Another side of Heartland

Chapter 67

-Caleb-

Mallory and Katie were asleep on the couch so I stood up and pointed to the door quietly, catching Georgie and Badgers attention. We quietly went outside and pulled our shoes on. "It's 3:30, let's go get the chores done so we can work on the rooms this evening. We divided and conquered and by the time we were done Josh was pulling into the yard. I walked over to talk to Josh while Badger and Georgie finished up the hay and water. I gave Jade a hug and shook Joshes hand. "We just brought frozen pizza so we could eat whenever we wanted." Mallory opened the door and stepped out onto the porch, Her messy bun was off the side of her head, she had pulled on an old stained hoodie of mine and she had an old pair of jeans on. 'Hey guys!' Jade walked up onto the porch with the frozen pizzas and I could hear her telling Mallory why they got frozen ones as the house door closed behind them. I smiled and turned back to Josh. "I'm glad that you guys came. You didn't have to come and work though." Josh shrugged. 'The way Mallory answered earlier kinda made me think that you guys were trying to keep the girls occupied without saying too much so I figured it would be good to have people around.' I started to respond but Katie came out the door and leapt from the porch into my arms and I laughed. "Mallory said if you guys would help move all of the furniture in my room to the middle she and Jade would help me with the painters tape." I turned to Josh still holding Katie. 'Shall we?' Josh nodded and we all walked inside and pulled out boots off. Katie led us up to her room and we got to work.

-Mallory-

I heard the guys upstairs with Katie scooting furniture around when Georgie and Badger came into the kitchen through the back door. "Georgie and Badger, this is Jade, she's Joshes sister. He's upstairs helping Katie move the stuff in her room away from the walls" they were polite and introduced themselves. "If you guys wanna start moving the stuff away from the walls in your room Georgie, I'll bring the cleaning supplies and the painters tape up in a few minutes. If you need help with anything Caleb is up there too" Georgie smiled and turned on her heel heading up to the room and Badger turned and followed her. I turned back to Jade and kept pulling the packaging off of the tape. "Thank you again for bringing the pizza, you totally didn't have to do that." Jade peeked around the corner to make sure everyone was upstairs. 'Josh got the impression that you took the girls on because some family stuff was going on' Jade said in a hushed tone and I nodded. "Their dad was cheating on their mom and Georgie, the oldest one found out so they are moving back here. Lou was having a hard time and just needed a few days so we offered to take all of this on. It's good practice right?" Jade grinned and nodded. I leaned in close to her. 'I'm gonna have a baby.' Jades eyes went wide and she excitedly made her way over to me giving me a hug. "That's incredible! How far along? When are you due?!" Jade whisper yelled and laughed at the excitement bouncing off of her. 'Almost three months. I'm due in May.' Jade squealed and gave me a hug as Josh and Caleb walked into the kitchen. "Why are we screeching?" Josh fussed as he grabbed a water out of  the fridge. 'My guess is that Mallory told Jade she's gonna have a baby.' It took a full five seconds for the news to register in Joshes brain and then he turned to me giving me a hug and then made his way across the kitchen to give Mallory a hug. "That's incredible guys. It's amazing! Congratulations!" We all were smiling and happy as we made our way up the stairs with all of the painters tape. I have a few rolls to Badger and Georgie and Caleb stayed to help them so Josh and Jade came into Katie's room to help me. Josh started taping off the trim up top and Katie and I were taping off the outlets, window sills and light switches while Jade did the floor trim. Once we got everything taped off Caleb brought the paint up to us and we set to work. About two hours later we had all of the walls painted and we had to wait for them to dry before we could do the trim. "I say, we go make pizza and watch a movie while this dries." A chorus of yeses agreed and we made our way to the living room. Caleb and Josh went to the kitchen to put the pizza in the oven and Jade and I scrolled through the DVDs to pick a movie. We settled on Willy Wonka and Badger put it in for us. We all settled down in the living room and paused the movie until the food was ready. Caleb yelled into the living room that the pizza was done and for us to come get our plates. When our plates were full and we had drinks we went back to the living room and settled in Josh in the recliner, Jade and Katie in the floor on a pallet and Badger and Georgie were on the loveseat.