Free Joy and Tiers by Mary Crawford

what price she would exact from me if I cheated? I think just for fun, I’m going to encourage her to make my punishment pretty harsh just to see what she might have in mind.
    I’m feeling pretty pleased with my creative plan when all of a sudden she tosses one of the beanbags from the children’s game from the lawn bowling set at my head. “Earth to Tyler Joseph Colton, is anybody home? I’ve been trying to get your attention for three minutes. You were not only a million miles away; you were in another solar system,” Heather comments with a bemused grin.
    It takes a second to bring my brain back into real-life focus before I can answer her, “Honestly, Gidget. I was thinking about how to lose graciously. You’re kicking my butt. I seriously thought I would have the advantage here because I played so many games with rocks and sticks and other found objects in the desert.” I walk over to give her a very politically correct high five. “I figure there were very few people on the planet that could match my skills honestly. But it looks like you might be up to the task. Just how much of this do you play again?” I ask facetiously.
    “Well, my grandfather was retired and he didn’t have much else to do during the summers except entertain me and play senior citizen games. Therefore, I’m an expert at lawn bowling, croquet, and shuffleboard.”
    “You deserve to be admired. You whipped my butt like whipped cream,” I concede.
    “Okay, I won’t gloat,” Heather says good-naturedly. “But, I did try to warn you. I’ll go easy on you. My punishment — or reward as the case may be, is that I want you to cook me dinner for a change because I’m always making the meals for everyone else.”
    “It may indeed be a punishment. You have no idea whether you may be eating Lucky Charms for dinner, or I might have a hankering for pop tarts and chili dogs all in the same meal,” I tease.
    Heather wrinkles her nose at me as she says, “Well, that’s just a risk I’m going to have to take. I trust that your mama taught you better. No fan of Julia Child would raise her boy to serve pop tarts and chili dogs in the same meal. So, I’m guessing you’re just pulling my leg. But, if you’re not, I’ll just have to be adventurous. Either way it will stretch my culinary horizons.”
    “When I want to be—I can be a pretty decent cook; I just tend to be lazy when I’m cooking for just myself. Pizza and microwave meals are easy when I have nobody to impress, but me. I’ve been working some pretty crazy shifts with the Sheriff’s Department so I’ve been relying on easy. Tell me, my lady, what would you like to eat?”
    “Oh no, that’s where the dare comes in. You have to guess. I just have to show up with my appetite and my table manners.” Heather quips.
    “Oh wow!” I exclaim. “You are brave. Perhaps I should take advantage of your bravery and see how far it goes.”
    “Umm Ty— did you forget that I’ve gone to culinary school? I doubt there’s anything you can fix that would scare me. I’ve pretty much eaten it all. The good, the bad, the ugly and the totally unmentionable that I’d rather not talk about,” Heather replies with a full body shudder.
    I have to laugh at her antics. As I think about it, I suspect she did have to eat some pretty nasty food at culinary school. Not all students are created equal, and someone has to eat the food of the people who didn’t do so well. Heather strikes me as the type of person who would eat everyone’s food and try to say something nice about it regardless of how terrible it was.
    “What was your favorite course in culinary school?” I ask with studied nonchalance.
    Heather chuckles as she responds, “Nice try Cowboy. Apparently, you don’t need fishing poles and worms to go fishing. Okay, I’ll give you a couple of hints. Although you probably could have guessed. Pastries were clearly my favorite. I also liked working with savory food on the grill. I can