Page 41 of Daniel
She was an incredible mother, which is why Parker and Megan had turned out to be such mellow children, thank goodness.
“Is there a turkey?” Parker asked.
“No, honey. This isn’t Christmas dinner.” She looked over at me. “What are we calling this, exactly?”
Chuckling as I parked behind Andrew’s SUV, I said, “The week-before-Christmas King family casual lunch?”
“Lunch could have turkey,” Parker insisted.
“It will probably be a buffet,” Prairie countered.
“What’s a buff fay?” Megan asked. I looked in the rearview mirror to see strawberry blonde pigtails waving back and forth.
“That’s when there is a whole bunch of food, and you can have whatever you like best. Don’t worry, we’ll help you pick.”
We wrangled the kids out of their car seats, and as soon as we got inside, they ran down to the basement to join their cousins.
Aria had just turned four, and I could hear her voice all the way from downstairs. Her one-year-old brother Mack was on the couch, asleep in Sierra’s arms.
Robin trudged up the stairs, then gave us each a warm hug. “I should apologize in advance. My kids already had some cookies and are getting a little rambunctious.” Isabell was three now, and Crockett just turned two, so Robin had been rivalling Andrew for coffee dependence.
We greeted everyone with a round of hugs, then Prairie sat beside Sierra. “I haven’t seen him in two weeks. He’s grown again!”
Sierra laughed quietly, but Mack didn’t wake up, just shifting in her arms. “This one could sleep through anything, I swear.”
Andrew and Jacob served everyone coffee or wine as they preferred, as the conversation turned to the factories.
“I have to say, Jacob,” Dad said, “your paint swatch toys are a hit with every hardware store we’ve spoken to. Rachel says we’re getting random orders from all over the country simply from people seeing the website address printed on the bottom of them.”
Jacob reached over to squeeze Sierra’s knee, as Prairie leaned back into me, cuddling under my arm. Mom smiled every single time any of us showed affection, which meant she was basically grinning the entire time the bunch of us visited.
“I’ve never understood your coffee addiction,” Dad said to Andrew, “But your accessories line has done really well. Double what we had anticipated.”
“See?” Robin said, tickling Andrew’s ribs. “I knew it.”
“It didn’t hurt that a certain writer did an article about it,” Mom said with a laugh. Robin stared innocently around the room, then over to the Christmas tree, pretending she hadn’t heard the comment.
We all chuckled, then Dad cleared his throat. “So I know you’re all waiting to hear about the Prairie Line.”
My gorgeous wife rolled her eyes at me, as she did quite often when people mentioned that name.
“Stop it,” I whispered loudly. “How could I have called it anything else?”
Everyone agreed that the streamlined look and natural textures went perfectly with the concept of prairie and farm life. It just so happened that the look became incredibly trendy with influencers this year. Because the pieces had a smaller footprint, they were perfect for city condos.
“So?” Mom asked, waving her hand for Dad to hurry up. “How did we do?”
Dad looked at me with an odd twinkle in his eyes. “Remember how we had a reasonable sales goal, and a great sales goal?”
“Yeah,” I muttered anxiously. “Which one did we hit?”
Dad smiled widely. “Four times the great sales goal. Sorry, son. You’re going to be chained to that factory for the next two months.”
“Wow,” Prairie exclaimed, throwing her arms around my neck. “I’m so proud of you!”
“We all are,” Mom said. “But don’t worry, you’ll still be able to take a break for Prairie’s birthday in April.”
She turned and looked at me expectantly. “What’s happening in April?”
