Wolf In Sheep's Clothing

Chapter 51

When Nicholas began to crawl, Arthur had gone into town for some wood to build a makeshift baby gate to keep him from getting into everything while they worked on getting the spare room cleared out. They put up the baby gate in the doorway of the kitchen to keep him from getting in there while he roamed. He kept following Amelia as she was throwing stuff out of the room.

He reached up to her and whimpered.

Amelia sighed as she picked him up. "Sweetheart, momma's gotta clean out this room," she peeked her head out of the room. "Arthur!"

He came inside from the back porch. He walked over and took Nicholas from Amelia's arms.

"I need him occupied so I can finish cleaning out this room." She ran her fingers through her hair. "Please."

"Honey, why don't we take a break?" Arthur pleaded.

"I don't-"

"You're getting too stressed out about it," he wrapped his free arm around her shoulder, "come on, let's just sit down for a little bit, okay? We have plenty of time to clean out that room."

"But you still have the shed to work on-"

"I have Marston helping, it'll get done in no time, okay?"

Amelia nodded and took Nicholas back. She gave Arthur a weak smile and began making her way outside. Abigail was sitting on the back porch sipping a cup of tea while Jack played in the yard. John was on the roof of the half built shed hammering shingles. Arthur returned to his place with John as Amelia sat down next to Abigail.

Abigail looked over at her and smiled. "You okay?" She held out her arms for Nicholas.

"Yeah," Amelia handed Nicholas to her, "just a little stressed out."

"Babies are pretty stressful. But it'll get easier when they start getting older."

Amelia let out a sigh. "I hope you're right." She looked over as Nicholas reached for his mother. She sucked in a breath as she took him from Abigail's arms. She stood and settled him comfortably on her hip. She began walking down the steps. "How about we go bug your father and Uncle John?"

He cooed as he smiled. Amelia simply smiled herself as she made her way towards the shed, where both men were standing on. She saw a wooden board come hurling down from the roof and stepped back, scoffing at the man who threw it.

"John!" She scolded as he looked down, a widened look on his eyes. "You better watch where you throw that shit!"

"Sorry!" He said sheepishly.

"Better be," she mumbled, "how's it going up there anyway?"

"It's a shit show," Arthur grumbled, "Marston can't even hammer a nail right!"

"It would be better if you stopped yelling at me!"

"It's on my property dammit! You keep acting like a goddamn fool I'll keep yelling!"

"I'm trying to help you here!"

"Children," Amelia mumbled as she began walking away, "I wonder about your father, Nicholas. Sometimes I think I'll be marrying a child for Christs sake." She laughed as she shook her head. "You better not be worse than him."

———————————————————————————

With Nicholas's first birthday creeping around the corner, Amelia was beginning to feel frustrated at how they were going to do this. She wanted her son's first birthday to be memorable. But she was unsure of how to plan it.