Carrots
It was late in a Thursday night when Mick told Caitlin that he'd be heading upstate really early the following day to help a friend out, so he should probably get going.
"I thought you hated farm work," she said, after he told her what they'd be doing.
"Yeah, when my father was forcing me into it. I actually enjoy to watch stuff grow, when I'm the one who'll cook it after."
Cait would ask how many carrots from his friend's farm Mick would be cooking after, but she was distracted with the idea of him having a tomato garden in the backyard. A month ago, it wouldn't make any sense in her head, but now? She could totally see it.
"No, stay," she had said, holding his arm to keep him from leaving her side on the sofa. "I could drive you tomorrow."
"You have to work," he argued, but she had her own arguments and at the end of the day, it was settled.
What Mick didn't expect was to see Caitlin in jeans and boots, sunglasses on after she parked in front of his friend's house.
"Where are you going?" he asked confused, when he saw her following him.
"I'm curious, I want to look around. And maybe help out a bit," she said smiling.
"But don't you have to work?"
"I called Barry, got myself a day off," she explained smiling. "It's Friday, come on!"
She really seemed excited about all of that, so why should he try to stop her? Mick introduced Caitlin to his friend and his family (a wife and three daughters of ages seven to thirteen), and since she was willing to help out, Cait was put with the girls to separate and clean the carrots.
She helped the middle girl to separate the "ugly carrots" from the "pretty ones", played with the little one, who saw all sorts of funny figures that the ugly vegetables formed, and found out that the older girl could as well be a science genius, delivering all kinds of trivia about the farm's products.
They all sat together for lunch – pork chops, mashed potatoes and broccoli -, and the wife joked about "how hooked Mick was". Surprisingly enough, he didn't fight her on that, but joked along, which once again showed to Caitlin how many layers he had.
A couple of months had passed since their first random meeting at the farmer's market, but they already had walked such a long way, it was amazing.
At the end of the day, they went back to Mick's place. Part of them couldn't stand to see any carrot anymore, but even so they prepared together mashed carrots with ginger, and scallops that tasted perfect, because it was them making it.
a/n: Next chapter is the very last, guys! Thanks for the patience and for staying with me for so long. I'll post the last chapter this week.
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