Home Again

by Lisa Emme

  “That’s okay. You could just use the ones that are already in the freezer.”

  Duncan moved to the freezer and took a look. Sure enough, there were homemade waffles frozen in a Ziploc bag.

  “You just hafta heat them up in the toaster,” Dougie explained.

  “Well, I think I should be able to manage that. What would you like on them?”

  “I usually have syrup.” Dougie paused and then looked at Duncan hopefully. “And ice cream,” he added quickly.

  Duncan raised his eyebrows in surprise. “Ice cream?” He looked at Dougie pointedly. “Your mother lets you have ice cream for breakfast?”

  Dougie frowned, his little brow furrowing. “Well, not really. But she’s not here.” He turned his best puppy eyed look up at Duncan.

  Duncan laughed and ruffled Dougie’s hair. “Best go watch your TV now. I’ll get breakfast ready.”

  Dougie huffed out a resigned breath, sensing a serious lack of ice cream in his near future, and headed to the living room, juice box in hand. Duncan chuckled to himself and set about getting the waffles ready. A few minutes later, he called Dougie to breakfast.

  When Dougie entered the dining room, his eyes practically popped out of his head. On the table sat two plates each holding a waffle, drizzled with syrup. In the middle of each waffle sat a melting scoop of vanilla ice cream. Dougie looked up at Duncan in surprise. Duncan chuckled and then leaned towards Dougie and whispered, “Granddads don’t necessarily have to play by the same rules as mothers.” With a wink, he sat down in front of his waffle.

  Dougie smiled happily and scrambled up into his chair. Boy, having a great-grandfather was really neat. “Do you wanna play with the puppies?” he asked happily, his mouth stuffed with waffle.

  Seth pulled his truck with the ATV secured on the back around the trailer and slid to a halt, gravel spraying. He hopped down from the truck, slammed the door shut and stomped to the double-wide. Bright light bathed the interior of the trailer as he stepped inside and looked around at the small space. He shook his head in disgust. The place was a pigsty.

  A groan from under the covers on the bed across the room startled him.

  “Close the fucking door,” came a voice from under the mound of blankets.

  Seth pulled the door shut with a curse. “What the hell are you still doing here? Don’t you have to be at work?”

  A man in his early twenties sat up blinking. He stretched noisily. “Dad? What are you doing here? Don’t you have to work?”

  Seth looked at his youngest son, Dustin, and scowled. “Not anymore since I lost my fucking job.”

  Seth frowned down at the bench beside the table. It was covered with dirty clothes and various other detritus that tended to pile up around bachelors. He swept his arm across the bench and sent the offending items crashing to the floor.

  “What the hell is going on out there?” The door to the bedroom at the end of the hall opened with a crash. David, Seth’s older son strode naked out of the bedroom.

  “Jesus, bro! Put some fucking pants on.” Dustin scowled and covered his face with his hand.

  David threw him the finger then rummaged around on the floor, coming up with a set of track pants. He bent over and quickly pulled them on. “What the hell Dad? Aren’t you supposed to be at work?”

  “I could ask the same of you two.” Seth frowned. “Don’t tell me you got fired.”

  David shrugged. “Fine. We won’t tell you then.”

  Seth looked from one son to the other. “Both of you?”

  Dustin put up a placating hand. “Yeah, but it was all a misunderstanding - ”

  “Save it,” Seth growled. “We have other problems, thanks to your shenanigans last night.”

  The young men both smiled. “ Whoo-whee! That was fun,” Dustin laughed. “You should have seen that sign go up like a - ”

  “Shut the hell up. You weren’t supposed to set it on fire, you were just supposed to spray some graffiti on it.” Seth leaned over, resting his elbows on his knees and rubbed his face with his hands.

  “Fuck that. Spray paint is for kids.”

  “That was the point, you idiot. It was supposed to look like kids done it.” Seth threw out his hands in disgust. “Now instead we’ve got eye witnesses to your latest caper and the old man is in the hospital with a heart attack or something.” He stood up and started pacing. “Everything’s gone to hell in a hand basket. I say we just cut and run before the law catches up with us.”

