by Amelia Adams
Claire smiled in return, then pulled out some more butter. She’d need to make more cookies if she was going to feed thirty boys—and seven brothers.
***
Nick slouched off the bus and pushed a note into Daniel’s hand. Daniel opened it, read it, and frowned.
“I know, I know. I have an attitude problem,” Nick said, leaning on the fence that surrounded their cabin. “It’s just all this Christmas crap. They’re putting up dumb paper chains up and down the halls at school, but what’s crazy is we’re not allowed to say Christmas. It’s all ‘holiday’ this and ‘holiday’ that. It’s so hypocritical. Why decorate at all? I mean, they’re putting Christmas right in our faces, but then telling us not to talk about it? Come on.”
Daniel glanced up to see Adam strolling toward them. His thumbs were hooked through his belt loops and he looked like he was meandering, but Adam always had a purpose to his meanders.
“I’m not so sure it’s just about paper chains, Nick,” Daniel said. “What else is going on?”
Nick shrugged. “Nothing. It’s just a stupid time of year. I mean, you give someone a present just because? Like, they haven’t earned it. Aren’t you guys always telling us that we should work for what we get? You don’t want us to feel entitled?”
Adam leaned against the post. “Well, you make a good point. Let me ask you a question. How much money do you earn around here?”
“About a hundred and forty bucks a week,” Nick replied.
“Sounds right. Now, what do you do with that money? Do we charge you rent or make you pay for food?”
Nick shook his head. “Naw. Mostly save it.”
“So we’re just giving you food and a place to stay, right? And we’re paying you for your chores? And now we’re going to give you Christmas presents? What’s up with that?”
Daniel smiled. He loved watching his brother get to the heart of the matter.
“It’s because we love you, Nick,” Adam went on softly. “We make sure people have what they need, and then we give them presents because we love them. That’s what Christmas is about—it reminds us that there’s love in the world. And if we didn’t get it from a mom or a dad, we can still be loved by other people. There’s enough love in the world for everyone.”
Nick wiped his cheeks with both hands. “I just . . . I never got presents before. I mean, I did sometimes, but not just . . . I mean, they were always given resentfully. Or he’d take them back and use the money for beer. Said I didn’t deserve them.”
Adam’s eyes flickered over to Daniel, rimmed with red.
“Nick, we do Christmas at the ranch right,” Daniel said, recognizing that his brother needed a minute to regain his composure. It was the hardest job on the ranch, being an empath, and Adam dealt with more than any of them could imagine. “Everyone here—every boy, every worker, and even every brother gets presents. And food. And new warm clothes—heck, we even get new socks and underwear. Everyone, Nick. Not one person is left out, and no one will take your gifts away from you.”
Nick sniffled and wiped his cheeks again. “Not even my underwear?” he asked, pushing past the tears with a smile.
“Not even the underwear. Although you might want to keep a close eye on your socks. I hear they’re pretty fancy this year, and some of the other boys might get jealous.” Daniel rested a hand on the boy’s shoulder, bracing himself for the pain he now fully expected. “You’re one of us now, and McClains celebrate Christmas.”
“Okay.” Nick nodded. “I can do that.”
“Good thing, because it’s too late to back out now.” Daniel nodded toward the house. “Go get changed, and then we’re heading over to the bunkhouse kitchen. The new cook has snacks for us before we head over to the barn.”
Nick disappeared inside the house, where Ephraim was already monitoring the after-school chaos.
“I don’t know how you do it,” Daniel said, lowering his voice to talk to Adam. “How do you listen to their stories day after day and stay sane?”
Adam turned and looked out over the ranch. “I don’t,” he said at last. “If it weren’t for Mom and Dad and Tiffani—and you guys, of course—I couldn’t do it. But it’s all about that love we were just talking about. These boys have been thrown away by society. We can’t let them get thrown away anymore.”
Daniel nodded and reached out to clap his brother’s shoulder. “You have no idea how much I respect you, brother.”
