Chapter 7
Lottie awoke on Saturday morning to the blended aroma of coffee and cinnamon.
She opened one eye and checked the time and sat up so fast that the room did a couple of spins.
When everything settled, she looked over at the clock sitting on the nightstand again, and it really was five minutes past ten.
She couldn’t remember the last time she had slept past eight o’clock.
“Good morning!” Knox pushed through the door with a tray in his hands. “Aunt Bernie thought it would be romantic for me to bring you breakfast in bed this morning. She’s in her glory right now. Too bad we’ll have to break her heart in a few weeks.”
She threw the covers off, slung her legs over the side of the bed, and stood up. “Give me a minute to go to the bathroom, and don’t set that tray on the bed. If I spilled coffee on that beautiful chenille spread, I would be mortified.”
“Does that mean pretend relationships must have a picnic on the floor rather than breakfast in bed?” Knox said.
“That’s right,” she replied and padded barefoot out into the hallway.
One glance in the bathroom mirror made her glad that she had picked up her makeup bag on the way out of the room.
Her hair looked like an old string mop that had been hung over the clothesline to dry.
She quickly ran a brush through it, braided it into one long rope, and then brushed her teeth.
She was halfway down the hall to her room when one of the sisters stepped out of a bedroom.
“Good morning,” Lottie said as cheerfully as she could when she was wearing a faded T-shirt that covered the hem of her running shorts.
“Mornin’ to you. You probably don’t have all the names straight yet, but I’m Ivy, the youngest sister. I’m hoping that the adoption goes through and then I can really be number eight, but until then I’m just the foster sibling.”
“Pleased to meet you, Ivy,” Lottie said. “Is everyone up and ready to work on eggs this morning?”
“They are straggling in a few at a time. Mary Jane has the real eggs boiled and ready to decorate, and there’s like a million plastic eggs for us to fill up with candy and bunny money.”
Lottie stopped at the open door into her bedroom. “What is bunny money?”
“It’s little slips of paper that have one dollar or fifty cents printed on them.
The kids can take their money to the Easter store set up out in the barn and buy trinkets.
Like Slinkies, coloring books, bracelets, and little things like that,” Ivy explained.
“Tertia and Ophelia will man the store right after the egg hunt, since it was their idea. Looks like Knox is waiting for you. We can talk later.”
“Save me a seat by you,” Lottie said.
“You got it.” Ivy grinned.
Knox looked up from his place beside the tray on the floor. “That didn’t take long.”
“I’m not high maintenance. Just needed to tame my hair a little and brush my teeth. Now I’m ready for coffee and one of those cinnamon rolls. They look homemade.”
“They are.” Knox slipped one over onto a small plate, added a fork to the side, and handed it to her.
“Tertia sent them over this morning from the café. She’ll be late for the party because she and Nash will keep the café open until after supper.
We’ll be gone to the bar by then, so you’ll have to get acquainted with her on Sunday. ”
“One at a time?” she muttered.
“I wouldn’t say that, but after a while you will be able to put names and faces together.
It took me a few weeks to get them all straight, and if they don’t have their baby or babies with them, I still get Endora and Luna mixed up.
There are six of the seven already here, plus Ivy, who you were just visiting with in the hallway.
Plus Mary Jane and Bernie, and the sisters-in-law, Audrey and Willa Rose, and they are all downstairs right now. ”
“And that many guys?” She cut off a piece of the cinnamon roll with the edge of her fork and put it in her mouth.
“They’ve all gone to the barn to get out the tables and chairs and the props for the egg hunt.” Knox picked up a second pastry with his fingers and took a bite.
“Props?” Lottie asked.
“I’ll let it be a surprise. After we eat, I’ll walk you down to the dining room, and then I’m going to join the guys.”
“You’re throwing me to the wolves?” she groaned.
“Miss Charlotte Johnston, I’ve seen you in action. A den of wolves wouldn’t stand a chance against you.” He stood up and picked up the empty tray. “See you at lunch. Even though some of us had a late breakfast, chili will be on the bar at noon.”
Lottie snagged the last orange segment and popped it into her mouth.
Since no one was around, she didn’t expect a kiss on the top of her head, but she was still disappointed when he left without any kind of romantic gesture.
She stood up, closed the door and dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, pulled on a pair of socks, and padded down the steps.
The noise of several conversations going on at once filtered from the kitchen and dining room out into the foyer.
