All Gobbled Up: A Novella by Mindy McKinley

Author:Mindy McKinley [McKinley, Mindy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-11-16T00:00:00+00:00

8

JOSH

“Oh my God, I couldn’t eat another bite if I wanted to.” Josh leaned back in his chair and patted his almost uncomfortably full belly. Grandma Suze’s cooking had always been his favorite, but Thanksgiving was always a treat. “It was delicious Grams, thank you.”

“Well of course, but you have to thank Sadie too, she was a big help.”

Josh’s gaze turned to Sadie, who stared at her empty plate, blushing. She’d been acting strange since this morning. Quieter than normal, and she hadn’t looked him in the eye even once since he’d gotten back to the house. It was maddening. “Thank you, Sadie.” His voice was tender, he couldn’t help it and for the first time in hours, she looked up at him briefly.

She blushed. “I didn’t do much, Grandma Suze did the hard stuff.”

“Stop that, young lady,” his grandmother admonished. “You did quite a bit, and you kept me sane. Which as these two will tell you, is no easy task.”

“Truer words have never been spoken,” Grandpa Howie uttered and then rubbed his shoulder when his grandmother clocked him.

Josh laughed. He knew better than to agree with her on that one, no matter how true it might be.

“Well.” Grandma pushed back her chair. “I suppose I ought to get to cleaning up this mess.”

“Josh and I can do it,” Sadie assured her. “You’ve done so much, it’s the least we could do.”

“I won’t hear of a guest doing any work around here.” His grandmother’s eyes met Josh’s and he could feel in the pit of his stomach that she had something planned and he wasn’t going to be able to say no. “Why don’t you take Sadie out to see the sunset over the lake?”

“You have a lake?” Sadie asked, her brows scrunching.

“It’s more of a glorified pond, really,” Grandpa offered.

“But it’s beautiful.” Grandma gave her husband a sharp look. “And she should see it with the sunset on the water.”

Josh looked at Sadie to see what she was thinking, and she was back to staring at her plate, brows still knitted in concern. Suddenly it was the only thing in the world he wanted to do. Watching the sunset over the ‘lake’ with Sadie Hollis sounded like the most magical thing he could think of. “Of course, she should. You game, Sade?”

She managed to smile and met his eyes for about a third of a second. “Of course.”

Grandma smiled. “Good, grab my big coat from the rack at the door, it’s going to be chilly down there.”

They were silent for the first several steps away from the house. Sadie had her hands shoved so deep in Grandma’s coat that they were dragging the whole garment downward.

“Dinner was good.” He cringed at how lame he sounded, but he had to start somewhere. It wasn’t like Sadie to be so quiet. They had always talked about everything. “Thank you for helping Grams, she likes to think she’s not getting older, but she enjoys the help.”

“She’s amazing.” Sadie looked up, but not at him, her gaze skirted the farm.

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