BOMAW 1-3 (60 page)

Shawn was laughing at his mother, Shanna was grinning. "Mama, isn't she just as pretty as she can be!"

Only the brown of Sylvia's skin saved her from the others seeing how heavily she was blushing, her face was on fire. But there wasn't an ounce of hesitation on Gert's part to hop to the ground and pull Sylvia into her arms for a tight, strong hug."Has my Shawn been treatin' you right? 'Cause if he not, you just call me or Bart! We'll be on his ass like flies on a skunk turd!" she announced. Shawn threw his head back, laughing deep and loud.

"Now, mama, don't start!"

She was overwhelming to say the least. Sylvia had to snap to; she'd been alone for so long, and having to deal with only her mother from time to time, it was startling to be in the midst of such strong personalities. "Thank you for letting me know that. I'm certain that now…I won't be having any problems," Sylvia assured her, smiling and hugging her again in return, next turning her eyes to the famous, Bartholomew Jacob McPherson. Immediately, Sam Elliot rushed to Sylvia's mind. This was a big man, rather tall, with a full head of grey hair. Tall, solid, very masculine—very rugged— a slight barrel chest, and direct eyes. Sylvia gulped as he walked over to her, no smile on his face, just an intense study of her. He stopped right before her, put his big fists to his hips; he was wearing overalls and shirt, then reached up scratching his head, pushing back his duck bill cap.

"Well, now, young lady…what you got to say for yourself? You look to be pretty smart; what you doing with that one of m'boys?"

He asked it so seriously, that Sylvia gulped, not sure how to take him.

"Dad! It's 'cause just as you said, she's a smart woman." Shawn informed him, walking up to her to put his arms around her, squeezing her to him.

"Emmm, and when you two gone say your vows? Shawn tells us you've gone and let him knock you up."

Sylvia gasped and Shawn, used to his family, only stood taller.

"Yes! That's my boy! Yes indeed!" his mother cheered, her husband looked over at her.

"Gert…" he called to her. Her glance to him was filled with cheesing with excitement.

"It's mighty early in the morning."

"The earlier the better, dry bone! Come on, Sylvia! You gonna have to change, sweetheart; you can't be wearing them nice things for what we gone be doing, come on in the house." Gert took her by the wrist and pulled her away from Bart, who was still standing there looking Sylvia over. Sylvia was burning up inside, stunned, and wrestling with the thought of whether he liked her or not.

Shanna followed them while Angela and Sasha ran after the boys on the way to the maple pit. In the house, Sylvia let his mother lead her upstairs to her room. "Sylvia McPherson! I'm calling you that, 'cause it's just a minor formality soon on the horizon…talk to me, girl! How you feeling? Shawn says you got morning sickness."

"Ma'am, with all Shawn's been telling you, I figure there's not much for me to say," she admitted, stepping into Gert's bedroom,with Shanna heading straight for the bed to sit down. Gert went into her long wall closet and opened the last panelled double doors, reached at the end of the clothes hanging there, and pulled out a plaid shirt. "Here, take that nice top off and put this on. What you mean, nothing left to say? We been hearing from my Shawn how he feels about you, I wanna hear how you feel about him, from
you!
"

Sylvia stood gaping a moment, taken off guard. Shanna leaned back on the bed, laughing. "Mama, anybody tell you, you're 'bout as subtle as an avalanche?"

"She get use t'me! She got use to Shawn, didn't she? So, come on, fill me in! My boy sweep you off your feet? 'Cause ain't a girl nor woman anywhere my Shawn go after, he don't get…but he admit, you put him through it—good for you!" she went on, leaving little room for Sylvia to get in a comment as she went to her bed chest and pulled out a pair of jeans. Sylvia glanced at Shanna, who shrugged in sympathy. "Here…put these on! Them white pants you got on be ruined by the end of the day," she instructed. Sylvia was taking off her top and putting on the plaid shirt when she took a deep breath and decided to be just as up front.

"To be honest with you, ma'am—"

"Young lady, call me Gert or mama. Make me sound like an ole lady in a rocker…I ain't rockin' yet!" she corrected Sylvia.

"Oookay, how about Gert for now?" Sylvia asked, buttoning up the shirt.

