Page 3 of Family Forever
Betty leaned over the counter, touched his arm, and flashed him the sympathetic look he often received from people since his parents died.
“So dear, how you doing? You doing okay? How about I send Gayle over with a couple of pies for you boys?”
Betty’s pies were delicious. In fact, her cherry pie had won the blue ribbon at the county fair every year since he could remember. The only problem with getting some of the woman’s pies was that her daughter delivered them. And unlike her mother, she was annoying by nature and tended to hang around for longer than she needed to. But in any case, Betty’s blatant effort to hook him and her daughter up was a small price to pay for getting those pies in his hands.
Dylan smiled and nodded. “Ma’am, I’d be a fool to turn down your wonderful, scrumptious pies. They’re the best in the county, probably the state. Have you ever entered them in the state fair?”
Her cheeks turned pink. “Oh, you’re a charmer. I’ll whip up a couple after work and send Gayle over with them.”
After leaving the co-op, he headed to town, needing to stop at the grocery store. Even if he stopped at the store every day he’d probably still run out of milk, cereal, and bread at home. It was amazing how much those boys ate and drank, especially Aric and Braden.
Within two hours, he was home. He pulled a couple grocery bags from the cab of his truck, and when he turned to step away from his vehicle he nearly bumped into Marissa.
“Need some help?” Her voice was so soft he hardly heard her. Her straight blonde hair was now pulled into a ponytail and her shirtsleeves were rolled up past her elbows, displaying her skinny pale arms. How many bags could those spindly arms possibly carry?
He handed her the two bags he was holding, and then reached into the truck to grab a couple more. Before he’d even spun back around he heard her direct someone to help him. Braden nearly flew through the doorway connecting the kitchen to the garage.Hmm. He would have had to ask them more than once for help, yet they jumped at her meek direction. After handing his brother a couple bags, he grabbed the rest from the backseat and headed into the kitchen, just in time to catch his teenage brother eyeing the neighbor girl’s backside as she bent over to pick up the dustpan.That explains it.He has a little crush and is trying to impress her.
Dylan couldn’t really blame the kid, she was a cute girl in a wholesome kind of way, but he doubted a senior in high school would give the time of day to an eighth grader. Selfishly deciding not to clue his brother in on the reality, he’d use this to his advantage and get some work out of him while Marissa was still there.
After he and Braden stowed the groceries, he sent him to strip the beds while he emptied the clothes from the washer into the dryer. His brother returned with a hefty load of sheets in his arms, stuffed one-half of them into the washer, and threw the other half in a clothes basket.
“When the dryer goes off, fold those clothes, then transfer the sheets from the washer to the dryer, and start the next load of sheets,” Dylan specifically instructed, knowing if he didn’t it would all be waiting for him when he returned from the barn. And knowing the boy would want to impress Marissa, the tasks would get completed.
“Okay.”
Marissa was polishing the kitchen cupboards when he walked back through the kitchen, he paused at the stairs and yelled for Aric.
No response.
“Don’t make me have to come up there and get you. You know Will had to leave for a while, so we have to help Thomas and Juan with resectioning the calf pens. And check on Luke on your way down.”
“He was just down here practicing on the piano,” Marissa said.
Dylan turned to face her. “Luke was playing the piano?”
She nodded. “Yeah, practiced for about an hour.”
How very odd for Luke, not the piano part because he loved playing the piano and always practiced without argument, but to come downstairs with an outsider in the house was quite unusual for the shy boy.
Aric bounded into the kitchen. “Oh, hey, Marissa.”
“Hi, Aric.”
Just as Dylan had suspected, the whole time he was gone Aric remained in his room, and was first seeing Marissa now. Well, at least now he’d be torn from his video games for a while.
“I’ll change and be out there in a minute,” Dylan informed his brother.
He shot off to the master bedroom, peeled out of his clothes and slid into his barn clothes, then headed out after Aric.
They returned to the house a couple of hours later to find Braden, Nate, Luke, and Marissa sitting at the kitchen table feasting on sandwiches and chips.
Marissa’s big blue gaze landed on him. “Would you like a sandwich? I can make one for you.”
“I’ll take one,” Aric interjected.
“She’s not here to make your sandwiches. You’re perfectly capable of making your own,” Dylan snapped.
Marissa’s gaze shifted to the tabletop, and why wouldn’t it, the way he just jumped all over his brother over a sandwich. But what she didn’t know was that his brother’s sheer laziness had worn on him over time, and he’d been working to break Aric of it. There was no room for being lazy, especially when living on a farm.
