"Don't forget to water the plants on the second floor."

"I won't."

"And you know the feed shipment's coming tomorrow, right?"

"I know, Mom, I know."

"Okay I wrote a list of everything and put it on the fridge."

"I know, Mom, you already showed me! We'll be fine."

"Okay okay we're going." Ellie's mom kissed her on the cheek. "Goodbye, sweetheart! Goodbye, kids! Be good and listen to Elinor!"

Virginia Phillips rushed out the door to meet her husband in the car.

"We'll see you tomorrow afternoon!" She called back, giving one last wave. Ellie's parents were visiting old friends in the city and would stay the night. A farming family didn't take many vacations, so they weren't used to leaving the kids home alone, even with their grown daughter.

Ellie put her hands on her hips and turned to face her four young charges. "So, shall we go wild and trash the place?" She held her hands up in anticipation of some high fives. Instead, she was met with Ben sighing in exasperation and Lottie shaking her head.

"We've got chores to do, Ellie," Liam said, heading outside.

After a pause Ellie high-fived herself. "You're no fun!" she called after them, then joined them to milk some cows.

The day passed calmly; they did their chores and played outside like most days. But late that afternoon, Ellie received a frantic call from Lisa.

"Please, you have to come, it's an emergency!"

"Lisa, I can't, you know I'm watching the kids tonight."

"Well, have someone else watch them!"

"Who? All my friends are in your wedding party."

"Peter isn't! And he's right next door!"

"Lisa, I can't ask him to do that."

"Uh, yes you can! You went bowling together; you're practically engaged," Lisa insisted.

"That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard, but because I love you... fine, I'll ask him."

"Great! See you soon!" And before Ellie could get a word out, Lisa had hung up.

Ellie prepped herself mentally to call Peter. It had been a while since they went bowling. It wasn't like she didn't want to see him, but there just wasn't ever a reason to. They were neighbors, technically, but far enough away that there was no way they would bump into each other. And with his ranch up and running there was no real reason for her to go over there. Finally, she dialed, and he picked up right away.

"Hey, Peter."

"Ellie! What's up?"

"Are you busy? I actually had a favor to ask you, but you can say no."

"I'm free, what is it?"

"Well, Lisa is having kind of a wedding emergency, but my parents are out of town and I'm watching the kids. Do you think you could come over and watch them? It should just be like an hour or two."

"Uhh, I don't know Ellie, I've never supervised children before." Peter clearly had not expected this.

"You'll be fine! They pretty much entertain themselves, and they can even go to the bathroom on their own." Ellie laughed. Peter heard a muffled "Hey!" from one of the kids through the phone.

"If you really think it's alright, I'll head over."

____

"Now be nice to Peter, he's in charge. Ben, you're the first officer," Ellie said. Ben saluted.

"What am I! What am I!" Charlotte jumped up and down.

"Lottie, you're the Treasurer. Liam, you're the Assistant Regional Manager, and Emerson, you're the Assistant to the Regional Manager. I'll let you work that out on your own."

Ellie handed Peter a sheet of paper. "Here's all the phone numbers you could ever possibly need, but I'll be right in town so just call me if anything happens. I'll make dinner when I get back."

Peter gave a pleading look as if to say, "Please don't leave me with these tiny human things."

Ellie clapped him on the shoulder and said, "Godspeed, captain."

____

Lisa's wedding emergency turned out to be mostly nothing, as these things often do. But a good maid of honor gives emotional and practical support when duty demands it, so Ellie couldn't get back for nearly two hours. And when she did, there was truly a sight to behold. Poor Peter's hair was sticking straight up in a little ponytail tuft, and he had glitter all over his face. Liam was in his dinosaur halloween costume from last year and Lottie was in her favorite princess dress. One was chasing the other, but it wasn't clear which one. Emerson was coloring, but was wearing a collection of random items from the costume bin: wings and a pirate hat and what looked like a clown nose.

"Well, what do we have here?" Ellie scooped up Charlotte as she came in the door. "You alright there, Peter?"

"You have to say Princess Peter!" Charlotte shouted happily.

"Princess? I thought he was the Captain?" Ellie asked.

