EPILOGUE
Fitzgibbon
Three Wise Hens
One month later…
Fitzgibbon hadn’t given much thought to the chicken calendar since the day the kids had stolen the show at the farm.
It hadn’t been all that important that he showed off his body to a bunch of strangers.
That was more in line with what Ronan and Jude wanted, but all the same, he was a little curious as to how the pictures turned out and which ones would be used in the calendar.
Fitz, Ronan, and Jude were sitting in the living room listening to the football pre-game show.
He’d spent most of the morning putting together a beef stew to serve with freshly baked bread.
Ten had given him tips on how to make it the way Aurora liked it.
He had to admit, it hadn’t been very hard to prepare the meal.
Thankfully, the crockpot was doing all the hard work.
Jace, Ten, and Cope were in the kitchen with the kids, baking cookies for dessert. Fitz was about to go check on everyone and give the stew a stir when the doorbell rang.
“Who the hell could that be ringing the bell on a Sunday?” Ronan asked. “Everyone we know is here.”
“Maybe it’s Cisco and Luca dropping in?” Fitz asked, getting out of his seat. “We’ve only been asking them to join us for the last two months.” Opening the door, Fitz saw a stranger dressed in a UPS uniform on his doorstep rather than his friends.
“Special delivery for Kevin Fitzgibbon. Sign here.” The delivery man handed Fitz the device, taking it back after he’d scrawled his name in his usual chicken scratch. “Here you go.”
Fitz took the square package and headed back into the living room.
“What the hell is that?” Ronan asked. “Looks like record albums.”
Jude snickered. “You finally broke down and got all of Taylor Swifts albums. It’s about time. Nothing sounds better than vinyl.”
“I didn’t order albums.” Fitz shook his head.
“I didn’t order anything, come to think of it.
” He pulled the mailer tab and emptied the package onto the coffee table.
It was three copies of Laying Down the Law.
“Holy shit! The kids are on the cover.” He handed one to Ronan and Jude, keeping the third one for himself. “Guys, come see this!”
“This is so cool,” Ronan said, flipping through the pages.
“Daddy, I don’t want to see another touchdown.” Aurora rolled her eyes, sighing dramatically.
“Well, then it’s a good thing I’ve got something different to show you.” Fitz handed the calendar to his daughter.
“That’s us on the cover! We’re famous!” Aurora squealed. “Hollywood, here I come!”
The cover shot was of Aurora, Wolf, and Everly standing side by side and laughing together as they cuddled their chickens.
A slip of paper dropped from the calendar as the kids began to page through it.
Fitz grabbed it. “Listen to this, it’s a note from the Massachusetts Farm Bureau.
‘Thanks to the brave members of the Salem Police Department, who are no spring chickens, we have decided to change the format of this year’s calendar from hunky officers of the law to one combination that never gets old; kids and animals. Thank you for your participation.’”
“This picture is of me!” Wolf shouted, running to show Jude. The shot pictured Wolf being chased by Fricassee.
“What the hell happened to me?” Jude asked, in a pouty voice. “I was in that picture too.”
“Like the letter said, Uncle Jude, you’re too old.” Everly offered a sympathetic smile.
“Here’s Everly!” Wolf waved his friend forward.
Everly ran to Wolf’s side and let out a little scream. The picture was a profile of Everly and Hen Solo, nose to beak. “This was my favorite pose! What do you think, Daddy?”
Ronan’s pout was even deeper than Jude’s. “It’s great, honey.”
“And here’s Aurora.” Fitz turned his copy around to show his daughter the picture of her and Hennifer Lopez. Aurora lay on her stomach in the grass with Hennifer standing on her back. “You’re so beautiful, honey.”
“I know, Daddy! We gotta finish making the cookies.” Aurora pecked a kiss to Fitz’s cheek and rushed back toward the kitchen. Everly and Wolf followed behind her.
“That was our one shot to be immortalized,” Ronan grumped.
“Forever young and impossibly gorgeous,” Jude added.
“I told you guys not to count your chickens before they hatched.” Fitz snorted. It only stung a little that his hunky photo shoot had been canned in favor of the kids. The look of pure joy on his daughter’s face at seeing herself a May’s calendar girl was enough to soothe his ruffled feathers.
As for Ronan and Jude, they both still looked madder than two wet hens, but Fitz knew they were good eggs and that both would eventually come around to see, just like Chicken Little, that the sky wasn’t actually falling.
He, Jude, and Ronan would have plenty of future opportunities to shake their tail feathers, rule their roosts and be cocks of the walk.
THE END