The Stable Boy (16 page)

             
“She has?”

             
“Yes, you should see her follow him around when he is outside. It is so cute,” I said, laughing as Josh’s face became a deeper red.

             
“Aw, she likes you, Josh.”

             
“I know, but for the life of me I cannot think of a name for her.”

             
“You will. Just watch her for a few days; it will eventually come to you. It always did when I had the farm.”

             
“I will do that,” he said. “I am hoping it happens soon.”

             
“I am sure it will,” said Matthew. “Your total today is $50.67. Do you want me to take it out of what I owe you for the pears and give you the difference?”

             
“That would be great,” I said.

             
“Okay, then I will give you $99.33.”

             
“Thank you,” I said. “I will see you tomorrow with your pancakes.”

             
“I am salivating thinking about them. I will be dreaming about them.”

             
“Oh jeez, have a wonderful afternoon,” I said as I walked out the door.

             
“You guys do the same,” he said, smiling. We got in the truck and Josh looked at me strange again.

             
“What, now?” I said.

             
“You paid for my stuff?”

             
“So,” I said.

             
“I could have paid for my own things,” he said.

             
“Tell you what; you can pay next time, okay?”

             
“I am just going to have to make it up to you later,” he said with a smirk.

             
“Really, I can only imagine what you are thinking with that look on your face,” I said, smiling.

             
“You will just have to wait and find out,” he said. The sun was starting to set. The orange, pink sky of the horizon was beautiful on our ride home. “Are you really going to be coming into town tomorrow to drop off Mr. Deabring’s pancakes?”

             
“Yes, Alison and I are going shopping for Saturday night anyway, so I can drop them off on our way.”

             
“Oh, well then, a girls day,” he said.

             
“Yes, I am hoping not to be out too late, but we both know Alison well enough to know that she takes forever.”

             
“Yes, she does.”

             
“The fact that we are outfit shopping makes it worse.”

             
“Oh no, that has to take longer.”

             
“With her, yes it does,” I said. “I go into the store find the first thing I like, try it on to make sure it fits and I am done. She has to walk the entire store, just to end up back at the first thing she saw and then try it on along with three of four other things before making a decision. Sometimes, we end up at five different stores before returning to the first one.”

             
“I am so sorry,” he said with a laugh.

             
“It’s okay. She is picky about what she wears when she goes out. She is like me, a jeans and t-shirt girl most of the time. It’s very rare that either of us get dressed up, so picking a nice outfit out is hard work for her. Mainly, because she hates everything she tries on.”

             
“She shouldn’t be like that,” he said.

             
“I know, but she is,” I said. “It’s called getting older. We don’t like how our bodies look, especially in dress clothes, since most are made a little boxy and do not accentuate the good parts we have left, only the bad.”

             
“I think all your parts are good parts,” he said, raising his eyebrows.

             
“You are just so wrong,” I said, shaking my head.

             
“If I am so wrong, I never want to be right,” he said brushing my hair off my shoulder.

             
“What am I going to do with you?” I said, laughing.

             
“I can think of a few things,” he said with a smirk.

             
“In one of those moods today, huh?”

             
“Yes, ma’am,” he said as we pulled into the driveway. The unruly colt came to greet us.

             
“I knew it was too good to be true,” I said.

             
“I’ll get him back in the paddock and see what he broke,” Josh said a bit disappointed.

             
“Okay, I’ll get the groceries and start dinner,” I said.

“Buddy, I thought we talked about this?” I heard him say to the horse. I shook my head. I grabbed the first couple of bags and went into the house. I came back out to see Josh gathering up the rest of the bags.

“Nothing is broken?”

             
“No, I accidently left the gate opened a little and he pushed his way out. It doesn’t look like he went anywhere, though.”

             
“No, he would have been long gone if he did, which is what he would have done before.”

             
“Yes, he would have,” he said, following me back in the house. We unloaded the groceries. I tied my hair up and washed my hands. I felt his lips on the back of my neck. Taking a deep breath, I turned around to face him. Draping my arms around his neck, I kissed him. “I say we skip dinner and go right to dessert. We can always eat later when we come up for air.”

             
“That sounds promising,” I said with my own smirk. The phone began to ring. We looked at each other. We kissed until the answering machine picked it up.

             
“Hey big sis, it is me,” we heard my brother say.

             
“You should get that,” Josh said.

             
“Okay,” I said. I picked up the phone. “Hey little brother, what’s up?”

             
“Well, a few things,” he said.

             
“Everything, okay?”

             
“Yes, I wanted to tell you that I made vice president of my company today.”

