Page 2 of Family Forever
Chapter Two
At a few minutes to eight, Dylan caught a glimpse of Marissa walking up the driveway through the front room bay window. He should have known she’d end up walking. He wanted to kick himself. Why hadn’t he offered to pick her up? At least it wasn’t that far of a walk, but the spring air was damp and chilly.
He shot a quick glance around the living room. His brothers had done a pretty good job tidying up the room. Stepping into the kitchen, he barked out a couple orders to Braden and Nate, telling them to hurry with the dishes and clean the junk off the countertops.
Nate’s head snapped in his direction. “Why do we have to do this when you paid to have Marissa come over and do it?”
Dylan sighed. “We’ve been through this for the past two hours. She’s coming here to spring clean. She’s not your private maid service. She’s here to polish the furniture, and scrub floors. You guys need to learn to pick up after yourselves. And what happened to Aric? Where’s he, he’s supposed to be helping.”
Braden laughed. “Yeah, right, Aric, helping? He never does anything. He’s probably upstairs hiding out in his room playing video games while we're slaving away down here.”
Dylan looked up as if he could see into heaven.Just one day without any arguing or fighting, that’s all I’m asking. Just one.
He turned his attention to Luke, who sat at the table coloring.
“Hey, buddy, you’re going to have to finish your masterpiece in your bedroom. Marissa will be here any minute and I don’t want you in her way.”
Without a word, Luke gathered up his crayons and stuffed them into the box. Unlike his brothers, he didn’t say much. So little, in fact, it was starting to worry Dylan. Quiet wasn’t normal for a Jacobs boy.
A faint knock sounded on the front door.
Dylan pulled it open. “Hi, Marissa, come on in.”
With the exception of Aric, the rest of his brothers had gathered in the living room. Braden and Nate each bid her ‘Good morning’, but Luke just stared at her with his big brown eyes, one hand gripped his box of crayons and the other held the picture he’d been coloring. The kid was so shy and timid.
Marissa’s soft gaze zoned in on Luke and she stepped toward him. “Can I see your picture?”
He set the box on the floor and used both hands to hold his picture up for her to see. She smiled warmly at him. “That’s a beautiful horse, and just look how well you colored him, stayed in the lines and everything.”
His baby brother beamed at her compliment, but still said not a word. When she bent over to take a closer look, he snatched his box of crayons from the floor, spun on his heel and took off.
Her concerned gaze met Dylan’s. “What…”
“He’s very bashful.”
Marissa nodded and swung her gaze around the room. “Well, it looks pretty clean in here, what exactly do you want me to do?”
“Yeah, it’s clean because the general there has been on us for the past two hours to clean before you got here.” Braden’s sharp look bore into him.
Heat rose in his cheeks. Why he was embarrassed by his teenage brother’s comment, he didn’t know. Dylan ignored him and focused his attention on Marissa. “The furniture hasn’t been polished in a while, the bathrooms could use a good cleaning, and all the floors could use a good vacuuming and scrubbing.” Recognizing the fact the house was pretty big, and he’d just asked her to clean two and one-half bathrooms used by five males, six on occasion when Cole was home from college, he added, “Just get as far as you can with the time I bought and we’ll be good.”
She smiled. “For what you paid, I’ll make sure to get it all done.”
“Great. I have to make a run to the county co-op, and then town. I shouldn’t be gone but a couple of hours. You probably won’t see Aric, it's likely he'll stay in his room to play video games, Luke will be hiding out in his room as well,” he nodded toward Braden and Nate, “and these two can show you where the cleaning supplies are and help you if you need anything.”
The boys opened their mouths but shut them upon receiving his silencing glare. He’d heard enough whining already for one morning.
Dylan climbed into his truck and cranked the engine. The quiet ten-minute drive to the feed mill was just what he needed this morning. He loved his brothers, but they had nearly driven him nuts this week with their bickering among each other, not to mention all the running he had to do to get them where they needed to be. Why was it that all their events were scheduled on the same days and at the same time? Aric and Nate with baseball practice and games, and Braden and Luke with band practice, piano lessons, and Boy Scouts.
He pulled into the co-op parking lot and cut the engine. How was it that a ten-minute drive went so fast, and oddly, he really didn’t remember driving there? Knowing he needed to get it together, he stood by his truck for a minute and sucked in a few slow, cleansing breaths of the damp spring air.
After picking up his order, he shot the breeze with Carl, the assistant manager, and Betty, the checkout clerk.
“That brother of yours is quite the ballplayer, and he’s only a sophomore. I wouldn’t be surprised if he broke some of your school records by the time he’s done. Your brother, Cole, came close, but he didn’t apply himself like you did, and Aric does,” Carl stated matter-of-factly.
Carl was right, Aric was an excellent ballplayer. Sports were the only thing Aric took as seriously as video games.
The man liked to talk with him about high school sports because his kids were athletic as well. Like Dylan and his brothers, their ages spanned from the mid-twenties down to kindergarten, but Carl had a couple girls mixed in.