  “Shit!” Dustin stood up and grabbed his pants from off the floor by the bed. He quickly shoved one leg then the other into them, pulling them up quickly and buttoning them before falling back onto the bed. “But what about buying the farm so we can sell it to the gas company?”

  “Well, that ain’t going to happen now is it?” Seth shook his head. “Besides, I was having second thoughts about that plan. It would take too much up front to buy the farm, especially now that you two geniuses have managed to get yourselves fired before you could confirm whether or not the natural gas company was going to try another test site.”

  “Damn it! That farm was going to be our meal ticket,” Dustin complained scowling.

  “Forget the damn farm,” replied David striding across the room. He tossed a series of photos on the table. “This here’s our meal ticket.” He smiled cruelly. “And I think we should collect on it.”

  Seth picked up a picture and looked at it. Smiling back was a candid photo of Allie and Dougie, taken behind the farmhouse. He frowned at David. “What the hell?”

  “Don’t you see? It’s perfect.” David grabbed a picture and held it up. It was another shot of Allie and Dougie. “You said it yourself, she’s MacAllister’s granddaughter, and the old guy seems to have developed an interest in her. Plus she’s dating that bleeding heart vet, who it turns out comes from a family that’s totally loaded. Own a winery or something like that.”

  “Just what are you suggesting?” Seth asked suspiciously.

  “Simple. We grab the kid, we get the girl, then we use them both to get us a nice early retirement package.”

  “Kidnapping?” Dustin asked incredulously. “You want to fucking kidnap them?”

  “Sure, why not. It’s practically money in the bank already.”

  “You’re crazy man. You’ve been lusting after that piece of ass all summer. Admit it.” Dustin shook his head in disgust.

  “So? Doesn’t mean I can’t see an opportunity when it arises.” David tossed the picture back on the table. “We grab 'em, send a demand to the boyfriend and old man MacAllister, and ka-ching, it’s a double play.”

  “Yeah, and what about the cops, genius?”

  “Fuck the cops. They’re just a bunch of yokels. We’ll be long gone with the money before they figure out what hit them.”

  Seth, who had been listening in silence, shook his head. “No. It’s time to pack up and leave. We’ve been lucky so far. You don’t want to end up back in jail.” He gathered up all the photos and jammed them into the overflowing trashcan. “Forget about the girl. You leave her alone.”

  ***

  Allie sat alone in the veranda and sighed then took a sip of iced tea. What a day! Had it really only been less than a day? It seemed more like a week.

  After spending several hours waiting around at the hospital to talk to her uncle’s doctor - she had wanted the prognosis straight from the horse’s mouth - she had let her uncle convince her to go home. It had taken additional convincing to get her aunt to come home with her too, but after her uncle complained that he wouldn’t get any peace if he was worrying about her, Elaine quickly agreed to go home with Allie for a rest.

  A quick phone call and Allie had managed to make arrangements for her aunt to go back later that day and stay with a friend in town. That way she could be near the hospital and visit as much as she liked without either All
ie or Russ having to worry about her driving back and forth on the highway.

  The trip home was quiet; everyone too tired, or maybe just too much in shock over the night’s events, to make small talk. Her aunt had clutched at her hand as Mike drove them down the road and turned up their driveway. Miraculously, the remnants of the burned sign had been cleared away, leaving Allie to wonder if her grandfather had arranged to have things tidied up.

  Mike had pulled the truck up into the yard, well past the burned out grass, and parked near the barn. Allie’s SUV was still parked in the yard and she had been glad to find Dougie at home.

  When she climbed out of the truck, Bella had run over to greet her, tail wagging. “Hey there girl. All rested up after your busy night?” She had patted the dog affectionately and scratched her behind the ears. Mike, who had come around to help her aunt down out of the truck, had smiled over at her. Allie had pulled her hand away from the dog quickly, wiping the imaginary hair off on her pants and earning a chuckle from Mike. Allie scowled to herself, thinking about it now. So? She liked the dog. Big deal. Didn’t mean she wanted one to keep. No matter how much Dougie campaigned for it.

