next drawer brought a chuckle. “Knew it! Mr. Assistant Director has an obsessive-compulsive disorder.” That explained his over-the-top need for order and control...why he was always counting things, making notes of stuff that weren’t of any importance. She stared at the neatly folded stacks of black and white men’s briefs, feeling quite smug at her discovery.
The next drawer held socks. All white and already secured into pairs. She stuffed socks into one pocket of the shorts and the underwear into another.
Running shoes sat by the door. She grabbed them on her way out.
By the time she got to the beach, Charlie, Rick and Willard were there along with the awful smell. Rick was helping the boy out of his shirt. Willard had stopped crying but looked miserable.
“Here’s the Listerine.” She handed him both bottles, getting a good look at the tattoo over his heart this time. Dog tags—in addition to the ones he wore on the chain. He really was eaten up with military. “And I brought you some more clothes.” Pulling her eyes back up to his face, she held them out.
“Would you set them over there? I don’t want to touch them.” He motioned to a pile of towels and clothes lying in the sand. “We’ll probably just wrap ourselves in towels and go shower afterward, but thanks for bringing everything.” The gratitude in his eyes was genuine.
“I’ve never seen so much Listerine.” Oddly, she wanted to hold on to the moment a bit longer.
One side of his mouth rose. “Not my first rodeo.” He turned to the boy and handed him the opened bottle. “Okay, Willard, we’re going to strip off the rest of our clothes and pour this brown stuff all over us because it’ll cut the oil. Keep your eyes closed tightly—we don’t want to get any in them.”
Willard sniffled and nodded.
“We’ll rinse off in the lake and then we’ll take a bath with dishwashing liquid, which should get rid of any of the remaining oil—” he looked at the squeeze bottle and laughed “—and leave us with a pleasant, lemony scent.”
“Can’t we jutht take a thower?” Willard’s breathing caught a couple of times. “And what about my clotheth?”
Rick shook his head. “If we did that, we’d carry the stench into the bunkhouse. We have to get the oily stuff off first. Then we’ll go take a real shower and get dressed.”
“I’ll burn your clothes,” Charlie said, and Willard’s bottom lip quivered like he was going to cry again. “Go on, Summer.” Charlie turned and shooed her away. “They can’t get on with this process while you’re here.”
Summer nodded and started up the path. Behind her, she could hear Willard’s plaintive cry loud and clear, and her stomach rolled with every word.
“I wanna go home. I hate thith plathe. I hate thith plathe.”
* * *
“AND WE’RE USING TWO KINDS of flour.” Summer motioned for Greta and Anne to pour their ingredients into the giant bowl. “Greta has whole grain oat flour, and Anne has whole grain graham flour.”
“Mmm, will the cookies taste like graham crackers?” Amanda asked.
“Better.” Summer nodded toward Lucy. “And Lucy’s going to add cinnamon.” She stopped and looked around. “Is anybody allergic to cinnamon?” No hands went up. “Okay then, Lucy’s going to add cinnamon, milled flax seed and wheat germ.”
Lucy’s nose crinkled in distaste. “Ew, I don’t want to add germs to it!”
That made Summer laugh. “It’s not that kind of germ, Lucy. Not the kind that makes you sick. This kind of germ is what germinates.” She stressed the word. “It’s where the piece of wheat starts its growing cycle. It has lots of vitamins in it, so it makes us healthy, not sick. It’s the heart of the wheat.”
“The pretty heart?” Mary Margaret asked.
“Precisely, M&M,” Tara answered, using the nickname the girls had come up with.
Summer turned the giant mixer on, and the blades incorporated the dry ingredients into the liquids. Her belly churned along with the machine as she thought about what she was going to do after the cookies were done.
When a dough formed, she stopped the mixer and cued Shannon and Kaelyn. “Now, we add vanilla flavoring and...?”
“Chocolate chips!” the girls answered.
“Correct. But not just any chocolate chips.” Kaelyn poured the dark morsels in as Summer stirred the heavy concoction. “These are organic, dark chocolate chips, so they’re full of antioxidants and are good for you.” Her arm tired, and she let Tara finish the mixture as she supplied the girls with spoons. “But even though