Four Weddings and a Swamp Boat Tour - Erin Nicholas Page 0,67
if it was all really that simple. “We have that in common. And it’s a good thing.”
Paige frowned. “I don’t see myself that way.”
She really didn’t. She helped at the bakery, and she helped her girlfriends with advice and loaning them dresses and things like that, but people didn’t come to her for help. That wasn’t a role she filled. For anyone.
“You don’t see yourself as someone who wants to help?”
“Well, cats, sure.”
He laughed. “You know why you help all those cats, right?”
“Because cats are awesome.” But she felt a little niggle in her mind that said there was more to it. And that Mitch really might know.
“Everyone in Appleby thinks that you take care of cats to fill a gap in your life where you should be taking care of people, right? A husband and kids?”
She nodded. When he’d been in Appleby, one of the chattier women in the community had filled him in on a few commonly-held beliefs about Paige’s “situation”— i.e., her being unmarried and childless and very happy with that status. It was weird in Appleby to not want marriage and family. Even at age twenty-two with plenty of time for all of that.
“I think they’re not totally wrong.”
“Hey.” She frowned at him. “I thought you were on my side about me being young and it being okay to have a few adventures and some time to do whatever I want before I settle down. If I settle down.”
She’d actually really appreciated the way Mitch had been an ally when she’d told him about her plans for a Year of Aloneness and not wanting to get married for a long time.
“I am. I just think that they’re on to something. I think you do care. A lot. And you want to take care of something… someone. More than one someone. The thing is, everyone in your life is so busy worrying about you and taking care of you that there’s not really room or time for you to take care of them.”
“They all take care of each other,” she muttered. “They don’t really want my help.”
Maybe it was because she was the youngest of her sisters and of all the grandkids, so they didn’t think of her as capable of really being helpful. Or maybe she just didn’t have any true skills that were useful to anyone else. That one she knew was partly true.
And maybe, she just never really offered. Because when her mom or oldest sister asked her to babysit or help with her niece and nephew’s school projects, she assumed they were trying to jump-start her biological clock. That wasn’t entirely untrue. But maybe that wasn’t the only reason they reached out to her.
Man, that all made her sound kind of shitty when she really thought about it.
Mitch nodded. “Right. They don’t really give you a chance to take care of them, so you take care of cats.”
Except that maybe they did sometimes reach out, and she assumed they had ulterior motives, and she said no. Suddenly she was feeling like she needed to call her mom.
She swallowed. “And now that I’m here, I’ll have people to take care of?” she asked. Then she laughed lightly. “There’s so damn many of you. There’s no way you’re not all being taken care of.”
He lifted a brow. “You heard all the wedding drama first hand. No one’s taking care of that.”
Well, he had a point.
“We all have a place,” Mitch told her. “We’re all pieces in a big puzzle. Sure you get the general idea of the big picture, even if something is missing, but it’s not complete without each piece.”
Paige felt a warmth in her chest. “That’s really nice that you all just find a way to fit.”
“Well, we make ourselves fit.”
“What do you mean?”
He shrugged. “Zeke became a contractor so he could help out with repairs and remodeling around here as well as putting up new houses and buildings for the town. He’s also an accountant, though he mostly does the books for family businesses. It’s why Zander became a cop, too.”
“Really?”
“He always wanted to do something like that. Firefighter or EMT or something. He was a cop—a detective, actually—in New Orleans for a few years, but when George, the cop here, retired, Zander stepped in. That way, he could stay close and take care of the town and his friends and family.”
“Wow. Is that why you’re a fix-it guy?”
“Exactly why. I wanted to help out, and someone always needs something fixed.”