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Yvonne didn’t bother to respond. Instead, she skirted by him into the house. She’d been here countless times in the past three years. She and her cousin Darcy were their primary babysitters whenever he and Ryder were in a pinch and needed someone to watch the boys.
“Vonnie!” Clint and Vince yelled out in unison, delighted to see her.
“Wow,” Yvonne said as she looked around the place. “I’m glad I missed the tornado that tore through here. Is that smoke I smell?”
“Dad burned dinner,” Vince explained.
Leo rubbed his eyes wearily…until Yvonne lifted the picnic basket.
“He did that on purpose,” she lied, “because he wanted this to be a surprise.”
Clint jumped up and down, skipping along behind Yvonne as she carried the picnic basket into the dining room. “What surprise?”
“Dinner. But before we can enjoy that, you boys need to help me clear off this table.”
Leo had said the same thing to them at least twelve times this week—the dining room table was covered with their art supplies, Legos, and a million scraps of paper Clint insisted he needed to keep for some unfathomable reason.
Interestingly, in the face of good food, whatever significance the paper held vanished as Yvonne went to the kitchen and returned with a trash bag that Clint happily helped her fill.
Leo watched in quiet amazement as Yvonne—with the help of the boys—managed to put the dining room back to rights in less than five minutes.
Then she went one step further, opening the picnic basket, spreading a red-and-white checkered tablecloth on the table, and pulling out a meal that had Leo’s mouth watering.
She’d brought fried chicken, homemade potato salad with real bacon bits in it, and a leafy salad that she’d dressed in such a way that neither boy bitched about having to eat vegetables.
The three of them attacked the food like tigers who’d just killed an antelope, while Yvonne laughed at their exuberant eating.
Throughout the meal, Yvonne asked the boys about their summer vacation, then skillfully turned the conversation to the state of their bedroom once they were finished.
Suddenly, Vince recalled that maybe it wasn’t as clean as it could be. Yvonne told them she had one last surprise in the basket, but they wouldn’t get it until they’d cleaned their room.
Vince didn’t look too concerned about not getting his treat, until she added, “Until it’s done to my satisfaction. I will be checking your work.”
Vince groaned. “Aw, but the room is really dirty!”
“Stop grumbling and get to it. These homemade chocolate chip cookies are going to make it worth the effort, I promise. Or skip it. That just leaves more cookies for me and your dad.”
“Cookies!” Clint yelled. “I’m going right now.”
Within minutes, she had the dining room table cleared again, and both boys working in their bedroom fast and furious to earn their reward.
“How did you know their room was a mess?” Leo asked.
Yvonne looked around the rest of the house and let that answer his question. The place really was a trash heap at the moment.
“So,” she said, looking at Leo, “your turn.” She turned away from him and headed to the kitchen, leaving him no choice but to follow.
“My turn?” he asked as he entered the room.
“The rest of this house looks like hell too. No cookies for you if you don’t tackle at least some of it.”
He sighed. “Shit got away from me.”
She nodded, but her expression told him that response didn’t get him out of the doghouse. “So why didn’t you ask for help?”
The truth was, it had never occurred to him to ask her for help. He was already concerned he abused their friendship more than he should, asking her to babysit every now and again.
She studied his face. “We’re friends, Leo.”