"That's my name…suits me just fine. As you were saying?" Gert asked, holding the post of her four-post bed, taking a brief rest before they went down to the kitchen.

"Well, I wasn't looking for anyone, I'd planned on being alone—"

"And my Shawn wasn't havin' it!" Gert butted in proudly.

"No, Gert, he wasn't…sooo…what can I say, here I am."

"Here because you madly in love with him, or here because you ain't figured out how to get rid'uv'im yet?"

"Here 'cause I ain't figured out how to get rid'uv'im yet!"

Gert and Shanna hooted in laughter, Gert slapped her thigh and Shanna laid back, rolling hilariously.

"That's it! You're in! Good answer! Keep his cute ass guessing!"

Sylvia laughed along with them, then smiling said, "I love him. He's a handful—"

"Got that from his daddy!" Gert put in, laughing again, stunning Sylvia once more. "Every one of my boys was born, hung like a stallion!" she bragged.

"Mama,
please!
" Shanna laughed.

"Just tellin' the truth! Ain't no sense in lyin'!"

Sylvia was done changing and trying to get used to Gert's quick earthy wit.

"Anyway, we got a big breakfast to cook up, but I need to warn you, 'cause I don't want my rebels scaring you off! There's a lot of men around here, young and old. So the testosterone's flowing…prepare yourself for it."

"Then there's Kathy Ann," Shanna added.

"Yep, there's her. My other daughter…she's up at the maple pit with the others, she'll be strolling in soon. She been stewing most the night, 'cause she know Shawn coming. Don't you take nothin' she say personally, because it ain't gonna be about you. She on the verge of gettin' sent home. I'm trying to be patient, but after a while, they all start to get on my nerves with they nonsense. I'm just warning you."

Sylvia sighed, wondering once again with Shawn, exactly what had she gotten herself into. Shanna stood from the bed. "You'll be alright, Kathy Ann is really harmless. Tough as hell, but for the most part, nobody would jump to defend you quicker."

"That's true…come on, I got to get the batter made, everything else will be done soon, the men already grumbling 'bout how hungry they are."

The Maple pit...

Sylvia was feeling overwhelmed. They'd come down to the kitchen with Gert making the pancake batter. There were bags on the kitchen counter filled with various fruits that Jake had brought from the store, he must have come in, left them on the counter, and joined the men outside. Sylvia pitched in and cut up the fruit in a big bowl while Shanna packed a box with napkins, plates, knives, forks, spoons, and a couple of garbage bags. There was also a bag filled with trays of eggs, that would be cooked at the maple pit. Shawn had come into the kitchen to grab the box Shanna had packed. Stopping, he checked on Sylvia, looked into her eyes as was his developing habit with her, then kissed her forehead and lips, letting her know that he was heading up to the pit with the men. That was fine, she had been okay at that point. He grabbed the box and headed out. Then Jake had appeared. She'd heard his voice that morning at the motel, but she hadn't really seen him yet…not until he came into the kitchen to grab some fruit from the bowl she was cutting it up in.

Her unease began there.

Jake…was splendid perfection wrapped up in the body of a god, certainly an Adonis. He, as in the case of Shawn, looked like his mother, with his father's coloring and little accents of difference. His hair was wavy and long, hanging to his shoulders, a honey blond that fit just right with his vivid blue-gray eyes. His skin was tanned darker than everyone else in the family, and while he was not as muscular as Shawn, he was built with long lean muscles. He had an engaging smile, the infamous grin, and eyes that kept going to Sylvia. His first assault had been to stand and stare at her when he came into the kitchen to get some fruit, and said right off, "Whooooeeee! Look at this one, here!"

"Don't start, Jake! Get what you came for and then get going!" his mother warned, knowing her son better than anyone.

"I know, mama, I just came to grab some fruit! I'm hungry! This breakfast is gettin' later and later every year you do it!" he was saying, never taking his eyes off of Sylvia, who was feeling discomfort at his staring.

"Jake! Mind your manners! Grab a apple and get going! This girl here is forbidden fruit to you."

