"Should we make that for dinner?" Sam asked, and everyone agreed.
"If you want to help us cook, go wash your hands, guys," Wyatt told the kids as they all went back inside.
He and Sam washed their hands and the herbs and tomatoes at the kitchen sink. They did it standing elbow to elbow, bumping hips. Thanks to Wyatt, the whole thing involved way more body contact than was strictly necessary.
"These tomatoes are beautiful. I almost hate to smash them up into a sauce," Sam said as he admired them.
"Is that where pasta sauce comes from?" Wyatt joked, or at least Sam hoped he was joking. "Thanks for coming to the rescue."
"You loaded down your shopping bags with things you don't know what to do with, of course I had to come over," Sam said and gave Wyatt a smile.
"I know. What does a person even do with celery?" Wyatt said and held up a stalk of celery Sam was going to put away.
"Seriously?" Sam said, then he thought of something. "You know you can put cream cheese in celery, or peanut butter. It's a good snack for the kids."
"Put things inside of celery," Wyatt said while turning over a stalk of celery like he was trying to figure out how to make it work. "That sounds way too advanced, like master class or something."
"I'll show you and we'll call it an appetizer," Sam decided. It would be good to give the kids something to munch on while they were waiting for dinner to be done.
The kids were happy with their peanut butter celery and the dogs got to lick some peanut butter off their fingers.
"That was a hit. Let's get those hands washed now," Wyatt said to the boys.
"Barney and Brownie already did it," Riley said and held up his hands to show they were clean.
Wyatt looked over at Sam as if to say, "Can you believe this?"
Once their hands were washed again, the kids both got to help turn tomatoes into tomato sauce. They got a kick out of that, but Riley ended up with a big, red stain on his shirt.
"Do you want to change out of that, Ry, or should we just let the dogs lick it off?" Wyatt asked Riley.
"Let Barney and Brownie do it," Riley voted.
"Uh, no. Go change," Wyatt insisted. "You better go with him, DJ. Make sure he doesn't do anything creative."
DJ didn't seem too sure what Wyatt meant by that, but he and the dogs followed Riley out of the kitchen anyway.
"Kids think getting dirty is fun," Wyatt said.
"Good timing," Sam said and added some of the vegetables into the tomato sauce. "I'm putting these in the sauce. I heard that one way to trick kids into eating vegetables is to sneak them into pasta sauce."
"Lloyd never used to trick me like that. He just poured the stuff straight from the jar," Wyatt said.
"No one tricked me like that either," Sam said, but while Wyatt spoke fondly, he said it with an edge of bitterness to his voice.
To Sam, the dinner table was just another minefield. When he was little, hardly anyone cared if he ate well or even if he got enough. They resented having to feed him, never letting him forget that he was unwelcome and a burden. He learned always to take the smallest piece, never to ask for more no matter how hungry he was.
"What? It looks good," Wyatt said as he peered into the pot. Maybe he thought Sam's expression had darkened because of the food.
"It will be good," Sam said forcing a more cheerful expression.
Wyatt wasn't buying it though. "What's up?"
As best he could, Sam tried to explain. "The relatives who took me in after my parents died didn't have much money. They didn't want me, but felt obligated. They weren't subtle about letting me know that I was a burden."
"How old were you?" Wyatt asked.
"I lost my parents when I was five. I lived with one relative or another until I was seventeen," Sam said. He didn't mention who he lived with after that. He didn't want to bring up Brian especially since the boys were likely to run back into the kitchen at any minute.