  She turned her thoughts to her grandfather and Dougie and smiled again. She had found the two of them up in the tree house, toys scattered across just about every flat surface. Allie chuckled to herself, remembering the look on Duncan’s face when she arrived to find him sitting on the floor acting out a robot invasion with Dougie’s toys. Her grandfather had smiled sheepishly, and then continued on with his story much to Dougie’s delight.

  After a quick hug and a kiss from Dougie, she had excused herself to go inside and make lunch. Although she had invited him to join them for the meal, Duncan had begged off, promising a disappointed Dougie that he would come back very soon and play again. Allie had been so tired, she hadn’t even noticed the strange truck parked in the yard until Duncan had climbed in it and driven away.

  Mike had also left to go home, shortly after dropping Allie and her aunt off. He had wanted to take his motorcycle home and grab a shower and shave before returning later in the day. Allie sighed, thinking about Mike. She would have been fine with the rugged look, he didn’t have to shave on her account, it suited him and she kind of liked the way his whiskers rasped against her skin whenever he kissed her. Her cheeks coloured at the thought of Mike’s kisses. Geez, she had it bad!

  Allie had fed Dougie and her aunt lunch and then tucked them both in for naps. She really should have taken the opportunity to nap herself, but she was just too wound up. Had the police made any progress in tracking down the culprits? Maybe she could ask Brian to find out for her. He was still at home playing Mr. Mom, but he had already heard about the fire - news travels fast in a small town - when she had called earlier to let Becky know that everything was okay.

  She finished her drink, then pulled on her old boots and headed to the barn to muck out the stalls. Just because she had next to no sleep, didn’t mean that chores didn’t have to get done. Luckily, Dougie and Duncan had fed the chickens, a chore that usually fell to Dougie anyway, so that was one less thing to do.

  Bella scampered out of the barn to greet her, earning another pat on the head since Mike wasn’t around to witness it. When Allie stepped into the barn, she stopped in surprise. The stalls were already mucked out and lined with fresh straw. Her grandfather must have had some of the men from the Circle D come by and clean up not only the burned up sign, but the barn as well. Huh. He really was serious about the whole mending fences thing. She smiled. Money can’t buy my love, but doing my chores for me might work.

  Her smile fell from her face as she looked around the barn. Her eyes watered and she swiped at them angrily. It had been an emotional day, for more than one reason, and she was beginning to think that she couldn’t possibly take any more shocks, not after the bombshell her aunt and uncle had dropped on her earlier.

  Frowning, she remembered her aunt’s reluctant admission that she and Russ had actually been thinking of selling the farm and moving into town. Even though Allie had tried to come back from the city as often as she could to help out, it wasn’t enough and they were tired of the commitment and work required to run the farm. If it hadn’t been for the fact that Allie had moved home suddenly with Dougie, they probably would have already had it on the market. As it was, they had already put their name on the waiting list for one of the new condo units being finished up in town.

  After checking on the sleeping pups, Allie sat down on a straw bale and absently scratched Bella’s ear. She had never really thought about Elaine and Russ leaving the farm. She had just assumed they would always live here, that there would always be a home to come home to. Of course she hadn’t planned on more than just visiting herself. She certainly had never planned on moving back. But what was it they said about plans? Allie shook her head. So much for plans.

  Surprisingly, Allie found that she was happy with life on the farm, despite all the work. Getting out of the city had been the best thing she had ever done, for both her and Dougie. Now though, just when she’d finally come to that realization, she had a chance of losing it all…again.

  If only the damn insurance company would come through. If she could take the settlement money she was owed, maybe she could convince the bank to give her a mortgage and she could buy the farm from her aunt and uncle. Allie snorted. Yeah, and pigs would fly. She didn’t even have a steady job. Why on earth would the bank loan her money?