Jake just laughed, went into the bag next to where Sylvia was standing cutting up the fruit, grabbed an apple and leaned down to grin up into her face. "Well, can't I get a smile, a hello, a how you doin' or something?" he asked, standing too close for her comfort. Sylvia lifted a dangerous brow and cut him a look with clear warning, then flashed her sarcastic smile and said, "Hello, Jake. How you doing? Hungry? Want an apple? There it is. Good
day!
" She turned back to preparing the fruit. Jake stood laughing. "Whooeee! She's a feisty bite! I think she gone be too much for Shawn!" he joked, blatant in his flirting with her.

"I'm gonna tell you something right now! I'm not gonna have no trouble out of you today! You understand me, Jake? Mind your manners, be respectful to your brother's future wife!"

"What did I say, mama? What I do wrong? I'm being as nice as I can be!" he defended himself.

"That's alright, you got what you come for…now goodbye!" She stood facing him.

"What's all the fuss about, I just wanna meet her! She gone be in the family! Might as well get to know her future brother-in-law."

"Jake, please don't start," Shanna asked, backing her mother.

"Fine! Fine…I'm going." But first, he leaned towards Sylvia, too close, and whispered softly in her ear, "Nice to meet you." Because his mother was baring down on him, he laughed and made a quick escape. She shook her head, turning back to mixing the pancake batter. "Now I guess you can see what I mean about too much testosterone around here. He didn't upset you, did he?" Gert asked sincerely.

"No, not at all. No offence to you, but with him, I'm not impressed."

"Good, I'm glad to hear it. I swear, between the two of them, they like to have driven me to a nervous breakdown. Jake has always,
always
tried to outdo Shawn, and for the life of me, I don't know why. Whatever Shawn did…he had to do, too. You think by now he'd have grown out of all that nonsense, but he just as young as ever. Teenager in a thirty-nine year old body."

"I think he brought back beer, too, mama. Kathy Ann been sipping on one most of the morning, started first thing."

"Well, I'm gonna have a word with your daddy. And Sylvia, I don't know you all that well yet, but I pray these fools don't go to scaring you off."

"Don't worry about me, Gert, I'm a big girl. I feel sorry for Doris…I was married to someone like him, I can just imagine what she goes through."

"They ain't married. Jake too selfish to marry anybody. And anybody that would marry him, don't have the sense of a maggot," Shanna commented.

That was the first stress layer for Sylvia, but that she could have dealt with if it were not compounded by other things. They gathered all that was prepared and headed up to the maple pit in Gert's own John Deere golf cart. When they arrived, the area was a hive of activity. Sylvia spotted Shawn straight away, he had his shirt off, splitting wood, he looked up at her and winked, she grinned and winked back. Climbing from the golf cart, walking to the pavilion shelter that was just a bit smaller than the ones she remembered at the Chicago forest preserves. This one was on a smaller scale, but big enough to shelter the whole family, while they boiled down the sap into maple syrup in a large eighty-gallon galvanized oval washtub that was stationed above a welded iron grate rack. Underneath it was a cast iron tray to fill with firewood to bring the washtub filled with the gathered sap to a high boil. Growing up in the city, living in Chicago, this was a new world to her. This world where everything was made by hand, pickling, preserving and boiling down sap for maple syrup, farmland and farm living, was a completely new experience that she was enjoying every step of the way.

"Sylvia! Hey, girl! Finally meeting the family!" Meribel greeted her. She was standing at one of the three grill pits, cooking up sausage links, patties, and bacon. The kids were hauling in buckets of sap sitting in the back of a trailer that Derrick was pulling behind a four-wheeler with a hitch on it. They'd climb out, passed their filled buckets to Marcus, who emptied them into a huge plastic fill tank that had a drain hose connected to it. As soon as the sap in the tub was boiled down to a certain point, Kathy Ann would add more to it from the tank; the process would go on through the day. She'd already extracted enough from the batch to set aside for them to eat that morning.

Standing, chit-chatting with Meribel and Shanna, Sylvia noticed that Kathy Ann didn't make a move to come over and meet her. She wasn't sure what to think about that as she observed her through her peripheral while listening to Meribel. Gert was setting up the griddle on one of the other grill pits to start frying up flapjacks and Shanna was laughing at something Meribel said, heading over to get the tables set up. Sylvia glanced back at Kathy Ann and caught her looking at her as well. Kathy Ann nodded to her and then lifted her Budweiser to her lips and kept on skimming off the surface foam and whatever else came to the top.