AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Shortly after his arrival, Eddie had a couple of drinks with all of us one night and made his feelings for me known. While I know that Aiden likes him better than he likes Jace, that was a bit of a stumbling block for them.
“It isn’t so much a plan as what I think we’ll need, space wise,” I answer, holding out my hand to count off some of the more urgent tasks due to our numbers. “Right now, besides us, there’s Julia and Russ, Eddie and Sara, Dad, Elsbeth, Jace, Dylan, and Rachel. Then, taking into consideration, people thatmightshow up, there’s that man that Julia and Russ traveled with for a little while; she told him our general area in case he and his daughter got desperate. So, let’s say one to three more people. Then, if your sister and her husband are still alive and make it to your cousin’s house—I’ll never say it to Rachel, but at this point I don’t see that happening—since we told your cousin where we were heading, so that’s another two to four people.”
“And Max,” I say my brother’s name last, refusing to give up on the hope that he might make his way back to us somehow. “That’s eleven here now and up to eight more people. Let’s just round it up to twenty.”
“Twenty might be low-balling it—don’t forget about Julia’s college friends,” Aiden adds onto my list, before guessing what I’m thinking. “You want to move some people into Elsbeth’s home?”
“We’ll have to if anyone else shows up before the spring. I know Dad wants to keep everyone close for protection, but we have to consider all the personalities involved. The septic system alone can’t last more than a couple years with this many people—even if we are using outhouses and composting toilets.” I pause to give Aiden a moment to consider everything. “But we have to be careful who we move there, personalities aside, people migrating, coming up the mountain to see what’s here, are going to reach the O’Reilly house first.”
“That’ll be one way to separate Eddie and Jace,” Aiden grunts, and I know he is probably exposed to more of the ongoing issues between them than I am.
I nod, too tired to sort things out tonight.
Nor do I want to admit, that I don’t trust Jace with that much responsibility; after all, that home will be the first line of defense for this house. And considering it’s his parent’s house, neither my father nor I have much say in who moves over there.
My immediate concern is that Dylan stays with us.
*
I am sweltering when I wake up the next morning and smile once I realize that Aiden tucked his pillows up against my back and legs before he left for his turn at guard duty, effectively supporting me, but also surrounding me in down feathers.
Using the composting toilet, I notice we’re getting low on the sawdust that we cover our waste with and make a mental note to have Dylan bring some by, before I move to the bowl of water to briefly wash myself before pulling on layers of clothing.
Time to see what chores today has in store for me.
The sound of Russ cursing has me pausing near the barndoor and I have to work to keep the smile off of my face when I peak inside.
“Need some help?” I offer when I see him give up and simply rest his forehead against the cow’s belly.
“This is impossible,” he mutters.
“Go collect the eggs and I’ll take care of the milking,” I tell him, squeezing his shoulder to get him to stand up.
“I need to learn how to do it…” he starts, tensing up at the sound of the door opening, he looks past me for a moment before he relaxes. “Good morning, Elsbeth.”
“Good morning, Russ, Shelby. Oh, I’m glad I caught you, I woke up early so I milked the cows already, if you could be a dear and get the eggs? I didn’t want to get the chickens riled up with you and Julia on the other side of the wall from them.” Elsbeth comes in like a tornado, talking nonstop as she checks on the water trough for the pigs, and I pretend to scratch my nose to cover the smile that threatens to overtake my face. “Not that Russ and Julia don’t rile the chickens upquite often!”
With that parting shot, she’s on her way to her next set of chores and I finally let out a chuckle when I see how red his face has become.
“Well, at least you know why you couldn’t get any milk out of them.” I try to help him salvage his pride; grinning when he gives me the stink eye.
“I think I saw a white board on one of the shelves next to Julia’s side of our bed,” he says, walking over to the chickens. “I’ll set up a chart, so we don’t overlap on the milking again.”
“Good idea. I’ll see you at breakfast.”
I’m halfway to the house when I see Dad looking out of the window, once he notices me coming from the barn instead of my cabin, he moves to the door to open it and urgently waves me inside.
“I’m glad you’re here early, I want to get your opinion about approaching Lee,” he says, talking about the only other person living up our way. The problem is that Lee and my dad actively dislike each other. For no reason I’ve ever been able to figure out, but it’s always been that way, so I start shaking my head until I see Jace enter the great room.
“Send Elsbeth and Jace,” I suggest, dryly adding, “I think he’s less likely to shoot them.”
“What’s that?” Jace asks, barely awake.
“Dad wants to coordinate with Lee. You’ve spoken to him before, haven’t you?” I shoot my ex-husband a pointed look along with that question; not wanting him to disagree with me.
“Not really. I know he andmydad were friendly. I mean, as friendly as that recluse could possibly be with anyone,” Jace slowly answers, concentrating on wringing the last drop of coffee out of the pot. “I’m supposed to be attaching the chain link between the fence posts over the next few days, but yeah, I can head up there.”
“Is there something I can help with?” Eddie asks as he enters the room with Sara cradled in one arm and the night’s dirty diapers dangling from his other hand.
