Page 27 of Ava
“To do chores,” Dolly spoke as she gathered the dishes to set on the table. “As long as I’ve been the housekeeper here, going on seventeen years, Wyatt mucks out the stables and feeds the horses before his own breakfast, then afterward, he goes out and feeds the rest of the animals. In the spring and summer, it’s not bad, and sometimes late into the fall. It’s the winter months that are bad, but the good thing about that is that the cows are closer to home, not out in the summer pasture.”
“How many head of cattle does he have?”
When Dolly turned to Morgan with a raised brow, she frowned, then shrugged. “Last I heard, five thousand head of cattle, and almost five hundred horses. He’s yet to cull the herds this year. I think that’s on his agenda for these next few weeks.”
They nodded and Ava slowed up on making the pancakes. “Better keep going,” Dolly laughed. “Pancakes are the boys’ favorite breakfast food. And I’m talking about the four Wyatt’s. Remember, you have two teenage boys to cook for, and you saw how much French toast they ate yesterday.” Ava quickly started making more, and grinned when she slapped another package of sausages beside Justin.
“Will we have some of that wonderful syrup we had yesterday?”
“Yes, and it’s homemade by one of the ranch hands. He makes it every year. Has his own sugar shack over on his own property. As long as Wyatt and Dillon allow him to tap the trees here on the Flying E, he provides them with syrup.”
“That’s a good setup.”
“It is.” They remained silent as they continued with their own individual duties, and when she’d mixed up her third batch of pancake batter, the others had returned. Wyatt was the first one to enter, and he wore a huge grin as he sat down at the head of the table. Dolly took the first platter out of the warming oven and placed it before him. Ava watched in wide-eyed shock as he piled six of them on his plate, doused them in syrup, and grabbed four meat patties. The rest of the platter was divided between DJ and Lucas. Luckily she’d had three platters made up while they’d been out working.
When everyone had taken their first round, Dolly took over and encouraged Ava to sit and eat. At her frown, she leaned in, and whispered, “I cook for Wilson and me before we come over every morning. I’m good, now go.” She gave her a little shove, and Ava didn’t waste any time to sit down.
She took the platters offered her and dug in. After her first bite, she rolled her eyes to the back of her head and moaned. “I forgot how good these are.”
“Where did you get the recipe?” Dolly asked as she continued cooking the rest of the batter, and Ava saw she had a small cake on a plate beside her, nibbling at it.
“It was my mother’s recipe. She made me memorize it before she passed away. She told me it was my great-grandmother’s recipe.
“They’re delicious,” Wyatt said as he reached for several more. Ava could only shake her head, but she didn’t say anything, because she knew, or had a good guess of how hard Wyatt worked around his ranch. He’d need to fuel up for all the work he had to do that day.
As they continued to eat, Ava frowned, then turned to Morgan. “Morgan, I don’t mean to jump the gun, or step on any toes, but can I ask you something?”
“Sure, what’s up?”
“How are you going to furnish the house?”
Everyone watched as Morgan’s fork paused halfway to her mouth, and she frowned, then looked at Wyatt.
He grinned and held up a single hand. “Don’t look at me.”
She set her fork down, and sighed. “I have no freaking clue.”
“Do you need money?”
“No, that’s not the problem, Uncle Chip gave me a credit card for everything in the house. He gave it to me over four months ago, and I’ve never touched it. The problem is that I don’t know when I’ll have the time.”
“If you give me directions to a city, no offense, but I don’t think Erwinsville has what we’re looking for, but give me the directions to the city, and I can take the card and start ordering things. If you trust me. I don’t plan on going out on missions until at least Monday.”
“I’ll take you.” Justin jumped at the chance to volunteer. “The guys will be painting today, after they finish sanding the mud they put on yesterday. I’ve made up several flyers with my business on them, and I’d like to put some up.”
“Would you have a problem going with Justin?” Morgan asked. “I have a list of what I want, and we can go over it after breakfast.” She looked at her brother with a stern expression. “And I trust you’ll go over and tell Chuck what’s going on?”
“Yes, don’t worry about that.”
“Thank god,” Josh said, and grinned at his sister.
She giggled, and asked, tongue in cheek. “He still the same when it comes to painting?”
“Yes.”
“What?” Justin frowned at the two.
“You’re all thumbs. Whenever you paint, either someone wears it, or you forget what you’re doing and start swinging the brush or roller around, and it’s usually full of paint. If you have a chance to disappear during this stage of the game, I’m all for it.” Their six siblings agreed, causing Justin to shake his head.
