Page 18 of Twister

Daniel

My mind wandered to the daily tasks I still needed to get through as I walked through the front door, tossing my keys into the bowl sitting on the side table.

After a dry morning, the high humidity had tipped into sporadic rain just after I’d left to pick Rose up from her morning volunteer shift at the animal shelter.

I heard Bucky’s nails scrabbling on the floorboards from his spot in the family room when he heard Rose burst through the door.

He’d missed her this morning, and I was convinced that he was just as worried as I’d been about her after yesterday’s confrontation with Brett and Jackson.

She’d still seemed a little flat when she got up, but whatever she’d done at the shelter this morning had returned her to her usual bubbly self. She’d raced inside as soon as I’d parked my truck, and I could now hear her cooing at Bucky like she hadn’t seen him in years.

Sure enough, when I emerged into the wide-open space, she was on her knees petting Bucky around the collar, his tail swinging madly from side to side as he soaked up her love and attention. A warm feeling of contentment pulsed through me at the sight, and I found myself smiling at the pair.

“Wash up, you two. Lunch is almost ready.”

At the sound of Marshall’s voice, my smile widened to what felt like comical proportions when I turned to find him at the island in the kitchen putting together sandwiches for us for lunch.

The contentment I’d felt when I looked at Rose thudded and morphed into something more, something I hadn’t felt in years.

A sense of home. Of family.

This is what I’d wanted with Jackson when we’d first talked about adopting. The two of us working together to create a warm, relaxing place for our children.

Unfortunately, that scenario had never eventuated with him, even after the many years we’d spent together as husbands. And yet three days in with Marshall, a stranger simply passing through, and so many of my long-held wishes were coming true.

If only he could stay longer….

A clatter of plates and cutlery snapped me out of my musings as Marshall plated up his creations. Rose had bounded over to him, ready to dive in, but Marshall held her plate back.

“Nope. Don’t think I didn’t notice how you didn’t wash up. No food until you get clean.”

Rose pouted at him and gave him her best puppy-dog impression, but he only narrowed his eyes and pointed toward the bathroom. She smirked, then shrugged before skipping down the hall to do as he requested.

“And use soap!” he called after her before raising his eyebrow at me with a smile. “I’ll know if you didn’t!”

“Yeah, yeah!” she called back, her voice echoing off the walls.

“You made lunch,” I murmured, coming up behind him and wrapping my hands around his waist. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” he said, his head leaning against mine before he tapped my hands. “That wash up request goes for you too, mister.”

Chuckling, I nuzzled into his neck and tightened my hold on him before I reluctantly let go and took two steps to the right to get to the sink. I’d missed this kind of interaction so much. “I know.”

He beamed at me as he watched me scrub at my hands, then circled the island to settle on the middle stool.

“The shed’s finished being mucked out, but I didn’t get a chance to start on the field work.

I think there might be an issue with one of the gutters.

The one on the right side of the shed? It should be feeding into the rainwater tank on the corner, but it looks like something is blocking it. ”

I nodded in understanding as I dried my hands. “I know the one you mean. It does the same thing every time it rains. I really need to get someone in to fix it, but I just haven’t had the time.”

He hummed and looked out through the glass sliding doors and the misting rain down to where the shed in question sat, his brows furrowing in thought. “I could have a look at it. Once the rain stops, I mean.”

I stumbled as I walked around the counter to the seat next to his and closest to the sliding doors, my eyes widening at the unexpected offer.

Even when Jackson had been around, he’d never volunteered to do things like that, preferring to focus on less menial jobs.

He only acted on the heavier-duty tasks when I’d nagged him enough or pointed out that I needed a second set of hands to help me finish a job.

I found myself strangely awed that Marshall’s first instinct was to suggest looking at it himself before calling someone else in.

It told me a lot about the depth of his character and how vastly different he was to Jackson.

“You don’t need to do that. You’re our guest.”

He waved my concern away as I sat down. “Don’t worry about it. We had similar issues with the old frat house, so I have a bit of experience. If it’s not as easy a job as I think it’ll be, then you can call someone in. Let me have a go at it first, though, yeah?”

