Another side of Heartland

Chapter 71

-Caleb-

I yawned and stretched blinking my eyes open to look at the clock above the fireplace, 6:12am. Everyone was still exactly where they were last night when we were watching tv. Mallory's feet rested in my lap so I gently moved them and crept down the hallway to the bathroom. Once I did the usual bathroom stuff I went into the kitchen and got some water. I gripped the kitchen counter and looked out over the yard. The inky light was just beginning to make the barn silhouette against the sky, I felt arms wrap around me from behind and I laid my hand on top of Mallory's. "Did I wake you up?" Mallory shook her head against my back. 'I had to pee' I chuckled quietly and spun around in her arms. "So did I" I tucked the flyaway hair's behind Mallory's ears and I looked into her eyes. "Did you ever think we would end up together?" Mallory's eyes dodged around refusing to settle on mine and I grinned. "You liked me!"Mallory rolled her eyes and shoved my chest. 'Well I married you!' I backed her up until he back was pressed into the kitchen island. "Yeah but you liked me before, like back when I was already taken." Mallory's eyes stayed steady on the collar of my shirt. 'Your taken now' I laughed and stepped closer forcing Mallory to look up at me. "Mallory Odell you can be absolutely the biggest pain in my ass" Mallory laughed and stood on her toes to give me a kiss and who am I to refuse my wife. I broke the kiss and turned around to make a pot of coffee and Mallory slapped my back. I laughed and went about making coffee and she started making pancakes. I could see four shadowy figures making their way to the barn so I peeked in the living room to check on Katie. Katie was sound asleep curled up on the loveseat so I went back to the kitchen and grabbed a pan to start making scrambled eggs. Just as Mallory was making the last few pancakes the others came in the back door from doing chores. "Could somebody wake Katie up please?" Badger made his way to the living room and Georgie sat the milk, orange juice, butter, syrup and fruit on the table. We all took our seats at the table and filled our plates. Josh and Jade were needing to leave soon, Katie and Georgie were wanting to start unpacking their rooms and Badger wanted to go home to do some studying. After breakfast we all hugged and thanked Josh and Jade profusely and walked them out to their truck. As they pulled out of the driveway Georgie and Katie headed back inside to get their rooms all situated. "Your welcome to take the ranch truck, we don't need it for anything. You can just drive it back in the morning. We will cover feeding tonight." Badger said thanks and took off so I turned to Mallory who was tapping away on her phone.

Lou: how are the girls? Is everything okay? The moving truck made it as it should?

Mallory: they are good! Inside unpacking their stuff now. Everything went smoothly with the delivery.

Lou: I really hate to ask but is there anyway you guys could hold the fort down until Wednesday? I know it's a lot to ask but I could really use the time to get some stuff worked out with the lawyer.

Mallory: absolutely! We have it under control. The girls are no trouble and they have been good help. Be safe and good luck.

Mallory handed me her phone to read the text messages back and forth and I just nodded. "I feel bad for Lou." I put my arm around Mallory. 'I do too, but the sooner she sorts all of this out, the sooner she can move on with a better version of her life' Mallory leaned into me. "Speaking from experience?" I laughed and squeezed Mallory. 'I am, I had to get through the shit before the best part of my life came along.' Mallory giggled and kissed my jaw as we walked across the yard. "We have to be at the doctors office at 11:45 tomorrow, so I was thinking we could go the the appointment and then get lunch?" I laughed and nodded. 'Yes we can go get food afterwards.' We made our way back into the house and picked up all of the blankets and junk that was laying around in the living room from our camp out and then I washed the dishes while Mallory dug around to try and decide what we could have for dinner. "Surely spaghetti is safe?" I thought about it for a second. 'Yeah I think they both eat spaghetti.' Mallory came out of the pantry with pasta, spaghetti sauce and Parmesan. I dried my hands from the dishes and grabbed some ground beef out of the freezer and sat it in the sink to defrost. We spent the rest of the day watching TV and occasionally helping one of the girls when they needed it. Around 6 in the evening Georgie and I went out to start doing chores and Mallory headed to the kitchen to make dinner.