Home for the Holidays Ch. 02

"Just what I like, a wet girl in the morning," he teased, dropping his head down to kiss me. I turned my face away.

"Nope," I said. "I snore."

"That you do," he said, grinning. "But it's a cute little snore."

I narrowed his eyes at him. "Hey, you two," my Mom said as she passed the open bathroom door. "I'm heading down to fix breakfast. Kenna, your dad is waiting on you to bring in the wood. Mara's already down there."

"I'm going, Mom," I said quickly. Walking past Nicky, I slapped his sweat-encased butt. "Hurry it up, Nicky. You've got to work if you want to be fed."

"I'll be right down." He closed the door behind me and I threw my brush on top of my bag in Mara's room.

It was as if I'd never left. Stock had to be fed, the cows milked and the milk brought in to Mom. The chickens were fed and the eggs gathered. Dad chopped a huge pile of wood and Mara, Nicky and I carted it all up to the back door of the house, piling it neatly.

"I never thought of you as a farm girl." Nicky brushed wood chips off of my jacket, dropping a kiss to my up-turned lips. "Somehow I'd always thought of you as city born and bred."

"I know, it took me a long time when I got to Lapeer to realize that people actually bought their milk and eggs in stores. It never tastes the same, though. Wait until you get a hold of a stack of my momma's homemade buttermilk pancakes."

"Sounds heavenly," Nicky said. Mara came up behind him with the last of the wood and a serious expression on her face.

"What's up, brat?" I said affectionately, tugging on her hat.

"Steven's car just turned in at the gate."