Page 31 of Family Forever
Chapter Nine
“They’re here!” Nate yelled from the living room.
Luke rose to his feet, leaving his toy tractor behind, and joined Nate in front of the living room window. Dylan followed and watched out the window also, as Cole drove up the driveway. As soon as the car disappeared around the side of the house, the boys ran into the kitchen and impatiently waited for Cole and Marissa. Dylan yelled up the stairs to let Aric and Braden know Cole and Marissa were home for Thanksgiving break.
Dylan had wanted to pick up Marissa from school himself but Cole had already made arrangements to pick her up on his way home from Madison. Marissa had only come home once since school started and it happened to be a weekend Will was off so Dylan spent most of his time in the barn and doing fieldwork. He hardly had a chance to talk with her. But this was his lucky weekend, not only a four-day weekend, but the farm was fully staffed. It was going to be a complete family-time weekend. His Aunt Mitzi, Uncle Bob and their two teenaged daughters, Jessica and Bianca, were also spending a couple days with them as well, traveling up from Kentucky. The house was going to be bursting at the seams with family.Perfect.
Braden nearly flew down the steps. No sign of Aric. He was probably playing video games as usual.
Marissa and Cole entered the house through the doorway separating the kitchen from the garage. Dylan hardly had a chance to pull the duffle bag from her hand before she crouched down, wrapped her arms around Luke, and showered his cheeks with kisses. Nate stepped in and hugged her while Braden hung back eyeing Marissa like she was a piece of chocolate cake, his favorite. Dylan thought maybe he would cave and hug his crush but he didn’t. Perhaps at the age of fourteen, he was too old for that now.
Cole stepped forward. “Hello, I’m home too.”
Dylan nearly chuckled, poor Cole, he’d become second choice on the ‘coming home’ scale.
Braden nodded at Cole. “Hi.”
Luke and Nate welcomed Cole with nearly the amount of enthusiasm they’d shown toward Marissa.
Dylan caught Marissa’s magnetizing gaze. He wanted to hug her, feel her soft body pressed against his just like the day he dropped her off at school when she hugged him so tightly he could feel the pounding of her heart as it beat against his chest. He wanted to kiss her, both then and now but kept his distance, hoping to tamp down the rush of excitement coursing through his veins at the mere sight of her. Over the past couple of months, he didn’t grow to want her any less than when she’d left for school, in fact, just the opposite. Thoughts of her beautiful blue-eyed gaze, warm smile, and milky white skin invaded his brain, morning, noon, and night. The crazy hectic life he was living right now as he tried to keep up with all his brothers’ school activities, the housework, and the farm was exactly the distraction he needed for the time being. Without it, he’d go mad thinking about her.
“Welcome home, Marissa. I’ll put your bag in your room. I can’t wait to catch up with you but right now I need to work on some Thanksgiving dinner preparations.”
“I’ll help, just get me up to speed with where you are at.”
He nodded. “I’ll be right back.”
“Hey!” Cole yelled after him.
Dylan spun back around. “What?”
Cole pulled his duffle bag from his shoulder and held it out toward him. “Aren’t you going to put mine in my room?”
Though Cole was teasing, Dylan would be getting the last laugh, Cole had now been displaced from his second room. Aric had moved into Cole’s room quite some time ago already, and the last time Cole came home for a visit, he bunked in Luke’s bed in Luke and Nate’s room. With their aunt’s family coming to visit, Cole was about to be displaced again.
Dylan grinned at his brother. “Well, here’s the deal. Aunt Mitzi and Uncle Bob are taking my room, Luke and I are sleeping on the sofa sleeper in the living room, Jessica and Bianca are taking Luke and Nate’s room, and you and Nate have your choice of putting your blowup mattress in Braden or Aric’s room, I don’t really care which but you might have better luck and less whining involved if you bunk with Braden.” Dylan chuckled. “Maybe you can even pay one of them for use of their bed. That’s up to you guys to figure out.”
Cole zoned in on Braden, his conniving grin widening. “Braden, my favorite brother…”
Braden was becoming more like Aric every day, smart with the tongue. “I need to see some green, and not singles.”
Cole lurched toward Braden, grabbing him, and playfully wrestled with him in the center of the kitchen for a moment before taking it into the living room where they continued until Braden cried ‘uncle’ and lost his bed to Cole.
Cole stood and straightened his clothes. “There, now that’s settled. When’s Aunt Mitzi getting here?”
“I suspect any time now. I plan to serve dinner at six,” Dylan replied.
Dylan’s own words repeated in his head.I plan to serve dinner at six.If someone had told him several years ago that he’d be the party responsible for preparing holiday dinners he would have thought they were out of their minds. But now here he stood, about to baste a turkey. His life certainly wasn’t turning out as imagined.
He was excited to see his father’s sister and her family. It had been a while. They hadn’t visited since last Thanksgiving.
Though a bit bizarre, his Aunt Mitzi was a kindhearted woman. When his parents passed, his aunt had offered to help with the boys, but his grandfather stepped in and insisted he do it. He didn’t want to disrupt Mitzi’s young family or relocate the boys to her home in Kentucky. And then, when he had the stroke, Mitzi offered to help again, but by this time Dylan had graduated from college, was home, and assumed the responsibility.
Dylan was happy to be seeing her. Even with the distance between them, she had been a great help to him through the years. He’d called her countless times, especially in the beginning, asking for advice. She was so much like his dad in many ways, yet different in others. The biggest difference was the farm. Though they were raised the same way, his dad loved the farm, and his aunt couldn’t wait to leave and explore the world. Like Cole, Mitzi took to the arts. Her strongest suit was watercolor paintings that were now distributed worldwide.
By the time Dylan returned to the kitchen, Marissa had already begun peeling the mound of potatoes he had set on the countertop. Luke stood by her side, chatting with her while she worked. With work to be done, all the others had made themselves scarce from the kitchen. Making use of his idle hands, Dylan pulled open the oven door and basted the turkey, then he pulled the largest bowl he owned from the cupboard and began mixing the stuffing.
Marissa glanced over her shoulder and smiled that beautiful smile he thought of so many times in the past three months, and longed to see in person. “The turkey smells good.”
