Chapter 24
“We have four granddaughters and only three grandsons,” Mary Jane said as she rocked Nicky. “You sisters who don’t have babies yet or haven’t told me that you are pregnant need to catch up.”
All the seven sisters began pointing at one another and talking at once.
The smile on Mary Jane’s face testified that she had deliberately stirred up that hornet’s nest. Willa Rose couldn’t make sense of all the blaming until Ursula clapped her hands loudly and swung her forefinger around at four of her sisters.
“I got the ball rolling when I had Clayton, and y’all were still sitting on the sidelines when the two youngest sisters had children. So, Mama is talking to all y’all, not to me, Luna, Endora, or Willa Rose.”
“You can redirect your pointing to Tertia, Ophelia, and Bo. I brought two daughters into the family, and that’s all I can handle,” Rae told her.
“Oh, no!” Endora argued. “You got yours already sleeping all night and potty trained, so you have to have one yourself. No offense, Willa Rose. You get a pass because Nicky came to you as a newborn and you have to go through sleepless nights, teething, and potty training.”
“None taken. My dad used to say that he got one daughter with a marriage license and one with a birth certificate, but it was all just paper. Now, who is volunteering to be next?” She wouldn’t have believed Jesus, Himself, if he had told her how much her life would turn around in one short holiday season.
She snapped a mental picture of the scene that reminded her of the front of a Christmas card—a blaze in the fireplace, Mary Jane rocking the newest baby and humming a lullaby, and a toddler staring down at Nicky.
Ophelia raised both palms. “I’ll take this one for the team. I’m not pregnant but Jake and I are going to try to start a family after the holidays are over.”
Knox and Tripp came into the living room, and Knox shook his head in mock disappointment. “With all that dark hair, he has to be yours. I was kind of hoping…”
Tripp slapped him on the arm. “If you want one born with a blond ponytail, then you’ll have to find a willing partner, but before you do, you need to bank a lot of sleep.”
Willa Rose covered a yawn with her hand. “Sleep appears to be a thing of the past.”
“I remember those days,” Mary Jane said. “Try having two sets of twins with only a year between them. Willa Rose, you and Tripp look like y’all are about to drop. Go upstairs and take a nap. There’s plenty of us to babysit Nicky.”
“No boys upstairs,” Ursula said.
“That rule got changed when Brodie knocked on our door last Christmas,” Mary Jane reminded her.
Tripp stood up. “Thank you. I’ll take you up on that offer.
Nicky is a good baby and only wakes up every four hours to be fed.
Our trouble is that we are afraid we won’t hear him even though he sleeps in the cradle right beside the bed.
Willa Rose is a sound sleeper, as we all know from the night Endora’s twins were born, and she’s terrified to close her eyes. ”
“I understand,” Ursula said. “It took a full month before we trusted the baby monitor, and even then, we checked the batteries every single day.”
“I’m fine.” Willa Rose could hardly hold her eyes open and the conversations among all the family members around her were only a buzz in her ears.
“No, we are not.” Tripp took her hand and pulled her up. “Someone will come get us if Nicky fusses. We both could use an hour’s sleep.”
She let him lead her to the same bedroom they had been in on the night of the wedding.
How could that be only four days ago? she wondered as she removed her shoes and curled up on top of the covers.
That night she had wanted to fall back on the bed and drag Tripp down on top of her, and now all she could think about was a nap.
Tripp kicked off his shoes and shook the folds from a quilt that had been lying at the foot of the bed. He crawled into bed, snuggled up against her back and covered them both.
He kissed her on the neck and said, “Sweet dreams.”
“Are we going to survive this?”
All she could think about was sleep, but her body reacted to his warm breath and lips on her neck. No surprise there—none at all.
“Of course.” He hugged her a little tighter. “When we readjust our sleeping habits, we’ll be fine. All new parents go through a time like this, but I must admit, I have a whole new respect for Endora and Parker. One at a time is enough.”
“You are counting yourself as a parent?”
“Of course, I am,” Tripp answered. “Someday when you decide to marry me, I’m going to adopt Nicky.”
You have to ask me first, she thought.
***
The room was dark when Tripp awoke. He eased out of bed, picked up his shoes, and tiptoed downstairs.
The house was so quiet that he could have heard a feather floating down from the ceiling, right up until Bernie stepped out of the living room.
