by Jillian Neal
“What did you say to him?” she whispered.
“What I should’ve said on that walk by the lake.”
A Family
Will and Brooke arrived a few minutes later as Connor and Patrick followed the scent of frying bacon into the kitchen. Will looked exhausted, and was already covered in dust and dirt, but Emily’s eyes lit excitedly as she took in Brooke. Rainer turned to study her.
Brooke was originally from Brazil. She’d been a transfer student at the Academy during Will’s senior year. She was definitely a knockout. She had a beautiful face, and the body to go with it. Will occasionally commented, rather crudely, to all of his brothers that he’d follow her luscious ass anywhere, as long as he got to hold on to the balancing curves on her top half. Logan had drooled over her anytime she’d been at the Haydenshire farm, the entire time she and Will had dated. This was long before Adeline had been in the picture.
Today, however, Brooke looked a little green, and didn’t seem to feel well at all.
“Will, I told you that you didn’t have to come if she’s sick,” Logan admonished his brother. But Mrs. Haydenshire looked thoroughly delighted, as did Emily. Rainer furrowed his brow. He was completely lost as to what they knew that he didn’t.
“Well,” Will beamed as he took Brooke’s hand and gazed at her adoringly, “she’s been sick for several weeks now, and it’s usually gone by about noon. So, she thought maybe she could keep the twins while we all work, since she can’t be down at the work site.”
Governor Haydenshire instantly appeared to have understood what Will was saying. He rushed to his son, and slapped him on the back. Then he pulled Will in for an all-encompassing hug.
Adeline looked thrilled, as well.
“Have you seen a Medio?” she quizzed quietly.
Brooke nodded. “Jesterday,” she announced with a broad smile on her face.
Garrett chuckled as he grinned at Will.
“No way, man,” he offered his hand. Will nodded, and shook Garrett’s hand.
“Oh,” Mrs. Haydenshire rushed to Brooke. “I’m so excited, and I know just how you feel. Let me see if I have anything you can take,” she fussed, and rushed to the medicine cabinet.
“Ok, would someone tell me what the hell is going on?” Logan demanded, just as confused as Rainer.
“He knocked her up,” Garrett quipped as sudden realization dawned on everyone in the kitchen. Everyone grinned as they watched Will and Brooke gaze at each other lovingly.
“Yeah, I did,” Will gloated, and made everyone laugh.
“Well, then, this is a celebration,” Governor Haydenshire vowed. In a gesture Rainer never expected, his future father-in-law put his arm around him. “This family has a great deal to be thankful for.” Rainer smiled as he reached to take Emily’s hand. She gazed adoringly at her father.
“Daddy.” She threw her arms around her father in a hug that seemed to soothe his soul.
Everyone moved to Brooke and Will to hug them and offer their congratulations. Mrs. Haydenshire began serving up plate after plate of bacon and eggs with biscuits and gravy, before she began fussing over Brooke.
“Now, sweetie, I’m not certain you’re up to the twins when you’re not feeling well. They’re quite taxing.” She gestured to Henry and Keaton, who were devouring biscuits and then intermittently smearing jelly all over their highchair trays with their hands.
Brooke laughed. “Ve vill be fine Mrs. Haydenshire. I need to practice, I guess.”
Everyone seated themselves around the vast dining room table, and listened to Mrs. Haydenshire retell the stories of all of her children’s births.
“I had to push for almost three hours with Garrett; do you remember that?” she quizzed the Governor.
“Oh, I remember. You called me some awful names.”
“And then Emily had colic -- good grief! She would scream if anyone but Stephen held her, and then I used to cry when he had to go to work,” Mrs. Haydenshire lamented.
“That’s because she has always been and will always be my baby girl,” Governor Haydenshire stated, daring either his wife or Rainer to disagree. Rainer smiled, and winked at Emily. “But I suppose I might be willing to share her,” the Governor allowed hesitantly as Rainer bowed his head in appreciation.
Keaton declared that he was finished with his meal by delightedly dumping the remnants of his plate onto the floor.
“Keaton, no, sir!” Mrs. Haydenshire scolded him as the Governor cleaned up the eggs and biscuits.