Adam gave a noise that was sort of a guffaw and mostly a snort. “We all do what we have to do. And right now, I think that means going over to the bunkhouse and getting some cookies.”
“Agreed.” They waited for six hungry boys to stream out of the cabin, then they walked over together, their stomachs and their noses leading the way.
Chapter Eight
If Claire had thought Daniel was interesting before, that was nothing compared to seeing him interact with the boys. He seemed to be everywhere at once, aware of everything that was going on. He brought his six up to the front and introduced them to her, and they each gave her a polite nod.
“Claire, I’d like you to meet Jose, Hunter, Nick, Christopher, Tyler, and Michael. They’re the six best boys on the ranch, and they will be until we rotate again and get our next six.” The boys rolled their eyes, and Daniel went on. “And that big lug over there is my brother Ephraim.”
“Hey, Cookie Monster,” Ephraim said, nodding at Claire.
She tilted her head to one side and said, “Excuse me?”
“Ephraim likes giving people nicknames,” Daniel explained.
“Well, that one’s not gonna work for me. Sorry,” she said. “Do you see anything cuddly and blue about me?”
Ephraim regarded her thoughtfully. “Okay, I’ll work on it. We’ll come to a compromise. Something we can both live with, but something with a dash of flair. Yes?”
“Whatever. But just not a blue puppet.”
“Gotcha.”
Ephraim and the boys each took two cookies and a glass of milk, then moved off to sit down at a table in the corner. Daniel also picked up a glass of milk, but didn’t move away to join his group.
“It’s really awesome of you to do this for the boys,” he said.
“Well, I figured it’s my first day and all—I wanted to meet them.” She looked around the room. “They’re all so polite. Even Z’s using a napkin.”
Daniel laughed. “My mother insists on manners. You could be brought in here with two legs missing and only one tooth and in need of emergency surgery, and she’d insist on a please and thank you before you got wheeled off for the operating room.”
“I like her style.” Claire noticed that one boy—she thought his name was Hunter—had just slammed his cup of milk down on the table and was running for the small restroom off the dining room. “Do you think he’s all right?”
Daniel turned around. “Who?”
“One of the boys from your table. I think his name is Hunter.”
“He’s the one who was sick last night.” Daniel shook his head. “I’ll give him a minute and then I’ll go check on him. I hope he’s not getting the flu—so close to Christmas and all.”
“Yeah, that really would be bad.” Claire turned to refill a cup for a boy who had finished all his milk.
After a few minutes, Daniel walked over and tapped on the bathroom door, then spoke through it. Claire noticed him nod several times, and then he went over and spoke to Ephraim. A little while later, the door opened and Hunter came out, white as anything, and the brothers led their group outside. She lost sight of them through the window and hoped everything would be all right. Poor kid.
***
“Here you go,” Daniel said, pressing some Imodium into Hunter’s hand. “This should stop it pretty quickly.”
“I thought I was done being sick,” Hunter groaned after he swallowed the pills.
“Sometimes things take longer to work themselves out. Now listen—I’ve called my mom, and she’s going to c
ome sit with you while the rest of us are taking care of the chores. You just rest today.”
“I don’t want a babysitter,” Hunter protested. “I outgrew that a long time ago.”
“I know you don’t want one, dude, but I’d feel better if I knew she was here. Humor me, okay?”
“Fine. But only because it’s Lillian. She’s cool.”
“She is pretty cool, isn’t she?”
A few minutes later, Lillian descended on them with a bag full of card games, saltine crackers, a new DVD, mint candies, and a new video game she’d been “dying to try,” she said over Daniel’s half-hearted objections. “You have to let me mother these boys. It’s my main job here.”
“Just don’t go overboard,” Daniel said, giving in. “Screen time is earned around here.”
“Oh, I won’t go overboard.” She gave him a wide-eyed look. “We’ll only play until he helps me beat level three. Maybe level four. I Googled, and it says those levels are the hardest for beginners like me.”
