Page 34 of Peach Tree Family

"She does like to climb. You're gonna have a hard time keeping her off the counters," Seth told him.

Theo groaned then he got down to helping Seth cook dinner. With the kitchen being small and Theo being so close, his help made Seth unsure and clumsy. In the end the food turned out all right, but when they sat down, Ace looked at the stew in his bowl and frowned.

"Seth, you put the potatoes in there with the vegetables. You should have made them into fries or mashed them up."

"Sorry, maybe next time," Seth said, but Theo wasn't having any of this complaining from his little brother.

"When you learn how to cook, you can make potatoes however you like. I wanted stew so that's what we are having."

Ace pouted at him. "I got Butter so it's OK." He ate the stew just fine though then ran off to play with the cat again.

After he was gone, Theo leaned back. "This was our first home cooked meal here," he realized.

"A special occasion. We can crack open those chocolate chip cookies to celebrate," Seth said as he stacked the bowls and headed to the kitchen. "I'll sandwich them with peanut butter. I used to love that when I was a kid."

Seth got the cookies out and a plate, but as he was opening the peanut butter, Theo leaned on the counter next to him and said, "That sounds like something our mom would do. But she would do jam too. The sweeter the better." Theo's smile was sad, and Seth wasn't sure what he should do. Noticing that he was just staring at the cookies now, Theo nudged him with his elbow. "Go ahead. Ace will love them."

And he sure did. "You made a new food," he said to Seth before he ran off to see what his new cat was doing.

It turned out she had discovered the new mattresses and curled up on one of them. "She knows that one is mine," Ace said when Theo went in to put sheets on the two mattresses.

Seth took care of the dishes. He was almost done when Theo came in. "The sheets reminded me that we don't have a washer and dryer and now I'm reminded we don't have a dishwasher either."

"There's a laundromat in Peach Tree, and we didn't have a dishwasher at my grandpas other than me," Seth told him. "I think I saw power and water hookups by the kitchen door. There probably used to be a washer and dryer outside under that owning toward the back."

"Outside? Ouch."

"That's where we had them too," Seth told him with a shrug.

"You adjust to everything much better than I do," Theo said.

"You have more responsibilities. You have to think about Ace," Seth told him.

"And now a cat too," Theo said.

"You don't regret getting her, do you?"

"No. She makes this feel more like a home to Ace than any piece of furniture ever could."

"What are you doing with Ace tomorrow?" Seth asked since he knew Theo would be at work.

"He's going over to the Hayes's. I'm going to owe them so much."

"They'll need babysitting too," Seth pointed out. "And there's two boys and two dogs. It will even out in no time."

"I guess. I'll take you to the café, then drop Ace off then go to the inn since I start later. I won't be off in time to pick you up though," Theo told him.

"They might give me an extra shift," Seth said.

"Text me."

"I will," Seth said and smiled to himself. Most people texted all the time, but he didn't. Until now he had no phone or anyone to text. But to Theo, texting him wasn't going to mean anything. Seth looked forward to it anyway.

Like last night, they watched stuff on the iPad, but this time Ace was paying more attention to the cat than to the shows. But when it was close to his bedtime, he didn't forget to ask for his video game playing time.

"I thought the cat might have made you forget," Seth told him.

"No, Butter reminded me. She was doing this." Ace tapped at a spot on the floor. "And that reminded me."

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