"I got a promotion while you were gone." Peter laughed. "Charlotte wasn't convinced that being 'in charge' outranked treasurer, so I had to be crowned princess."

Ellie reached over with her free hand and plucked the hair tie from Peter's hair.

"How did it go? No broken bones, and the house hasn't burnt down." She reached up again and wiped some of the glitter off his face with her thumb. "You got a little something there," she laughed.

"No, it was good. We had fun."

"Thanks for doing this. Really."

Peter made to leave.

"Stay for dinner. Please."

"Well—"

Ellie set Charlotte down, and she ran off yelling, "Princess Peter is staying for dinner!!"

"Well I guess I can't let down my subjects," Peter said with a smile.

Dinner was a simple one, but Ellie had all the kids get involved. She set water boiling for the pasta and supervised Ben and Emerson cut up the fresh broccoli. She tasked Peter, Liam and Lottie with the cheese grating. Ellie watched Peter pretend to fight over whose turn it was whenever they got bored, so then Liam and Lottie would shout, "I want a turn, I want a turn!" He wasn't used to taking care of kids, and was a bit awkward, but he might be a natural at it. And all four kids thought he was the coolest person they knew.

Next they made a sauce for the macaroni with a béchamel and all that grated cheese. A little paprika and cayenne pepper for good measure. They added the cooked macaroni noodles and Peter held Emerson up so he could stir it. They poured it all in a baking dish and topped it with some extra cheese and bread crumbs before putting it in the oven. The broccoli was tossed with salt, pepper, oil, garlic, and a little parmesan cheese and spread out on a baking sheet to get crispy in the oven. The kids set the table and then they just had to wait for the food to be ready. Ben went back to his video games and the others went back to their coloring.

Once they were all distracted, Ellie held up a finger to her mouth and whispered "I'll be right back," to Peter. She snuck out to the car and came back with a paper bag. In the kitchen, careful not to attract the little ones' attention, she showed Peter the contents. A dozen fresh chocolate chip cookies from the bakery in town. Very quietly, she laid the cookies out on the counter, bottom side up. Sneakily opening the freezer, she pulled out some vanilla ice cream. She started scooping it out onto the cookies. Peter caught on and pressed them into sandwiches. As quick as they could, they wrapped each ice cream sandwich tightly in plastic wrap and stuck them in the freezer.

They sat down at the table. "I want to say grace!" Liam called. Ellie was seated next to Peter this time, and she hesitated to take his hand. Peter didn't; he reached over and grabbed her hand with his. It was rough from work, but gentle. Then they settled in for a very different sort of prayer than the last time Peter had been there.

"Dear Lord. Thank you for this mac and cheese and for this broccoli. Mostly thank you for the mac and cheese, but I hear broccoli is supposed to be really good for you or something. If that's the case, I appreciate the broccoli also. I get it, it's like a tough love situation."

Ellie coughed lightly.

"Anyway, thanks for having Peter come over, but next time, please tell him to play cars instead of princesses. Also, thank you for Rick Hendrick, the owner of Hendrick Motorsports, the greatest NASCAR team in the history of stock car racing. Amen."

They laughed and said, "Amen."

They ate pretty quickly, since dinner was late, and everyone was thrilled with their surprise chip-wiches for dessert. Ellie noticed the clock. "Look at the time! We're already past bedtime!"

"Awwwww," a chorus of complaints sprung up.

"You all know that doesn't work on me, now get upstairs," Ellie said. They trudged off.

"Thanks again for coming," she said to Peter. "Sorry to push you out, but I need to wrangle those critters."

"I'll take care of this first, then show myself out." He gestured at the pile of dishes they'd made in the kitchen.

"Oh, gosh, no, I can't let you do that."

"It's nothing, really."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, now go manage your zoo."

She went up the stairs hesitantly. Sharing farm work was one thing, but everything she'd asked of him today was already well beyond what she expected of a neighbor.

"Just be sure to lock the door after I'm gone." Peter called up to her.

Ellie went up and put the kids to bed. They could do most of it themselves, but she was determined that they all feel like they have a surplus of adult attention. Both for her little cousins who had lost their parents, and her brothers who suddenly had two more kids in the house demanding attention. She got them changed and their teeth brushed, and read them a story. She was trying to take her time, but part of her wanted to rush downstairs and see Peter before he left. But she didn't, and knew he'd be gone by the time she went to lock the door and turn out the lights.