“Keat-ton no sir,” Keaton mocked back repeatedly, until Mrs. Haydenshire cleaned him up and placed him in the playpen.
After Brooke sprinted from the table to the bathroom, with Will following after her, Mrs. Haydenshire determined that perhaps only one of the twins would stay home.
Will settled Brooke on the sofa, wiped her face with a cold rag, and watched over her obsessively. His parents glowed with pride.
“I just don’ understand how I can be so hungry and so seek?” Brooke fussed in her thick Brazilian accent. Will nodded, and held her hand as he kissed her forehead.
“Maybe I should stay up here with you,” he offered concernedly.
“No,” she tsked. “Vimmen have been doing dis for millions of jears. Your mother has done dis nine times! I vill be fine.”
“Oh, sweetheart, no,” Mrs. Haydenshire handed Brooke some antacid tablets. “You just let him wait on you hand and foot until my precious grandbaby gets here. Just remember that it is his fault that you are sick.” Brooke shook her head and laughed.
In the end, Brooke stayed at the farmhouse with Henry while he napped. Mrs. Haydenshire, Emily, and Adeline took detailed notes from Logan and Rainer, and then carried Keaton to the hardware store in town. The Governor and all of his sons, along with Rainer, headed to the guesthouse.
“You sure you want to live this close to Mom and Dad?” Garrett quizzed Rainer. “Ok, summon!” he called, and Rainer, Logan, and Connor drew from the air around them. “Pull,” Garrett huffed, and with the power they’d drawn, combined with Garrett’s sheer strength, the rotted wood of the back deck collapsed at their feet.
Rainer brushed the dust off of his gloves before answering Garrett.
“Em really loves the idea.”
“How is it that my baby sister ended up with nine brothers who won’t ever tell her no, and a father that sure as hell won’t, and then marrying a guy who gives her everything she wants, as well?”
“She’s worth it,” Rainer insisted.
“So,” Will edged as he came around the back of the house. He hoisted a stack of rotten lumber from the garage onto the large burn pile they’d begun. “Heard you and Dad had a meeting of the minds in the middle of the night,” he chuckled and gave Rainer a goading grin.
Rainer noted that he’d tossed a badly crumpled copy of a dated Playboy in the pile, as well. He furrowed his brow, but decided not to ask.
“Something like that,” Rainer huffed. He didn’t really want all of Emily’s brothers to know what had happened.
“Well, you’re still alive, so I think that says something.”
“I was actually concerned there for a minute.”
Will and Garrett guffawed.
After they’d added the wood from the back porch to the burn pile, they joined everyone else who was pulling trash and debris from the garage.
“Are we keeping the Kelvinator?” Logan chirped.
“Did the snake have any friends?” was Rainer’s response to the ridiculous question as he emerged from inside the house.
“Not that I see,” Logan assured.
“All right,” Governor Haydenshire took command. “Will, Garrett, and Levi, start dismantling the front porch. Everyone else, inside to pull up the flooring then we’ll start on the bathrooms. Were the girls real attached to these counter tops, or are they going, as well?” He pointed to the counters in the kitchen that were a horrible off-white color, with tiny gray egg shapes in varying shades. The sides were cover
ed in peeling aluminum sheeting.
Rainer laughed and shook his head. “Yeah, Em loved those almost as much as the pink sea shells in the bathroom.”
“I figured,” Governor Haydenshire chuckled.
With that, he cupped his hand until a faint orange light appeared. He placed it under one of the counter tops, melted the residual glue, and hoisted it off of the cabinets below.
“Logan!” Levi shouted from the living room. “There’s a squirrel’s nest in the fireplace,” he stated in disgust.
“That’s probably bad, right?” Logan huffed.
“Only if the squirrels are home,” Will offered sarcastically. Most of the flooring in the living room was gone, and everyone walked along the floor joists to see the nest.
“There’s nothing in it,” Governor Haydenshire sounded relieved. “Just get it out. Wear your gloves.”
Logan and Rainer nodded. They were universally voted upon to be the ones to remove the nest, as they were, in fact, the ones who would be living in the house, once it was free of small woodland wildlife.