  Bella suddenly perked up her ears and, growling, ran from the barn. “Hey! Wait for me.” Allie jumped to her feet and followed after her. She stopped in surprise when she spotted Mike standing beside his truck. It wasn’t so much that he was back, she had been expecting him and she was more than happy to see him, it was the duffle bag in his hand that had her staring in surprise.

  “Hey Kitten.” Mike smiled at her making her heart go pitty-pat.

  “Hey yourself.” Allie eyed the duffle bag suspiciously. “What’s that?”

  Mike hefted the duffle bag over his shoulder then gave her a pointed look. “You’re not staying out here alone.”

  “That’s not necessary. I’m perfectly capable of taking care of myself.” Allie crossed her arms stubbornly.

  Mike looked at her and grimaced. “I never said you weren’t.” He took a step towards her, closing the gap between them. He reached out, grabbed her by the elbow and pulled her closer. “I’d just feel better if you weren’t out here on your own.” He pushed the hair from her face and slid his hand to cup her cheek. He looked her in the eye and then leaned forward to give her a slow, tender kiss on the lips. Allie stood rigidly, unwilling to let him seduce her to get his way.

  Undeterred, Mike let the duffle bag slide off his shoulder to the ground then moved his hand to cup the other side of her face. He stared at her a moment and Allie blinked at the intensity she saw in his gorgeous green eyes. Mike’s lips found hers again. This time the kiss was hungry and oxygen depriving. Allie groaned into his mouth, her hands moving to his waist, returning the kiss with an urgency of her own. God, it felt good to be in his arms. It felt safe.

  Allie pulled her mouth away from his and gasped, “Alright, you win. You can stay.”

  At Mike’s grin, Allie smirked. “But just where do you plan on sleeping?”

  Mike shrugged. “I guess that all depends on what you’re comfortable with around Dougie.” He bent down to retrieve the duffle.

  Allie snorted. “And if I say the barn, what then?”

  “I guess I’ll just have to hope that Old Joe doesn’t snore.”

  ***

  Allie sighed and snuggled further under the covers. When she bumped against Mike’s lean, strong back, she wiggled some more, spooning herself up against him. Mike grumbled, but didn’t seem to wake.

  Allie chuckled to herself. It turned out that Mike didn’t have to sleep in the barn. Afte
r she had carefully broached the subject that Mike was going to sleep over, Dougie had surprised her by announcing that Mike would just have to sleep with her.

  “Why?” she had asked, somewhat shocked.

  “’Cause my bed isn’t big enough. You have a bigger bed so you’ll just have to share,” Dougie answered matter-of-factly.

  Mike had stood behind Dougie, a cheeky grin on his face. “Can’t argue with that logic,” he’d said with a laugh.

  Grinning, Allie let her hand slide across Mike’s hip until it rested over his crotch. Judging by the tent pole there, he probably wasn’t as asleep as he seemed.

  “Good Lord, woman. Can’t you give a man a rest?” Mike growled in a sleepy whisper. “Weren’t the two times last night enough for you?” Allie giggled in response, remembering their furtive lovemaking from the night before. It had felt like she was a teenager sneaking a boy into her room. Not that she had ever actually done that.

  Even though her aunt and uncle weren’t home, Allie had still felt the need to be quiet. Of course, it could have had something to do with the fact that her son was sleeping in the room right next door. Allie had spent half the time worrying that the bed would squeak and that Dougie would burst in on them, and it had made their lovemaking that much more urgent and thrilling. The two had come together in one another’s arms amid hushed laughter and stifled moans.

  Allie playfully ran her hand up and down along the hard shaft tenting Mike’s boxers. She leaned in and nipped at his ear. “I don’t think I’ll ever get enough of you.”

  Mike turned suddenly, catching her up in his arms and dragging her body across his. He captured her mouth and kissed her passionately, running a hand up her thigh to cup her butt cheek underneath her long t-shirt. He gave it a playful squeeze. “Same goes here. Although, I didn’t know that you snored.”

  Allie looked at him indignantly. “I do not.”

  “Do too,” laughed Mike, tapping her on the nose. “And it’s the cutest little snore I’ve ever heard.”