             
“That is awesome,” I said as Josh began chopping up some onions. I grabbed the other cutting board and fillet a couple of chicken breasts. “So have you decided on the big day, yet?”

             
“Yes, that was the other thing I wanted to talk to you about. We sent out the invitations. You should get yours in a few days. We are going to have it a couple of days before Christmas, this way you don’t have to make two trips up here.”

             
“That sounds good,” I said, as Josh looked at me with a questioning look. I pointed to my ring finger and tried to tell him the wedding was going to be around Christmas. He shook his head and shrugged his shoulders to indicate he did not understand. I grabbed a piece of paper and pen from the drawer and wrote it down. He smiled and gave a thumbs up. My brother could tell I was distracted by the uh-huh he was getting to everything he said.

             
“What’s going on over there?” he finally asked.

             
“Nothing, I am just cooking dinner.” I said.

             
“Let me talk to him,” he said.

             
“Let you talk to who?”

             
“Josh, that’s who,” he said. I quickly scribbled on the piece of paper that my brother wanted to talk to him. Josh smiled and held out his hand for the phone. ‘Crap’ was all I could think.

             
“Okay, hang on,” I said and handed Josh the phone.

             
“Hello,” Josh said.

             
“Hi Josh, this is Michael. I am Claire’s little brother,” Mike said.

             
“Hi Michael, it is nice to put a voice to the name.”

             
“I feel the same way. Maybe, for my wedding and Christmas we can put a face to it, too.”

             
“That sounds like a great idea,” Josh said. “Congratulations on the engagement. Claire told me about it the other day. I, also, heard that your sister is pregnant.”

             
“Yes, her third little monster. Wait until you meet the other two, they are characters.”

             
“I can’t wait,” he said.

             
“So, I have a brotherly question for you,” said Michael.

             
“Ask away,” Josh said.

             
“How long do you plan on staying around? Are you using my sister? What are your intentions?”

             
“As I have told your sister and Alison, I am here for as long as your sister will have me. I would never use a woman. It is not how I was brought up. My intentions are to love her like no other.”

             
“Alison’s still protecting her after all these years,” Mike laughed.

             
“Very much so,” Josh, laughed.

             
“Have you gotten to see the drunk Alison?”

             
“No, I have not had that experience and I used to work for Bob, before he sent me to your sister.”

             
“It’s a trip. If you stay with my sister, you will get to see it sooner or later. She is hilarious.”

             
“How much funnier can she get? She is comical sober.”

             
“I know, she is a pisser. Thank you for humoring me and answering my questions. I know my sister is most likely still undecided about you, but she will come around. The loss of John really took its toll on her. She is just protecting her heart. Give her some time, she’ll warm up to the idea of giving her heart to another.”

             
“You’re welcome. I am happy to answer anything you may want to ask. It is your duty as a brother to protect your sister.”

             
“Yes, it is, even from afar. I am the easy one. It will be Janie that will really grill you. Pray you do not speak to her until you come up here.”

             
“That bad?” he asked.

             
“Oh God, yes. My poor fiancé had to sit through an hour long question and answer session and I believe so did John.”

             
“Thanks for the warning,” Josh said. I smiled, knowing the conversation was about Janie as I stuffed the chicken with onions, spinach, and mozzarella cheese and rolled it up. Placing it in a baking dish, I drizzled some olive oil over it and put it in the oven.

             
“Let me ask you one more question,” Mike said.

             
“Shoot,” Josh replied.

             
“Does Claire still cook to music and dance around the kitchen?”

             
“Yes, she does,” Josh laughed.

             
“I miss that. When I would come down to visit her and John, he would tell me to sit on the stair above him and we would watch her. It was a great time.”

             
“I witnessed it the second night I was here. I watched from the hallway. She told me that John would watch her from the stairs. I think it is great. She thinks she looks like a fool.”

             
“I know, I would cheer her on and John would laugh. It was great. Has she had a night out since his passing?”

             
“That is something you will have to ask her, but I can tell you that she is going out on Saturday.”

             
“Good, maybe Alison will talk some sense into her in her drunken state. Man, makes me wish I was there, just to see Alison come home half dressed,” Mike said with a laugh. I could hear it through the phone. Josh laughed with him. I shook my head as I made the homemade macaroni and cheese. Using a second baking dish, I poured the macaroni in it added four cheeses, and some milk. I put it in the oven next to the chicken.

             
“You like Alison, don’t you?”

             
“I told her I was going to steal her from Bob, but she just laughed at me,” Mike said. “I can only hope that one day she will see the error of her ways.”

             
“Hey, all you can do is tell her,” Josh said smiling at me. “We only hope they take us seriously.”

             
“Exactly, what is my sister doing? Did she leave the room?”