She stopped right in front of him, popped her hands on her hips, and gave him a go-to-hell look.
“What did I do?” he asked.
“I’ll tell you exactly what you did,” Bernie answered.
“Like most men, you are blind to what’s right in front of you, Tripp Callahan.
You are sitting up there on your big white horse to save the damsel in distress.
I bet this is your MO, as they say on the cop shows I like to watch.
You have such a soft heart that you want to help women who have problems. Well, I’m about to shoot your horse if you don’t turn it around and ride away from Willa Rose. ”
“With all her sass, Willa Rose definitely does not need saving.”
“Of course she doesn’t, but somewhere in your heart, you think she does, and that’s a deadly attitude. And”—she poked him in the chest with a bony finger—“we are talking about you, not her.”
“Can we have this conversation later? I’m starving.” He tried to walk around her, but she moved backward and stayed with him.
“Food can wait. I’ve got you alone and you are going to listen to me.”
“Yes, ma’am, but can you fuss at me over a sandwich?”
“No!” she answered. “You’ll tune me out if you are eating. You’ll pay attention, so sit down on the stairs and listen.”
“Can you make it fast? I might fall over dead from starvation if you plan on talking until the world ends.”
“You are exasperating me. Do you have any idea what happened to my customers who aggravated me when I owned my bar?” she asked.
“You threw them out?” His stomach growled loudly, but he sat down on the third step and stretched his long legs out to the bottom one.
She began to pace from one end of the foyer to the other and back again. “I’m as serious right now as when I threatened them with my sawed-off shotgun.”
“Okay, don’t have a heart attack or a stroke. Just spit it out.”
“You had a case of transference when you looked at that baby and remembered that you were just like him at one time—homeless and about to be an orphan,” she said.
“When did you get a doctorate in psychology?” Tripp asked.
“Running a bar for fifty years will take care of that as well as a piece of paper,” she barked. “And besides, Dr. Charles on Chicago Med is one of my favorite people, and he taught me a lot.”
“Are you protecting your betting interest or your matchmaking business?” Tripp asked.
“I settled the bets this morning, and after seeing that baby, I’m not even going to bitch about my losses,” she declared.
“I’m trying to make you see your problem when it comes to women.
Your big, old kind heart is walking into a heartache.
No, change that part about walking. You are running into it like a firefighter into a burning house. ”
He stood up and wrapped his arms around Bernie. “Thank you for caring enough about me to try to protect me, but right now it’s my stomach that is a problem. Let’s go out to the kitchen and see what we can do about taking care of that issue. We’ll revisit the heart issue later.”
“You are the most exasperating Callahan of the three of you. You come off as the reserved one, but that’s on the outside. Underneath all that quietness you’re as stubborn as a cross-eyed mule.”
Tripp headed on down the foyer toward the kitchen. “Thank you for seeing all that, and next time you watch Chicago Med , thank Dr. Charles for me.”
“This conversation is not over, but I can see I’m not making any headway with you.”
“Remember that sprig of mistletoe you hung on my porch? I do believe it has come back to bite you.”
Bernie threw up her hands and gave him another dose of stink eye.
“I’m changing the subject because you can’t see more than a foot in front of your eyes, especially since that adorable baby arrived.
Are you sure you weren’t playing knight in shining armor with Willa Rose’s sister about nine months ago?
That little boy looks a lot like you with his dark hair. ”
“Nope, been right here in Spanish Fort for the better part of a year and never met a woman named Erica, and if you take another look, Nicky looks more like Willa Rose than me. Speaking of that, who is watching Nicky? Did one of the sisters kidnap him?”
Bernie picked her coat up from the hall tree and slipped her arms into the sleeves.
“Ivy is keeping an eye on him and writing in a notebook that she carries with her all the time. Mary Jane and Joe Clay went to Nocona, and the sisters all left about half an hour ago. There is a slow cooker full of potato chowder on the cabinet. I’ve already had a bowl of it.
Promise me, you will think on what I told you. ”
“I will think on it, but I’ve never ridden a white horse. Once at summer camp I mounted up on a paint, but I didn’t have a desire to save one of the girls who was having trouble controlling her animal,” he said.
“You are going to be the death of me,” she said as she closed the door behind her.
“No, ma’am, I’m saving that honor for Knox.” Tripp chuckled.