Page 9 of Dead Clucked
“Ew!” The kids shouted! Lizbet ran to Jude.
“What’s wrong, little girl?” Jude asked, scooping up his daughter and rubbing her back.
“Chicken thit!” Lizbet wrinkled her nose. “Stinky.”
“You’re cleaning up after her,” Cope said, shaking his head. “I suppose I can put up with anything for one night, but we’re not taking her out of the cage in the house, got it?”
Jude nodded sullenly. Fitz had absolutely no doubt letting the chicken out was exactly what Jude had planned.
“Babe?” Fitz asked, batting his eyelashes at Jace.
“That works for Aurora, it shouldn’t work for you.” Jace rolled his eyes. “Okay, one night, but that’s it!”
Fitz didn’t know why the hell Cisco had chosen him, Ronan, and Jude for poultry glamour shots, but at least his husband wasn’t going to divorce him over his one-night stand with Hennifer Lopez.
7
Ronan
Nowhere Hen
Thankfully Ronan had bought the huge Sunday edition of the Boston Globe the previous weekend, which gave him enough paper to place under Hen Solo’s cage. Everly was in love with the black and white bird, but Ten was keeping his distance. His husband wasn’t as sold on the idea of Hen Solo spending the night in the house as Cope and Jude were with Fricassee.
Ronan walked down the stairs with Ten after putting Ezzie to bed. Their son had put up quite a fight, not wanting to be separated from the chicken. Walking into the kitchen ahead of his husband, Ronan saw Hen Solo out of her cage, sitting in Everly’s lap. He stopped short and turned back to Tennyson.
“Wait,” Ten said. “Why are you blocking me from going into the kitchen? Oh, shit, Hen Solo’s out of the cage.”
“A little bit,” Ronan conceded, wondering how the hell he was going to get the bird back into the cage and how cold it would be to sleep in the Mustang overnight.
“A little bit? Either she’s in or out.” Ten shoved Ronan away from the door and walked into the kitchen.
“Hi, Daddy! Isn’t she beautiful?” Everly was all smiles. Hen Solo offered a few clucks of her own.
“Ten, it’s just one night.” Ronan knelt down on the kitchen floor and started snapping pictures of Everly and her new best friend.
“I understand that, Ronan, but chickens are messy and they smell. I realize you grew up in the city, but I know what it’s like to have backyard chickens.”
“You do?” Everly asked, looking up from the bird. “Did you have your own chickens?”
“I did,” Ten said. “It was part of our middle and high school curriculum to be members of the 4H Club, and Future Farmers of America. We had to hand raise chickens. A lot of my classmates didn’t know what to do with their birds at the end of the semester, so they came to live with us.”
“You got all the castaways? I bet Kaye loved that!” Ronan could only imagine his mother-in-law’s reaction to a yard full of future pot pies.
“Actually, she did love it. All the eggs the hens produced were donated to the church. In addition to the chickens, we also had a vegetable garden, which had been another of my 4H projects. We kept the garden going year after year and most of the fruits and veggies were all donated to the church, who put together a food pantry for those in need.”
“How come you never mentioned this before?” Ronan asked. They’d been together for over seven years. How had this topic never come up in conversation?
“We’d never faced the prospect of becoming foster parents to a hen in need.” Ten snorted and started to laugh.
“What’s gonna happen to Hen Solo and the other girls after the photo shoot?” Everly asked.
Ten’s eyes widened. Ronan didn’t need his husband’s psychic gifts to know he was worried that the chicken would be theirs forever. “She’ll go back to live at the farm with her chicken girl squad.”
“Was she in a cage there?” Everly asked, looking sad.
“No, honey, she lived in the barn with all the other chickens. There’s a large outside coop area for the birds to get exercise and sun, but they all go into the barn at night to keep them safe and to roost and lay eggs.”
“Is Hen Solo gonna lay an egg?” Everly asked, excitedly.
