you’d taken the job to get close to Nathan.”
    “I did no such
thing!” Annie said, too annoyed to rein in her temper.
    “Well, it’s
not as if he couldn’t get any girl in town if he didn’t have his nose in law
books all the time,” his great aunt said in a slightly contrite voice.
    Annie refilled
the coffee mug without asking while Mattie finished the oatmeal down to the
last dab in the bottom of the bowl, pushing it away with a sour face.
    “Tomorrow I’ll
make my own,” she declared. “I assume you’ll be here then if I haven’t scared
you off.”
    “I’m supposed
to come at nine, and you don’t frighten me, Mrs.…”
    Nathan had
only introduced her as Aunt Mattie.
    “Hayward, Mrs.
Tom Hayward, but I answer to Mattie. If we’re stuck with each other, I guess
we’ll have to figure out something to do. I don’t suppose you knit.”
    “I’ve never
had time to learn,” Annie said, trying not to sound put out.
    “I’m making a
sweater for Nathan. I don’t suppose he’ll wear it much, but he does look spiffy
in blue. Or maybe you haven’t noticed.”
    Annie took a
deep breath and didn’t answer. She suspected Nathan would look good in thrift
store rejects, but she wasn’t going to indulge Mattie Hayward by making any
comments about him.
    It was going
to be a long summer.

Chapter 4
    Hurriedly
Nathan shrugged out of his jacket, feeling like a kid let out of school