Page 9 of Family Forever
“Okay. Braden, please move to the other side of the table and let Marissa sit in your spot.”
Braden moved without argument.Still working to impress the housekeeper.Dylan decided he would work that angle for as long as he possibly could.
After placing all the serving bowls on the table, Marissa took a seat next to Luke.
The boys sat silently for a moment, staring at the scarce amount of food on the table.
Marissa swung her puzzled gaze at each of them. “Is something wrong? It’s venison, over rice?”
Dylan could see Aric working to hold back his laughter. He shot him a hard-eyed scowl, though nearly laughing himself. He hadn’t thought to inform the poor girl as to how much boys ate, especially Aric and Braden at their ages. The amount of food she cooked wouldn’t likely feed more than Aric, Braden, and Nate. Luke, well he hardly ate anything, so he could be thrown in the mix as well.
Panic flashed in her eyes, he knew he better say something soon.
“Everything is fine. It looks great, right, boys?”
They nodded, and Aric reached for the bowl of rice and lobbed nearly one-third of it onto his plate. “Every man for himself.”
He knew his brother wouldn’t be able to just shut up and share proportionately.
“I’m sorry, it’s not enough? I guess I didn’t know how much to make,” she stammered as her teary gaze met his.
Was she really going to cry over this? “It’s okay. How could you have known? I should have given you some idea as to how much food to make.”
“There’s pie, too.”
“You made pie? What kind?” Nate, the sweet tooth, asked.
She glanced at Nate. “No, but there must be some left from what the lady brought over yesterday.”
Nate looked at her like she was an alien.
She swung her gaze back to him, and it nearly broke his heart to tell her that her quick backup plan was no good, the pies were gone. Dylan shook his head.
“You guys ate two full pies last night?” The pitch of her voice rose to a squeak.
Her shoulders slumped, and her eyes watered a bit more.
“Marissa, it’s fine. This is not a crisis,” Dylan said as he stood, grabbed the rice bowl from Aric and split the remainder among his brothers. “Start with that, and by the time you’re done, I’ll have more made.” It would only take a few minutes to heat more canned venison and make more minute rice.
She sprang to her feet. “I’ll go get another jar from downstairs.” She paused and looked back at him. “One more jar will do it, right?”
He couldn’t help but smile at her. “Yeah, but make sure it’s a quart jar.”
