Chapter 11: Good Trouble
The following morning found Sharon up with the kids around 7am.
The girls wanted to help Sharon with breakfast. So, while they did that, the boys watched Power Rangers on TV.
"So, what shall we have for breakfast besides the blueberry muffins we made last night?" Sharon asked the girls.
"Waffles!" exclaimed Emily.
"And bacon too!" added Nicole.
"What about some scrambled eggs to go along with it?" suggested Sharon.
"Yeah!" exclaimed both of the girls.
Firstly, they needed to make the waffle batter.
Nicole added the waffle mix and the oil and Emily added the water and egg to the mixture.
Sharon stirred it all together before pouring a bit of mix onto the waffle iron and closing it to cook.
Next, was the bacon which Sharon elected to do herself because of the hot popping grease.
Finally, the girls worked on the scrambled eggs. Each of them cracked three eggs into a bowl before Nicole added the milk.
Emily stirred the eggs in the bowl before she poured the mixture into a pan under Sharon's watchful eye.
"You wanna stir them around for me, Nicole?" Sharon asked the girl.
Nicole nodded her head yes and Sharon handed the girl a spatula.
Just as they were in the middle of everything, the doorbell rang.
"Emily, can you go get the door for me? It's probably just Andy," Sharon told her daughter.
"Sure," Emily ran off excitedly towards the door and opened it.
"Andy!" exclaimed Emily as she opened the door and hugged him.
"Hey!" replied Andy as he hugged the girl back.
"Come on in. We're making waffles, bacon, and eggs," Emily told Andy as he walked inside and shut and locked the door behind him.
"Sounds delicious," replied Andy as they walked towards the kitchen.
"Daddy!" exclaimed Nicole as she sat the spatula down and ran over to hug her dad.
"Hey, ladybug," replied Andy as he hugged his daughter before she returned to stirring the eggs in the pan.
"Hey," said Sharon as she flipped the bacon.
"Hey. Anything I can help you with? You look like you've got your hands full with these two munchkins," Andy pointed out.
"If you wanna check and see if the waffle in the waffle maker is ready and pour some more batter into it, that'd be great," answered Sharon.
"Okay," replied Andy as he jumped right in to help.
A few minutes later, the eggs were done and Sharon said, "Girls, why don't you go play for a few minutes while Andy and I finish getting breakfast ready."
The girls obliged and ran off to Emily's room to play Barbie's.
"Alone at last," joked Andy.
Sharon chuckled at his remark before she said, "Yeah, I guess so."
"So, how were the kiddos last night? I hope they were good for you," said Andy.
"Oh, they were fine. The girls and I made blueberry muffins and the boys entertained themselves playing video games and watching movies most of the night," responded Sharon.
"Yum. Blueberry muffins are my favorite," said Andy.
"Nicole mentioned that. They're also my favorite too," revealed Sharon.
"There's one more thing we have in common," said Andy as he smiled at Sharon.
"Guess we're not so different after all," said Sharon awkwardly.
"At this point, I'd even classify us as pretty good friends," replied Andy.
"It's nice to have a friend. Not that I don't have friends. It's just when you work in FID-" Sharon began babbling before Andy stopped her.
"I get it. In your job, it's not easy or always possible to make many friends," replied Andy understandingly.
"Yeah," replied Sharon as she looked down and smiled to herself at Andy's understanding.
Soon enough, Andy reached over and brushed a strand of Sharon's hair out of her face.
"You had a-" stuttered Andy.
"Thanks," Sharon tightly smiled at him.
"Well, the waffles are ready," Andy told her.
"The bacon too," replied Sharon.
"You get the girls and I'll wrangle the boys away from the TV?" suggested Andy.
"Deal," replied Sharon as she walked upstairs to find the girls and Andy went to get the boys.
A few minutes later, everybody was seated at the table and loading their plates up with breakfast food.
"These muffins are delicious, girls," said Andy to Emily and Nicole before making eye contact with Sharon for a moment.
"These two did most of the work. I just supervised and handled the oven," replied Sharon as she eyed Andy in askance.
Andy quickly directed his eyes back to his plate.
God he was so rusty at this. Plus, Sharon seemed a little weirded out by his attempts at flirtation.
"So, Andy, how was pool with Provenza?" Sharon asked him.
Andy quickly snapped out of his reverie and replied, "It was good. I won sixty bucks off him."
"I don't know him, but something tells me he probably wasn't happy about that," said Sharon.
"You'd be correct. He's a good friend, but rather grumbly about a lot of things. Especially when it comes to losing money. He loses enough of that to his ex wives," mentioned Andy.
"Ex wives as in plural?" Sharon asked him.
"Yeah. He's got a couple ex-wives he likes to complain about," said Andy.
"Interesting. It sounds like his reputation precedes him," said Sharon.
"Definitely. He just ended up drowning his sorrows at the bar and I drove him home. As per usual," said Andy.
"Sounds like you're two peas in a pod as far as being grumpy is concerned," commented Sharon.
"I'll have you know I have a cheery disposition," Andy defended himself.
"Maybe, but it's undercut by your sarcastic undertone," Sharon lightly accused.
"You know me a little too well it sounds like," Andy joked self deprecatingly.
"Maybe," replied Sharon as she smiled at him.
Now Andy couldn't tell if Sharon was just being nice or if she was flirting with him too.
This whole navigating a friendship or something more thing was tricky.
There should be some sort of manual for this sort of thing.
Not that he would read it anyways.
The rest of the meal found Sharon and Andy in companionable silence with one another as the kids talked about school and their various activities.
Every once in a while though, each would steal glances at the other when they weren't looking.
Both of them knew this was just trouble waiting to happen.