She stood in front of a coat tree and listened, but she couldn’t make out individual voices.
She had been to lots of church fund-raising functions with her mother, so she wasn’t new to crowds.
But she and Knox were lying to these good people, and that really rattled her.
“They don’t bite,” Bo whispered from behind her.
Lottie’s soul came close to leaving her body. “Are you sure? Where did you come from?”
Bo looped her arm into Lottie’s. “Absolutely sure, and I followed you and Knox down the stairs. Come on. I’ll go with you into the lion’s den.”
“Thank you,” Lottie whispered, “but I’m not a little lamb.”
“No, you are not. Any woman who chooses her own path is on my hero list,” Bo told her. “Hey, everyone, we are here and ready to go to work.”
Bernie caught Lottie’s eye and patted the chair next to her. “Come sit by me and help put this bunny money and a candy in each plastic egg.”
“Or you can help my twin daughters decorate eggs,” Rae said.
“I called first,” Bernie argued, “and I’m the queen.”
“Neither of you get to sit by the new family member,” Ivy protested. “She’s coming to my table with the twins, and we are putting glitter and stickers on these eggs after we dye them, right?”
Both girls raised their fists. “We want Lottie. We want Lottie,” they chanted in unison.
“Only until lunch is served,” Bernie agreed. “Then it’s my turn.”
Lottie felt like a cow being auctioned off at a sale barn, but she just smiled and sat down in the last empty chair at a square card table. “Hello, y’all know my name. What’s yours?”
“I’m Daisy, and this is Heather. It’s okay if you can’t tell us apart. Most people can’t,” the little brown-haired girl said.
She was right. They were definitely identical, and had they been dressed alike, Lottie wouldn’t have a clue which one was Daisy or Heather.
Heather narrowed her eyes and studied Lottie for several seconds. “Did you already kiss Uncle Knox?”
“Heather!” Rae scolded. “That’s personal and a very rude question.”
“But, Mama, I just want to know so I can ask her how it feels to kiss a boy, and if she’s going to write his name on an egg,” Heather countered.
Lottie leaned down and whispered. “Yes, I did kiss him, but I don’t think I’ll write his name on anything.”
“Did it make your toenails curl up?” Daisy asked.
“When that happened, did your polish crack and get all ugly?” Heather whispered.
“Good Lord!” Rae gasped. “Where did you hear that?”
“At school,” Daisy said with a shrug. “Our friend Brenda said that her mama told her bestie that her new boyfriend made her toenails curl up when he kissed her. We was all wonderin’ if it ruined her polish.”
Lottie chuckled and took off one of her socks. “Look. My polish is still good enough for church tomorrow morning, so kissing Knox didn’t do anything to mess it up.”
“Well, I ain’t kissin’ no boy, no how,” Heather declared with an expression of pure disgust.
“I might if he brings me chocolate,” Daisy said in a matter-of-fact tone.
“Rae, you are paying for your raising,” Mary Jane said from the dining room table.
“I think I’m being charged for Bo’s raising, too,” Rae said.
“Mama, are the guys going to hide them chocolate eggs like they did last year? The ones that have peanut butter in the middle?” Daisy asked.
Just like that, the conversation went from kissing to candy.
“I don’t know for sure, but if they don’t…” Rae’s blue eyes twinkled. “I saw some on the tables in the barn.”
“I’m going to buy them all,” Heather said.
“No, you ain’t,” Daisy argued. “Because I can run faster than you, and I’ll buy them before you get there.”
Rae held up a palm. “New rule. Each one of you can buy two. That’s the limit. You have to share with the other kids.”
Daisy gave Heather a dose of stink eye. “I told you.”
“What’d I do?” Heather asked in an innocent voice.
Daisy folded her arms over her chest. “That permission thing.”
Lottie wished for the millionth time that she had had a sister—or even a sibling close to her age. “What is the permission thing?”
“It’s better to ask forgiveness than permission,” Rae answered. “Where did you girls hear that?”
“At school,” Heather said with a shrug and expression identical to Daisy’s earlier one. “Brenda said her older sister told her, and it means to do what you want and then cry some tears, and your mama will forgive you.”
“Not this mama,” Rae assured them, “and don’t listen to what Brenda tells you.”
“Why?” Daisy asked.
“It will get you into more trouble than you can get out of,” Rae said.