“Beginner, my eye,” Daniel retorted. “I bet you’ve been playing that for weeks already.”
“Why, Daniel Alfred McClain! Are you calling your mother a liar?” She put her hands on her hips. Hunter looked back and forth between them, a smile on his face.
“No, but I’m hinting that you might have been practicing.”
“I think that’s only wise. I never know when I might get called on to sit with a sick boy.” She took a chair next to Hunter’s bed. “Now, let’s ignore the grumpy old doctor and have some fun. What do you want to do first?”
Daniel shook his head and left them to it. There really was no arguing with his mother.
***
“There, little guy,” Ephraim said, leading the colt back into his stall and closing the door. “Okay, who remembers what we did to fix his leg?”
Christopher piped up. “Well, first we had to figure out what was wrong.”
“Exactly,” Ephraim said. “When I found him this afternoon, he was acting strange, but it wasn’t totally obvious what was going on. So what did we do?”
“Examined him,” Jose said. “And found that scratch.”
“And then we sterilized it and bandaged it,” Michael added.
“That’s right. We’ll check on it tomorrow and make sure it’s not getting infected. Now, what’s the next thing we need to do?”
“Uh . . . give him a lollipop for being brave?” Nick asked, and everyone laughed.
“Not a bad idea.” Ephraim reached into his pocket, pulled out a sugar cube, and fed it to the colt. “But let’s think about this for a minute. We’ve had an injury on our ranch. What should we be worried about?”
“Someone else getting hurt!” Christopher called out.
“Yes!” Ephraim pointed at Christopher. “Good job.”
Daniel leaned up against the wall of the barn, just watching. Ephraim was totally in his element out here with the animals, and he loved teaching about them. Daniel had no problem at all letting his brother take the lead.
“So we need to think about where the horse has been today,” Michael said. “And we should go look there for things that could have scraped him.”
“Yes. So grab some supplies and let’s go. What sorts of things do you think we’ll need?” Ephraim asked.
“If it was a tree branch, we might need a saw,” Michael suggested.
“If it was broken barbed wire, we might want pliers,” Christopher added.
“Perfect. Let’s go!”
Daniel shot his mother a quick text as he walked out of the barn with the boys. She replied that Hunter was sleeping, but that he seemed to be doing all right. He didn’t want anything to eat, but she didn’t think that was a problem.
Daniel didn’t either.
As the boys investigated the paddock where the colt had been kept, they found an old nail sticking out of one of the logs in the fence, and it looked like the most reasonable culprit. “Oh, no!” Daniel said, pretending to be dismayed. “We didn’t bring a hammer! How can we fix this?”
The boys threw around some ideas, some more ridiculous than the last, and Tyler finally said, “Why don’t we pull it out with the pliers? The fence will stay up without it.”
Daniel nodded. “Sounds like a good plan to me.”
The boys took turns grasping the nail with the pliers and turning it this way and that. It finally came loose, and Michael held it up with a crow of victory.
“Now, there’s just one more problem, guys,” Ephraim said. “Notice that’s a rusty nail. What does that mean for our horse?”
“Tetanus!” a couple of them called out.
“That’s right. Horses run a particularly high risk of developing tetanus because of things just like this—they’re around rusty farm implements all the time and other dangerous things. Tetanus is part of a horse’s regular round of vaccinations, but we’re going to give him a booster just to be on the safe side. Now that the nail is taken care of, let’s head back and do that, and then we can break for the day.”
As the group tromped back to the barn, Daniel glanced over at the bunkhouse and saw Claire through the window. It was starting to get dark and so she’d turned on the light, and it made her auburn hair glow like a flame in the fireplace. She looked like she was chopping something. Her face was a mask of concentration, but then she must have thought of something because it broke out into a smile. That was one amazing smile.
“Hey,” Ephraim said, nudging Daniel with his shoulder. “Stop drooling.”
“I’m not drooling,” Daniel protested. “I was just admiring the view.”