“Ssshhhiiitttt,” Logan drawled. He turned the one syllable word into about four.
“Logan,” Governor Haydenshire scolded.
“What?” Logan stunned. “That’s what’s in it.”
“Just get it out so we can get as much of those bathrooms removed before we all have to go back to work tomorrow.”
There were several offers to help when everyone got off work over the next few days, but Rainer knew that he and Logan would be doing the majority of the construction work themselves. As he helped Logan lift the moldy nest into a large box to be burned, he found himself anxious to prove himself.
“So, how come being pregnant makes girls sick?” Logan quizzed as he and Rainer pulled more of the nest out of the fireplace. Will chuckled, as did the Governor.
“Well, son, it is kind of a shock to their system, I suppose,” the Governor paused and then added, “One I’m hoping Adeline won’t experience for some time now.”
Logan shuddered slightly. “Uh, no worries there, Pops.”
“It usually lasts the first couple of months. Your mother had it with most of you, but not all. Used to make her feel better to drink seltzer water, and when I rubbed her back.” Rainer filed that informative lesson away for later use.
“So a Medio can’t fix it?” Logan asked.
“No, Logan, the baby is what causes it, so....” He waited for Logan to put everything together.
“So, they have to carry the baby, and get huge, and be sick, and then go through all of that pain just to have kids?”
“And because of that, and so, so many other reasons that you already know, but don’t need to be discussed, we pretty much worship the ground they walk on,” Will explained as everyone in the room laughed and nodded their agreement.
“Yes, and your mother did that ten times. So, perhaps the next time you see her, you could give her a hug. Maybe offer to help her out with something,” Governor Haydenshire quipped.
Thanks Mom
The girls returned with lunch, and dozens upon dozens of catalogs for everything from tile, to sinks, to counter tops.
“We just couldn’t decide,” Emily sighed as Rainer kept her from entering the house.
“The floors are gone, baby,” he explained, “and can I please have those? I’m starving.” He pointed to the stack of cheeseburgers in her hand and the large Dr. Pepper she’d brought for him.
“Oh, sorry.” She handed him the food, which he devoured.
After hearing the Governor’s diatribe on all she’d done to bring them into the world, and then care for them after she gotten them here, all of Mrs. Haydenshire’s sons embraced her in a very sweaty seven-person hug.
She was shocked, but seemed to enjoy the appreciation right up until Logan pledged his undying devotion by leaping on an overturned five-gallon paint bucket, placing one hand on his heart, and holding the other out to the woman who had given birth to him.
“Mom, I really appreciate the fact that, even though you’d already given birth to so many complete losers before me, that you decided to let Dad knock you up for the seventh time, in hopes that you would get a son as awesome as I am.”
Emily rolled her eyes as all of Logan’s brothers scowled, and Rainer and Adeline guffawed. Mrs. Haydenshire shook her head as she ordered Logan to eat, in an effort to shut him up.
They watched Keaton closely, all concerned over the snake that Logan had stumbled upon the night before.
“It’s after noon, Mom,” Will glanced at his watch. “Brooke’s probably feeling better by now. She really wanted to babysit the twins. I could take him back up to the house, and Rainer and Logan can show you what we’ve done.”
“If you’re sure she won’t mind? And tell her I’ll be up in just a little while.”
Will scooped Keaton up and hoisted him onto his shoulders.
“It’s fine, Mom; take a look around.” Will buckled Keaton back into his car seat and then drove Mrs. Haydenshire’s Suburban to the farmhouse.
Rainer, Connor, and Levi quickly placed several large sheets of plywood from the Haydenshires’ barn over the floor joists, so people could walk through the house. In a show of macho gallantry, Rainer hoisted Emily into his arms as she laughed and then wrinkled her nose.
“Eww, you stink but wow!” She took in all that had been dismantled while they were gone. “Is that horrible pink tub and sink out?”
Governor Haydenshire shook his head mockingly. “Rainer was saying how much you liked that. I thought we were leaving it in,” he feigned confusion. Emily rolled her eyes at her Father.
