came in.
“I can’t get her to sit still and read to her unless it’s a book about pigs or mice driving a car.”
Nelson put his hands on his hips. “You know, I said almost the same thing. We need to sit down and talk about having another kid since everyone has taken the ones we have now.”
“Nelson, I thought the same thing not more than thirty minutes ago.”
“What same thing did you think of?” Ashley asked, sitting down on the other side of Nancy, and Mike almost crawled over Nancy to get to his momma.
“Nothing,” Michelle and Nelson said together.
“Daddy,” Olivia cried out, running over and latching on his leg, and Nelson picked her up. “Nana is teaching Pappy how to brush my hair and put my ponytails in,” she said, twirling her ponytail.
“What story did Pappy read you?”
“About David and some lions.” Olivia smiled and saw Michelle. “Mommy!”
Olivia threw out her hand, leaning for Michelle. As Michelle took her, Nelson let her go. “Huh,” Nelson said and walked over to find Nellie out of her catatonic state. He grabbed the napkins and started setting them out. Brittney was in Matt’s lap, telling him about the stories as Nelson set out the napkins.
Hearing Devin’s giggle, he looked up to see Gerald bringing him to the table. Nellie was setting down a plate of bacon and again froze, watching the interaction. “Hope you didn’t mind me getting Olivia,” Bernard said as he sat down. “Matt and Ashley drop off Brittney on the way to the gym, and Nellie said Olivia needed to be over here.”
“I don’t mind; I guess we could drop her off when we go to the gym,” Nelson said, staring at Nellie in her catatonic state.
“Oh, I’ll come and get her. She’s as light as a feather,” Bernard said and looked up to see Nellie gaping at Gerald and Devin. “Nellie, you need me to get the food on the table?”
Shaking her head to break the trance, she said, “No,” as Michelle set down the biscuits.
Michelle looked at Devin having a blast with his new friend. “Ready for food, Devin?”
Gerald and Devin looked up at her in shock. “Already?” Gerald said as Devin wrapped his arms around Gerald’s face.
“Well, you could feed him if want, Gerald,” Michelle said, sitting down.
“Okay, how do you do it?” Gerald asked as Devin clapped his hands, making him laugh.
“My word, Gerald, I’m sitting right beside you; I can help you,” Nellie said, setting down plates of eggs.
Gerald held Devin up. “It’s eatin’ time, buddy!”
Devin howled out laughing as Bernard got up to move Devin’s highchair between Nellie’s spot and Gerald’s. As Bernard pulled levers to move the tray, Gerald watched like a hawk. Then when Bernard set Devin in the chair, Gerald looked under the tray as Bernard made sure Devin’s legs were under it. Even Nelson was impressed with how fast Bernard got Devin in the chair.
“We are talking tonight, so don’t make plans,” Michelle whispered in Nelson’s ear.
“Damn right,” Nelson said and started filling his plate.
When Nellie sat down and showed Gerald how to feed Devin his oatmeal and biscuit, Nelson fought the urge to just walk outside.
After breakfast, Nelson tossed his rifle in his side by side and made sure his gas can was full. As he climbed in, Matt ran over and jumped in beside him. “If you don’t mind, same deal as before. You run that monster you call a chainsaw, and I’ll stack limbs.”
“I got the little chainsaw today, so you can do some limbing if you wanted to,” Nelson said as he started the UTV.
Looking over his shoulder at a chainsaw half the size of the monster in the bed, Matt nodded. “I will try that one.”
“Believe it or not, more accidents happen with the smaller ones.”
“I said ‘try,’ not run it,” Matt clarified as Nelson shot out the gate. “We may be wanted, but I’m happy we aren’t wanted for murder.”
“It’s just a matter of time before they try to find something