Gone Country

Chapter 38 (The Surprise Spawn Of Angel)

*Charlotte*

I was so excited to be making dinner tonight for my family, Brant, and Angelica. Dad was keeping the promise we made, the one that I clearly stated he had to bring his next girlfriend home with his compromise that I would cook. I've never been so excited to cook in my whole entire life!

Out of the cookbook Jives gave to me for Christmas, I selected the recipe for a baked ham with a brown sugar honey glaze for this special occasion. My ham wasn't very big, only five pounds, so it wouldn't take but about two hours to prepare. I waited until six in the afternoon to prepare it since dad was going to get Angelica at eight when she gets off her shift at the hospital. I had everything planned out perfectly.

As I prepared the ham, I conned the twins into helping out with other arrangements. They set up the dinning table in the other room with our finest plates that actually matched, and the cups were made out of glass instead of plastic for this event. Somehow, I even talked them into cleaning up around the house for me a little bit. They vacuumed, did some dusting, swept the floors. I was so proud of them when they finished that I motioned them in to collect their reward.

"What do we get?" Caleb asked, his eyes brightening when I mentioned a reward. I squeezed him in the best hug I could possibly give him right now. "That's it?" he whined.

I turned to Cale who held out his arms, accepting my reward unlike his brother. He lifted me off the ground, murmuring, "You're welcome, little sister," when he nuzzled his face in my hair. He let me go so I could finish my ham and left seconds later with a bag of cookies to go do his own thing while I cooked. Caleb decided to stick around and watch.

I first prepared my glaze while my oven preheated. All I needed was to heat the honey and brown sugar in a saucepan and it was ready. Caleb helped me measure out the ingredients, then stood back to watch me stir. Cale and Caleb have been a big help during these last couple of days with Brant working. There wasn't a second that I felt lonely, not since I have them, my father, and Diesel to drive me insane. I miss Brant a lot, but it was bearable with my family here to take my mind off of things.

Thinking of Brant made me look at the time. He would be home soon, the instinct of making him a snack kicked in. Everyday this week he's come home starving to death. He carries a lunch, but working all day drains him to the point that he has to reboot himself. Usually I make him something nutritious to help energize him, like a turkey on wheat with some apple slices on the side. I asked Caleb to search around for something healthy that Brant could eat while I coated the ham in it's baking pan with the glaze I had made.

"How about a salami sandwich?" Caleb suggested.

It wasn't one hundred percent healthy like I usually try to make it from Brant's sake. I still agreed to it, only because in my mind I knew that Brant liked salami sandwiches. Caleb tossed together the snack, allowing me to get the ham in the oven and start preparations on the mashed potatoes and green beans we would have as sides.

I washed the fresh garden green beans under the spigot of the sink, potatoes too. A few seconds into my vegetable washing, I heard the front door open. This was my favorite part of the day. When Brant comes home, I always get that once in a lifetime romantic movie moment where I fling myself in his arms and he gives me a kiss that confirms he missed me as much as I missed him.

"Hello?" I heard him call, his tone different than usual. My heart still skipped a beat at the sound of his voice.

I abandoned my work station to skip out the kitchen, hurrying to where I saw him kicking off his working boots and dumping his hard hat and neon vest he's probably had to wear all day onto the coat rack. "Babe!" I exclaimed, ecstatic to see him.