“I want to help,” Adeline looked extremely pleased by her idea.
“Well,” Logan stalled and glanced around. “We’re going to pull everything in both bathrooms, and then that’s probably about as much as we can do today. Hopefully, Rainer and I can take the old truck to the lumber yard tomorrow and get the deck and porch rebuilt.”
The Truth Might Set You Free
Adeline insisted on helping pull the fixtures in the bathroom and, to everyone’s amazement, she did a tremendous job of it. Logan enjoyed showing off all of his knowledge and teaching her. She seemed thoroughly content just being in his presence.
Will returned about an hour later. He threw open the door to the Suburban while he engaged the parking brake, and turned off the motor, all in one smooth motion.
“Thank goodness! I need to go home and get dinner started. I have a feeling I’ll have lots of hungry mouths to feed by sundown.” Mrs. Haydenshire looked annoyed that Will had been gone so long. But panic colored her features when Vindico exited the passenger seat of the Suburban.
Rainer and Logan dropped the sink they were carrying into the dumpster that had finally arrived.
“Hey, man!” Garrett called as he leapt out of the house. He landed where the porch had been standing moments before. “Grab a sledge hammer. Have a go at the bathrooms. It’s very therapeutic.”
Vindico chuckled but shook his head. “Unfortunately, I need to talk to your parents and Adeline.” Whatever he’d come to say it didn’t appear to be good news.
“I found him up at the house with Brooke. She wasn’t sure how to tell him how to get down here. She was about to call when I pulled up,” Will explained. He too looked extremely concerned.
“Why do you need to talk to Adeline?” Logan queried. Vindico sighed, and glanced at the Governor.
“Why don’t you go get Adeline, Logan, and I’ll explain everything.”
Will had already disappeared to find Adeline. She and Emily had been in the master bathroom, discussing what they should purchase to put in there.
When she made her way to back to the yard, Adeline looked terrified. The air around them hung thick with tension, and Governor Haydenshire looked sickened. She clung to Logan.
“Daniel, why don’t we go back up to the house to discuss this,” he suggested, though it was certainly more of an order. Rainer and Emily sh
ared a quizzical glance. They weren’t certain if they should follow.
“Come with us,” Vindico instructed Rainer. “She’s probably going to need you.” After grabbing a nearby rag to wipe the sweat off of his brow, Rainer guided Emily to the Suburban.
Vindico was tight-lipped all the way back to the farmhouse. Tears leaked down Adeline’s face as Logan tried to soothe her, without much success.
“Is something wrong with my mom?” Adeline pled. She seemed desperate for Vindico to talk.
“Physically or mentally?” Vindico huffed indignantly. After a few minutes, Governor Haydenshire pulled the Suburban up to the side door of the house, and everyone exited.
Mrs. Haydenshire began pouring large glasses of lemonade as Vindico gestured everyone to the kitchen table. After thanking Mrs. Haydenshire for the glass, he seated himself as everyone studied him.
Governor Haydenshire took the seat beside Adeline and patted her hand. “Adeline, we will get you through this, dear. I don’t want you to be frightened.”
“What is this about?” Logan demanded. Vindico took a small sip of lemonade as Brooke took the twins upstairs to play.
“Miss Parker, first let me say how sorry I am to be telling you this.” He sighed. “As far as the Realm is concerned, you’re fine. Your mother was to blame for everything that happened involving her arrest, but as you know, we have to play by the Gifted and Non-Gifted laws, and because your mother is not Gifted, she’s causing a bit of trouble with the Non-Gifted court system.”
Adeline nodded; Rainer willed Vindico to talk faster.
“You’re not arresting her, Dan?” Governor Haydenshire vaulted suddenly.
“No,” Vindico shook his head. “Not yet anyway.”
“What!” Logan demanded. “Just tell me what the hell is going on.”
“Logan,” the Governor warned, but Vindico didn’t look like he minded Logan’s language or his demand.
“Your mother’s defense is that the men she was with were not paying her. That it was consensual sex and that all of the drugs in the apartment were yours,” Vindico finally concluded morosely.