“To see Trevor!” he shouted back, not bothering to turn around.
“I’ll go.” I smiled and jogged after him after planting a kiss on her lips.
“Bud!” I shouted just as he got to the door. “You shouldn’t run off like that.”
“Oops, sorry.” He looked down at his feet, kicking the toe of his shoes in the grass.
“Hey.” I crouched down in front of him and put my thumb and finger on his chin, bringing his face back up to me. “You don’t need to be sorry, bud. It just that mama didn’t know where you were going. You have to ask her first, remember?”
“Yeah.” He nodded. His eyes moved to the door making it clear that he couldn’t wait to get in there.
“Come on.” I chuckled and stood back up, pushing through the door.
“Dad?”
“In here, son,” his gruff voice replied. I followed Eli towards dad’s voice. I should have known he’d be in here filing down some wood.
The last time we came, he’d promised Eli that he’d make him a chair, and from the looks of things, he’d nearly finished it.
“Ah! Eli!” Dad put down his tools and went straight to Eli, picking him up and spinning him around. “How’s it going? You being good?”
“Yeah.” Eli chuckled.
“Ah! That’s no good! We need to get some mischief in you.” He sat him on his work bench and I moved closer, making sure there was nothing that could hurt him. “Did you climb any trees?” he continued on with the questioning. I may as well have not been there.
But I didn’t mind, in fact, I loved that he got on with Eli s
o well.
Dad didn’t have any grandkids yet so Eli was kind of his first. Wait…did that mean I was Eli’s step-dad?
I didn’t know how Kay would feel about that, but I’d got to admit, I liked it.
“So…where is she?” Dad asked, finally looking at me.
“She’s in the big house with ma.” I pulled Eli down off the bench and held my hand out to him. His tiny hand was completely lost inside mine.
“Well? What are we waiting for? Let’s go!” He threw his work apron down on the bench and walked straight through the door.
Elena helped me bring the pies inside and told me what Ty had already said earlier on in the day; that I should have got them from the store but I couldn’t do that, I had to impress her in some way. I knew they were only pies, but they were really good pies.
I’d perfected my mom’s recipes over the years, every time we would have a baking or cooking lesson, I would write every little thing down in my special notebook. I’d used the recipes so many times that I now knew them all off the top of my head. Telling Monty to sit, I followed Elena into the kitchen, the smell of the food pulling me in.
“Need any help?” I asked.
“Ah, hon, that’s kind but you don’t have to.” She waved me away, trying to manage several pots on the stove at once while simultaneously trying to chop vegetables.
“Here,” I said, stepping forward. “Let me do that.” Taking the knife out of her hand, I started to chop them.
We worked well together and in the matter of ten minutes, everything was under control.
The sound of boots coming through the door had my heart beating out of my chest. This was it. This was where his dad would hate me and then Ty wouldn’t want-
“Well! Kay?” Trevor’s deep voice boomed through the house as he got closer to the kitchen. “Jesus H. Christ! What is that thing?” I heard from the doorway.
Monty’s bark sounded through to the kitchen and I stumbled forward, knowing that no one would be able to get him to stop but me.
“Monty!” I shouted, coming into the living room. “Heel.”