Welcome to the first Friday in May! As all you regular Noveltea readers know, today we get to read the eighteenth segment of my fictional story, When Life Hands You Lymes. 18 week of the year already? Yikes! And of course, if you want to share your thoughts on this segment, I’d be delighted to read them. 🙂
“Madalyn, you missed supper,” was the greeting I got from Carter, our long-time cook.
“I know, I know.” I threw my hands up. “Sorry about that. I was overcome with a headache and therefore conked out and didn’t awake until,” I glanced at my phone, it read five fifteen, “Until fifteen minutes ago.” And speaking of the time, why was Carter up so early? I knew for a fact that we didn’t have him on duty at such a crazy hour.
Carter must have read my confusion, “I came early today because there’s a bake sale going on to raise money for orphans in Haiti. Your parents are donating any of the supplies I use if I donate my time.”
My eyes lit up with the memories of past years when I was just a kid and I would sit at the counter ‘helping’ Carter and licking out the dishes when he was done with them. And yes, Carter can actually bake a better chocolate cake then Mom, Katie and me put together. It’s almost scary.
“Want some help?” I gave Carter one of my ‘little girl smiles’.
“Do you mean you want to help, or you want to lick out the bowls?” Carter asked, reaching over and taking an apron off a hook and handing it to me.
“Considering I haven’t had the pleasure of breakfast yet, why not a little of both? Plus the privileges of taste-testing everything that comes out of the oven?”
“Cookies, yes. Muffins, yes. Pies, no. Cake, no. Bread, no.” In typical Carter fashion, he set down the rules and I was quick to agree.
“Deal.” Reaching out, I shook his hand. Carter is like a weird combo between Uncle, Grandpa, and big Brother. I’m not even kidding there. And yes, I realize that sounds weird. He’s been with our family for years though. With all the benefit dinners and fundraiser we host, we need someone who we can depend on, plus there’s always families who are blessed to get random free meals when Carter isn’t busy with other things. And, as good at baking a chocolate cake as Mom is, she’s rather helpless with making more then a salad, so Katie and I learned how to work in the kitchen under the watchful eye of Carter. He’s a sweetheart if you haven’t figured that out.
“What have you been up to, today?” Dad asked me when we sat down for breakfast at seven thirty. With all the snitching I’d done, I wasn’t hungry but I wanted the family time that comes along with our meals.
I took a mini helping of scrambled eggs. “I’ve been helping Carter in the kitchen.” I put a dollop of salsa on my eggs. “How did the fundraiser go last night?” Dad looked worn out and I hoped they hadn’t gotten home too late.
“It was good, but not my style.” Dad fingered the collar of his polo shirt. “Black tie events aren’t so easy to breath at.” I knew Dad meant it literally. Sure, he dressed up enough, but fancy-fancy was not his thing. It wasn’t exactly Mom’s thing either, but somehow she fared better than Dad.
Noveltea 
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This was a nice, comfortable chapter. I'm getting the idea that Madalyn's family is quite wealthy. The description of the house has been pretty elaborate so far. And now we have a cook. I enjoyed this chapter. I hope you're having a great time in Europe. 🙂
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