“Okay, but please don’t feel obligated.” I patted his thigh, my palm lingering longer than it probably should have, especially when Rose came skipping around the corner and plonking herself down on the seat to the other side of Marshall.

“Hands,” Marshall demanded of her, politely ignoring my touch. “Let me smell them.”

She giggled and held them out to him.

He took a professional sniff before he pulled back with a cheeky grin and a wink. “Acceptable. You may now eat your lunch.”

She giggled again and dove in, downing about half of her sandwich triangle in two bites before she came up for air.

I blinked at her ravenous chewing, then glanced a little guiltily at Marshall. “I swear that I do actually feed her.”

Rose gave me a toothy grin, a piece of lettuce sticking between her teeth, before she shoved the rest of the triangle into her mouth in one go, chewing obnoxiously.

With a raised eyebrow at her, I picked up my sandwich half and muttered, “And that she normally has better table manners than a hyena,” before I took a measured bite.

Marshall swallowed his own mouthful, then laughed. “You haven’t been around a frat house in a while, have you? This is nothing.” He leaned over and nudged Rose with his shoulder. “As long as you’re enjoying it, that’s all that matters. Right?”

“Wight,” she said through her full mouth before she leaned forward to grab her glass of water.

She swallowed her food, then took a gulping drink before she cleared her throat and looked at me.

“Sorry, Daddy Danny. It was super busy this morning. They had me playing with the puppies and the kittens. Did you know Kajir had to bring in the kitten you all found yesterday? He couldn’t keep it even though he wanted to because of some sort of family issue.

” She set her eyes to puppy mode and aimed them my way, fluttering her eyelashes and curling her hands in front of her.

“No,” I firmly said to her, immune to her attempt at bribing me with longing looks and pleading hands.

“Please?” She fluttered harder. “Pretty please?”

I took another measured bite and chewed slowly. Once I’d swallowed, I responded, “You do realize that no is a complete sentence, right?”

She pouted at me, but I could tell by the way she was bouncing in her seat that she wasn’t too upset. Judging by Marshall’s stifled chuckles, he could tell too.

Easy conversation kept flowing between the three of us as we continued to work our way through lunch. I excused myself when we were all close to finishing so I could go to the bathroom. On my way back, I paused in the hallway when I overheard Rose talking to Marshall.

“I hope you get to stay after you get your Jeep fixed,” Rose said, the scrape of a glass against the countertop indicating she wasn’t finished eating yet.

“How come?” Marshall asked after a moment. He coughed after he asked the question, which made me think he’d had to swallow his mouthful before responding.

“He needs this. Whatever this is.” Rose dragged the second this out. I imagined her flicking her hand around a little with the emphasis or wiggling her eyebrows. “He doesn’t think I see how lonely he’s been since Pappy Jacky left, but I see it. You’re good for him.”

There was a protracted moment of silence, and then he said, “Rose, you don’t even know me. Why do you think I’m good for your father?”

“The sparkle’s come back to his eyes. It started when he first saw you at the gas station the other day.”

I tilted my head to the side, wondering what she meant. Had I really been so dead inside that my eyes were reflecting my moods so clearly?

“What do you mean?” Marshall asked curiously after a quiet moment, thankfully asking the question for me.

“Hmm….” She paused, and I heard her chair scrape against the timber flooring.

“Um, like… okay. So when I first arrived here and Daddy Danny was with Pappy Jacky, there was this glint in Daddy’s eyes, right?

Like you could see his happiness even when he wasn’t smiling or laughing.

But then it faded, and I thought it was because of me, you know? ”

Without conscious thought, my right hand covered my open mouth to stifle the horrified noise I tried to swallow down. Oh, Rose. Honey, no….

“But after a while, I noticed that Daddy’s eyes seemed to sparkle a bit when he was with me, but when he was with Pappy Jacky….” Another slight pause alongside another chair scrape. “But then Pappy left, and the sparkle disappeared entirely.”

Closing my eyes, I tipped my head back and willed myself not to get too emotional. I’d tried so hard to keep all of that from her. How had I failed?

“But the other day, when we were all down in that storm shelter at the station? And he was talking to you? I saw it come back.”

“You saw…?” Marshall sounded about as dazed as I felt.