Read Online Small-Town Nanny by Lee Tobin McClain - Free Book Online Page A

hers. “Yes, Sam picked it up on the way home from church.”
    â€œOh, men.” The woman waved a perfectly manicured hand. “They never know what to get, and with Sam so busy... Are you in charge of the cooking? Because I’d recommend Denise’s Deli in town, if you don’t have time to make homemade.”
    Susan’s stomach knotted and she flashed back to her mom trying to please her dad with her culinary skills. It was a role Susan had vowed to avoid, so why was she feeling as if she needed to make an excuse for not having labored over doing all the chopping and boiling herself? For a family that, after all, wasn’t her own?
    The door from the deck burst open. “Grandma! Grandpa!” Mindy shrieked. She flung herself at the man.
    He bent to pick her up. “Oh, missy, you’re getting too heavy for an old man!”
    Sam followed with a plate of grilled chicken breasts. “Hey, Ralph, Helen. I thought you two might stop by.”
    He had? Why hadn’t he warned her?
    â€œWe can slide a couple of extra places in at the table. Susan, would you mind...”
    â€œConsider it done,” she said drily, adding just one place setting. And then, as soon as both grandparents were occupied with Mindy’s excited explanation of the grilling process, she grabbed Sam’s arm and pulled him into the playroom that adjoined the kitchen. “Look, since it’s a family meal, I’m just going to leave you to it,” she said. “Everything’s ready to go here, and I’ve got a new thriller from the library that’s calling my name.”
    â€œYou have to eat,” he said, frowning. “I’d like it if you’d stay.”
    â€œThey seem a little...overwhelming,” she admitted. “I’d feel more comfortable if—”
    â€œCome on, Miss Susan, you forgot to make a place for Grandma! I got the extra placemats.”
    â€œJust stay for dinner,” Sam said as Mindy tugged at her hand. “Then you can take off all afternoon.”
    â€œBut—”
    â€œI’m paying you to be here.”
    Clenching her teeth, Susan helped Mindy add another place setting to the table.
    They all stood around it, and Sam said a prayer, and then they took their seats. Susan busied herself for a couple of minutes with bringing over food and fetching drinks, but then that was done and Sam urged her to sit down.
    â€œOh,” the grandma, Helen, said, “are you eating with the family?”
    Susan raised an eyebrow at Sam. “Not my idea.”
    â€œSusan’s agreed to eat with us. Mindy needs a female role model.”
    â€œOh, right,” the older woman said. “At least until...” She gave Sam a meaningful look.
    â€œRight,” he said.
    So was something in the works, then? Was Yacht Club Grandma cooking up a girlfriend for Sam? That would be ideal, Susan told herself as she helped cut Mindy’s chicken breast. It would take her off the hot seat and out of a role she obviously wasn’t suited for.
    Amidst the clanking silverware and clinking glasses, there was a noticeable absence of small talk. Finally, the awkward silence was broken by Mindy’s grandfather. “What are you?” he asked Susan.
    â€œHey, now, Ralph...” Sam started, a flush crossing his face.
    Susan drew in her breath and let it out in a sigh. “It’s fine,” she said to Sam. She’d been answering that question all her life, but the questions had gotten a little more frequent since she’d moved from California to the Midwest.
    Mindy looked alertly from one adult to the next, sensing the tension.
    â€œI meant no offense,” Ralph said, lifting both hands, palms up. “I’m just curious. You look a little...” He broke off, as if he was trying to think of the word.
    As a person who blurted out the wrong thing herself fairly often, Susan thought it best to cut off his speculation.