Page 43 of Shelter for Tanna

“No, but I thought she might want to sleep a little later today, since you’re here and I can help you with breakfast.”

“Oh. Okay.” Max seemed satisfied with that answer, and Braden counted his blessings. Whipped topping always seemed to calm the wild beast in man or boy for reasons he couldn’t understand. It sure worked on him.

They’d all had two fried pies apiece smothered in whipped topping when the bedroom door opened. “Why didn’t you guys wake me?” Tanna asked, her voice raspy with sleep.

“Because I thought it might be nice if you got to sleep in,” Braden answered. As she passed him where he sat in the living room, she leaned down and kissed the top of his head. Braden turned to find both boys staring at him. “What?”

“What, are you guysin loveor something?” Daniel asked, a little wretching sound in his voice as though he might vomit.

“Yeah,in love?” Max asked mockingly.

Braden folded his arms across his chest. “Matter of fact, we are.”

“Oooooo, kissing and hugging and all that icky stuff!” Max yelled and laughed. “That’s disgusting!”

The firefighter laughed back at him. “Oh, yeah? One of these days you won’t think it is!”

“Yes I will. I don’t want some icky girl putting her tongue in my mouth. Yuck!” Max shrieked.

Daniel didn’t say a word, and Braden could only guess what he was thinking. “Bud, you got anything to add?” he asked the older boy.

Daniel shook his head and never turned to look at Braden or Tanna. “Nope. I’m good. You answered my question.” That set Braden laughing again.

The rest of the day couldn’t have gone better if Braden had written a script for it. After they’d had lunch, he and the boys wandered the property as he pointed out different kinds of trees, let them explore the barn, and showed them the tire swing that swayed out over the pond, with a promise that they’d get to go swimming there the following year when it got warm. They were on their way back to the house when Max blurted out, “Are you and Mom getting married?”

“Max!” Daniel yelled. “That’s none of our business!”

“Of course it’s our business! She’s our mom! I want to know!” the younger boy shouted.

“Boys, boys! It’s okay! Look, we just started dating, but I love your mom and she loves me. At some point down the road, we’ll?”

“What road?” Max asked.

“It’s a figure of speech. It means at some time in the future?”

“Why didn’t you just say that?” Max interrupted again.

Note to self: It appears that Max takes everything literally. That would’ve been useful information to have.“Sorry. So at some point in time, we probably will. Get married, I mean. I don’t know. That’s something we’ll have to work out. But when we start making decisions like that, we’ll be including both of you in that because we’ll want to know what you think.”

“Okay. That’s good. It’s my life too,” Max said.

That’s pretty damn perceptive of him, Braden thought. “Yes. It is. And we won’t leave you out of that. Now I’m betting… Hey, look. Jessica’s here. And Devon and Drake.” Braden could see his sister in the distance, standing beside Tanna on the back porch, and the boys in the yard. The kids ran toward Braden, Daniel, and Max. “What are you guys doing here?”

“Mom’s taking us to the sporting goods store and we wanted to know if Daniel and Max could come,” Devon answered, panting as he stopped in front of them.

“Can we go, Braden? Please?” Max whined.

“I’ll watch out for him,” Daniel assured Braden.

“I don’t have a problem with it if your mom doesn’t. Go ask her.” He watched the four kids scamper off toward the house and by the time he got there, they were headed out front to the car. “I guess that was a yes,” he said as he stepped up beside Tanna and waved goodbye to them.

“Jessica knows what Max is like, and she assured me it would be fine. She’s got both our numbers if she needs us. And,” she said, wrapping her arms around Braden’s waist and looking up into his face, “she said they’ll eat out somewhere. So they’re going to be gone for at least three hours.”

Braden rolled his eyes up and to the left as a grin broke out across his face. “Three hours, huh? Now what could we possibly find to do for three hours?”

“Well, gee, I can’t imagine. Can you think of anything?”

Braden belly laughed. “Oh, I bet I can!”

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