“Sure. I believe that.” Ephraim shook his head. “I have to say, this entire family has gone nuts. It’s like you’ve never seen girls before.”
“We’ve seen them. We just haven’t been paying that much attention to them.”
“Well, at least when it’s my turn, I’ll have some experience to fall back on. I’ve been on a date at some point over the last three months. When was your last date?”
“Haven’t really dated. You know that.”
“When was that casual evening get-together to which you escorted a female person?”
Daniel tried to think. “Um, it’s been a while.”
“A while? You took her to see Frozen. That came out four years ago. Four years!”
Daniel stepped around a deep indentation in the ground. “Four years? Are you sure?”
“I’m positive! Dude, this is sad. This is so, so sad.”
Daniel had to laugh at the expression on his brother’s face. “Okay, I admit it—this is sad. But she’s here now, right? I can make up for lost time or whatever?”
“Oh, I’m sure you can. Just don’t try to wow her with your 2013 moves, okay?”
“I don’t think I have any moves at all.”
“And that might be the core of the entire problem. Come on—time to wash up and make dinner.”
As Daniel washed his hands and face, he stared at himself in the mirror. What did he have to offer a girl? And what moves was he supposed to have? If Claire was the one destined for him, wouldn’t it just fall into place, or was he supposed to do something about it? That was a pretty frightening thought. He was probably supposed to do something and wouldn’t have the faintest idea what it was, thereby ruining generations upon generations of McClain family tradition and bringing the whole seventh son thing to a grinding halt. Single-handedly. Because he was a dork.
Chapter Nine
“He helped me get to level four, and then he said he wanted a nap,” Lillian reported. “He’s been asleep ever since.”
“Best thing for him,” Daniel replied.
“I think so too. Of course, that’s a mom talking, not a doctor.” She stood up and grabbed her bag. “Are you keeping him home tomorrow? If so, I’m more than happy to come over. You don’t have a single Christmas decoration up yet.”
“We just got here, Mom. Rotation was Monday.”
“I know that, but I also k
now that Christmas won’t wait for anyone, and you need some cheer around here. Of course we won’t do trees until the twenty-third, but you need a garland or . . . something. I’ll be over around nine.”
“Thanks, Mom.” Daniel kissed her cheek, then headed into the kitchen to see how dinner was coming along.
“Hunter was supposed to grate the cheese tonight,” Christopher said, looking sulky. “I hate grating cheese.”
“Then I’ll grate the cheese and you can open the cans,” Nick said, handing him the can opener.
Daniel and Ephraim exchanged pleased looks over the boys’ heads. Nick wasn’t usually the one to back down in a disagreement, and it was nice to see him make a compromise.
The rest of the evening was fairly quiet. Daniel made some chamomile tea with honey for Hunter, and after the boy had taken several sips, Daniel rested his hand on his stomach, looking for anything he might have missed before. He closed his eyes and breathed in deeply, trying to see, trying to feel. Ephraim kept Hunter distracted by telling him about the horse—that was good because if Hunter saw just how hard Daniel was concentrating, he’d have more questions than Daniel could answer.
He was about to give up when he sensed something he’d never seen before—blue. Blue? Why on earth would he be envisioning the color blue when he focused on Hunter’s stomach? He’d never picked up on a color before, not for anything. He removed his hand and rubbed his eyes. Chances were good that he was just exhausted. It had been a long couple of days, and throwing his future wife into the mix hadn’t made things any less chaotic. He’d take another look tomorrow before he went in for his shift at the hospital.
***
Claire heard the sound of voices before she heard the knock on the door. When she opened it, there stood three women who looked to be about her age. Their arms were full of sacks, and they looked a little too hyper happy to be real.
“Hello!” one of them called out. “We stayed away as long as we could so you could get settled, but we’re here now, so I hope you’re okay with the intrusion.”
“Um, sure?” Claire opened the door a little wider. “I’m sorry, but who are you?”
