Kylen's Secret
Page 11
She wheeled around to stare at me. “It’s work from home, isn’t it? Isn’t that the whole reason you applied for it?”
“Yeah, but….” I faltered. “I just don’t know. What if I can’t do it?”
She flapped her hand at me. “Honey, you’re smart enough, and now that you have your degree, you’ll do great. You’ll work it around the boys. I know you will. Besides, if you need extra time, you just send them on down to our place. Isaac and I will keep them out of your hair.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of,” I muttered.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
I fidgeted from one foot to the other. “Luke came into our bedroom at seven o’clock this morning and asked for a bowl of ice cream. Don’t you think you guys are spoiling them a little too much?”
She blinked at me. Then she burst into peals of laughter. “Is that what you’re worried about? Oh, honey! If you’re worried about a little bowl of ice cream, allow me to put your mind at ease. We can ration them on ice cream if that’s what it takes to make this job a success.”
She chuckled to herself unpacking basket. I didn’t dare look inside it for fear of seeing piles of candy destined to rot my children’s teeth. I picked up two eggs and headed for the stove when Kylen strolled in wearing nothing but a white towel around his waist. Beads of water clung to his bare back and chest, and his wet hair dangled in his face.
He walked right up to his mother and kissed her on the cheek. “Hey, Ma. How’s everyone back home?”
She whipped around to stare at him. “Oh, honey, you surprised me! Everyone’s fine back home. How are you?”
“Jesus, Kylen!” I gasped. “Put some pants on, for God’s sake!”
He blinked at me in perfect innocence. “What?”
Caroline laughed. “Go on and get dressed. I want to talk to you, son.”
He moseyed out of the kitchen. Caroline laughed. “Don’t worry, sweetie. I’ve seen it all before.”
I blushed over the frying pan and cracked the eggs into it. “I don’t want to know.”
“When you lived around men as long as I have, nothing surprises you anymore,” she went on. “You’ll see. Your boys won’t be young forever.”
“At least you had daughters, too,” I countered. “What if I only have sons? That would be my worst nightmare.”
She stopped what she was doing to cast a blissful smile on me. “I know exactly what you mean. A mother can be proud of her sons, but it’s her daughters that give her old age meaning. A mother can share things with her daughters that she wouldn’t dream of sharing with her sons.”
I humphed. “You’re hardly old.”
She patted my arm. “Thank you for saying so, darling.”
At that moment, a tiny red dragon hurtled through the open door. Even before it landed, a black dragon whistled past my head and crashed into his fellow. They got tangled in each other and slammed down on the tile floor.
They whipped their sinuous bodies right and left and snapped their fangs at each other. The black one lashed his tail and dealt the red one a crushing blow across the neck. The red dragon contorted and clamped his jaws around the black one’s ankle.
The black dragon rocketed off the floor shrieking and spitting. He broke his opponent’s grip and jumped away to land a few feet beyond the table. He let loose a pint-sized stream of fire at his enemy.
Without a moment’s hesitation, the red creature fired back. The two spurts of flame collided in the center. For a second, they wavered there with neither gaining an advantage.
I leaped forward with a startled cry. I snatched the black dragon off the ground. “Outside, both of you! Take it outside.”
I swiveled around and hurled him through the open door. He took wing without landing, and I lost sight of him around the door jamb. Caroline grabbed the red dragon and tossed him out, too.
The next minute, they flew past the window and vanished shrieking overhead. I stood in the doorway and watched them out of sight. When Caroline appeared at my side, I couldn’t look at her. “I’m really sorry about their behavior. They just keep fighting more and more every day. I don’t know what to do.”
She gave me a sad little smile. “You have nothing to be sorry about. They all do that. It’s perfectly normal.”
I stole a peek at her face. “Did your boys fight a lot?”
“All the time.” She laughed in spite of herself. “You should have seen them. I could have torn them limb from limb a thousand times, they drove me so crazy.”
“What did you do? How did you handle it?”
“I threw them out a lot like you just did.” She turned her misty eyes toward the Ridge. “I didn’t care what they did when they went out on their own. When they got older, Isaac took over. He didn’t stand any nonsense from them. Eventually, they got old enough to realize they were never going to be a part of this Clan if they didn’t work out a way to stop fighting each other. Heaven knows we’ve got enough enemies in these mountains.”
I followed her gaze to the black peaks beyond the wilderness. No one knew better than I did the enemies threatening our Clan. In front of my eyes, the two young dragons came sweeping across the sky. They flew wingtip to wingtip in perfect unison. They soared together in formation, up and over Smokey Mountain and beyond.
We might have enemies bent on destroying us. We might not even know who or where they all were right now, but another generation would rise to deal with them. Those two young dragons out there would grow into solid, sturdy men just like their father and their uncles and their many cousins.
They would defend the Ridge from all comers. No one would ever take this land from the Kelly’s. That thought gave me comfort. They would create a world where families could grow and live in peace, and I was a part of that.
I was one of the protected, and I was one of the protectors. I was the beneficiary and the trustee, all in one. I was part of this Clan, heart and soul. It flowed through me and out of me into the next generation to continue its work. That alone made all the trouble worthwhile.
More from Jadyn
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