Page 11 of Johnathan

“What the hell is going on today?”

“What?”

“Katy told me a few minutes ago that she knows who would make a great mommy.”

“Let me guess. Ms. Abby?”

“Bingo.”

“She’s probably seen the two of you shooting love eyes at each other during pickup.”

“Or, Abby is her teacher and she sees how kind and incredible she is.”

“Kind and incredible, hmm?”

“Fuck off.”

Jackson laughed. “Don’t let my wife hear you saying thosenaughtywords around our innocent son. She’s got a swear jar and about a hundred dollars from me in it already.”

“Wait… is the money for Jack or for Grace?”

“You know, I’m not sure.”

“Hey! I’m going to do Katy’s hair and then I think the kids should be ready to go,” Grace yelled from the kitchen.

“Perfect. Thanks, Grace.” He turned towards his brother. “At least my sister-in-law isn’t being a royal pain in my ass over my dating life. I’m about to make Jordan my favorite brother.”

“Don’t hate me for telling you the truth. You’ve been stuck on Abby since all that shit went down with Emma and Marco. It’s time, man. Make a move, or let it go. Justdosomething.”

“There’s my favorite boy!” Abby looked over to Daisy’s booth at the Bell Ridge farmer’s market as Emma’s exclamation filled the air. Her eyes scanned the crowd. Grace was there, handing her son over to Emma. Where Grace was she knew she’d find… Jackson. And right beside Jackson was the reason she found herself ducking down to organize the coolers holding the cuts of meat she was trying to help Sam sell that morning.

“Abby? What the heck are you doing?” Sam asked as she frantically started stacking the last few packages of ground beef they had.

“I’m fixing the coolers. All the cuts are mixed up because you just grab things willy-nilly for customers.”

“Okay… you think you can take over here for me? I’m not expecting many more sales, but Derrick sent me a text saying he needs me to call, so something must be going on back at the ranch.”

“Yeah, go ahead. I got this.”

She turned back to the task at hand, and after only a few minutes she’d been able to put two empty coolers into the back of the ranch truck. All that was left was to put a few of the frozen porterhouse cuts back into the cooler that was out for customers.

“Ms. Abby! Whatcha doin’?”

She knew exactly who that little voice belonged to. Looking up, she saw John smiling down at her, Katy perched on his shoulders.

“Hi, Katy. Are you having a good weekend?”

“Yes! My daddy make pantakes and do my hair in piggy tails. They’re my favewit!”

“I can see that. You look so beautiful, and I bet the pancakes were extra yummy.”

“Daddy made too many. I said we should share them wif you!”

“Katy. Remember what we talked about?” John reached up and pulled Katy off his shoulders.

“You and Ms. Abby are fwends. Fwends share food, Daddy!”

“Come on, Katy.” Grace smiled. “Let’s see if we can’t find you and Jack Jack a cupcake to share from Aunt Emma.”

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