She shivered and looked at the blank spaces. She left some of them blank that weren’t critical to her history. It would be complete enough, she reasoned. For references, she just put in her old boss. He knew her story and would keep her background safe.
She couldn’t get involved here. As much as she enjoyed watching the muscular man with grease on his cheek work on her car, it wasn’t safe to get attached. She had to keep herself separate from these people, no matter how kind they were.
She sighed and forced her eyes back to her paper. This was how her life was now.
Chapter 7
Bonnie
“Mia?” Bonnie called out, jogging across the pale green grass. It wasn’t a lawn to Bonnie’s eyes, but it was a patch of grass, although it had a lot of weeds too. It was bare in some spots and lush in others with long stems peeking out wherever the mower had missed them. It looked wild and rustic.
Bonnie’s feet hurt from standing in the kitchen all day. The sun was just coming to touch the mountains and disappear for the evening. It was still early, but she was ready to take a shower and head straight to bed. Washing dishes was hard work.
“Hi, Bonnie,” Mia greeted her, turning from the path. She had her daughter tucked into a baby carrier attached to her chest. The tiny baby girl was snuggled up against her mother’s chest fast asleep. “Dylan says that your car’s fixed for now. It was something to do with the engine, but I don’t remember what he said it was. It’s just a temporary fix though. He says he needs to get a new part to make it actually work right.”
“How much do I owe him?” Bonnie asked. She had no idea what it would cost to fix something like that. Given the way her brother refused to let anyone but his friend work on his cars, she had a feeling it was rather expensive.
“No charge,” Mia replied, waving her hand through the air with a smile. She leaned forward. “I think he rather enjoyed it.”
Bonnie wasn’t sure what to say to that. A free mechanic? She wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth, but she was certainly surprised. Hopefully, it wasn’t too expensive a repair. She didn’t want to take advantage of their kindness.
“So, how’d your first day go?” Mia asked, adjusting the baby on her chest. She smiled as she smoothed the fabric across the baby’s back. The baby just dozed on.
“I was actually hoping to talk to you about something,” Bonnie replied. She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “They said you were the person to ask.”
“Um, sure?” Mia replied with a nervous chuckle. “I try not to manage Chef, though. If you have an issue, you need to bring it up with her.”
“Oh no, Chef is fantastic,” Bonnie quickly replied. “She’s the one who told me to bring my idea to you.”
“Oh, okay.” Mia relaxed. “What do you have in mind?”
Bonnie took a deep breath
. “I noticed we have a lot of picky eaters. I think I made a million grilled cheeses tonight, even though there was spaghetti. A lot of the kids just didn’t seem sure about it.”
“It happens a lot the first couple of days of camp,” Mia assured her. “We try to pick something most kids like, but we can’t please everyone.”
“Well, we have a ton of spaghetti noodles left over, and I was wondering if we could use it to make a spaghetti pool.” Bonnie held her breath. She wasn’t sure if Mia was going to go for her idea. She had the feeling the Mia was open to new things, but Bonnie also didn’t want to overstep her bounds. She had a good thing here, and she didn’t want to mess anything up.
“A what?” Mia asked, looking totally confused.
“A spaghetti pool. We used to do it for our sensory kids that struggled with food,” Bonnie explained. “We’d fill a kiddie-pool with noodles and just let the kids play with it. They don’t have to eat it unless they want to. It’s just for playing with. It really helped take the fear out of food. They could squish it and play with it. Since we have so much left over, I thought we could do it here.”
Mia looked impressed. “A spaghetti pool... I like it,” she said softly. She started to nod and then looked carefully at Bonnie. “Elena said you have a childcare background?”
“A degree in special education,” Bonnie told her.
“I love it. I’ll tell Elena to set it up in the morning.” Mia smiled. “Thanks.”
Mia seemed pleased with the idea, so Bonnie continued. “I have some other ideas if you want them. I primarily worked with autism and sensory processing disorder, so I have a lot of experience with coming up with sensory-friendly play.”
“How many years experience?” Mia asked.
“Just over five years,” Bonnie answered. “Plus college experience.”
Mia nodded, looking thoughtful. “You filled out the background check sheet, right?” she asked. “Elena got you in our system?”
“I filled out as much of it as I could,” Bonnie explained. “Given my situation.”