To Ellie's surprise, there he was in the kitchen over the sink.

"I thought you'd be gone," she said.

He smiled. "I guess I'm a slow dish-washer. I'm just finishing up." He rinsed his last dish and set it in the drying rack. Had he waited to finish until I came down? Ellie couldn't be sure, but the thought made her nervous.

"Thanks for dinner, it was delicious," Peter said as he moved to the door. He lingered. "I never got to ask how the 'wedding emergency' went. Was it resolved?"

"Oh, it was a disaster," Ellie joked. "So the bridesmaid dresses had come in, but they were a slightly different shade of yellow than expected. Apparently they didn't match the flowers and the decorations on the cake anymore. So we all had to decide if we wanted new dresses, which would be way too expensive, or change the order for the flowers, which would be impossible since they wouldn't have enough of the new color available. Eventually we were able to ask the florist to mix just some flowers of the new color in with the arrangements so it matched well enough."

"Something tells me that was your idea."

Ellie held out her hands palms up and smiled broadly. "What can I say, I'm just full of good ideas."

Their conversation paused, but Peter didn't leave, and Ellie didn't want him to. It might be late for the little kids, but they were adults. Why couldn't they hang out? She could feel the cogs in her brain spinning to come up with some reason for him to stay but came up blank.

"Well, thanks again for giving up your evening," she said.

"Trust me, this was way more interesting. I would probably have just read a book, or watched Netflix."

"Same, that's probably what I'll be doing." A lightbulb went off in Ellie's mind. "Hey, you could watch with me if you wanted." She gestured vaguely at the TV in the living room. She assumed he was going to say no. Which was fine, but it couldn't hurt to try.

"Actually, would you mind? I haven't bought a TV for my place, and I'm getting tired of watching shows on my laptop."

They sat on the couch somewhat awkwardly and Ellie started up Netflix.

"So, uh, what should we watch?"

"Oh, anything's fine with me, what do you usually watch?"

Ellie laughed a little and pointed at her list. "Well right now I'm actually on like a foreign show kick, I watched a few K-dramas and like a Thai show and a Chinese show."

"That's... really interesting."

"Ha, you sound surprised."

"No... well, maybe a little. I've just never seen anything like that. Do you watch any Japanese shows? I have seen a couple anime."

Ellie shook her head. "Not since Pokemon unfortunately. Though I have noticed there's a lot more on here than before. What would you watch, if you were by yourself? I know you like Lord of the Rings, but that's all I know."

"I guess these days I mostly watch like 2000's crime shows. Is that weird? I'm a couple seasons into Criminal Minds now, and they just put NCIS on Netflix, so I just started that too."

"That surprises me for some reason." Ellie laughed.

"Why, what did you expect?"

"I don't know, maybe Heartland?" She smiled happily while teasing him. "Or like, Misty of Chincoteague?"

Peter acted offended, "First of all, Misty of Chincoteague is a book, and it's a classic. Secondly, my life doesn't completely revolve around horses."

Ellie shrugged dramatically. "You seem to really like horses, that's all I'm saying. You know I would bet anything that if you ever get a white horse you're gonna name it Shadowfax."

Peter threw back his head and laughed, but Ellie shushed him and pointed upstairs.

He stifled his laughter and whispered, "How did you know?"

Ellie hit his shoulder playfully. "C'mon let's just pick something."

They would never pick something. They spent about half an hour scrolling through Netflix and talking about different shows, and somehow spent the next half hour just chatting.

"It's actually getting late," Peter said, though he wished he hadn't.

"Yeah, I think we failed. We'll have better luck next time." Ellie regretted saying "next time." She tried to shift topics.

"This glitter is never going to come off." She turned so that she was kneeling on the couch facing Peter. Without thinking, she reached out with both hands to wipe more off of him. Ellie was focused on the glitter, but suddenly noticed how green Peter's eyes were up close. Up close? She realized just how close together they were, and her heart skipped. Ellie froze for a second before managing to sit back awkwardly. She turned away without making eye contact again. Peter hadn't moved, but when she got up, he did the same, said goodbye, and left.