Forgotten Dawn (Forgotten Book 2)

Chapter 7

 Chad loaded the last of the chairs into the trailer and shut the door just as the rental company pulled in. With Anna passing the chairs down from the truck and Chad loading them, they had finished in a surprisingly short amount of time. He helped guide the driver as he backed up and attached the trailer to the hitch. The driver pulled away with a wave in a cloud of dust as he drove down the dirt drive.

When Chad turned back toward his own truck, he was met with the sight of Anna standing in the back of the truck looping the garlands around her shoulder like you would an extension cord. The only problem was that the flowers were real, so she had little purple petals stuck all in her hair.

"Let me help you with those," he offered, reaching up to take them.

"Thanks. I wasn't sure what you wanted done with them, but figured you wouldn't appreciate driving around with garlands of flowers in the back of your big manly truck," she laughed while handing them down.

Chad tossed them in a garbage can that sat alongside the barn. He offered Anna his hand to help her out of the back of the truck. Stumbling when she touched the ground, she caught herself against his chest. The smell of lavender filled the air around her. Chad reached a hand out to remove some of the flower petals from her hair, but she recoiled and stepped back abruptly.

"Sorry. You have flowers in your hair," he explained.

Stepping around the side of the truck, she looked at herself in the side view mirror and began removing them. Chad watched her, curious about her reaction. Once she had picked the last of the petals from her hair, she walked toward the house without a word. His eyes followed her until she disappeared through the back door.

After double checking that everything in the barn was back in order, he hopped into his truck and parked it in front of the house. Rusty was sleeping on the front porch, and Chad gave him a pat as he walked by. Slipping his boots off in the entryway, he found Emily fussing while lying on a quilt in the living room floor. He picked his niece up and began bouncing her.

"What's the princess doing in here all by herself?" he cooed at her.

Emily smiled up at him, kicking her legs. Chad had never really thought about having kids of his own, but he enjoyed Randy's kids and his precious nieces.

"Chels?" he called.

"In here," she answered, sticking her head out of the bathroom doorway. "Can you take Emily upstairs? Anna took Camilla up to change her, but Emily was still sleeping."

"Sure."

Chad carried Emily up the stairs, nuzzling her neck to make her giggle. Inside the nursery, he found Anna lifting Camilla from the changing table.

"I'll trade you," Anna said, holding out his niece.

They awkwardly made the exchange. Anna began changing Emily, so Chad took a seat in one of the rocking chairs. The baby pulled her bare foot up to her mouth and began sucking on her toes.

"Are those piggies yummy?" he asked, smiling down at her. She grinned from behind her slobbery foot, causing him to laugh.

Anna took a seat in the chair beside him, where Emily proceeded to chew on her own foot. "You would think they were twins," she joked.

"It's just a good thing they dress them in specific colors, because I don't think I'd ever be able to tell them apart otherwise."

"Me either." They sat in silence watching the girls for several minutes before Anna spoke again. "So, how did the world's youngest married couple come to be married for real?"

"Hmmm," Chad looked up at Anna and picked up where he had left off with his parents' love story. "After the funeral, Grandpa Miller asked Grandpa Crawford if they could watch Ma for the night. He didn't feel he could take care of her in his current state. The Crawfords agreed and took Ma back to their place. Of course, Grandma Crawford immediately recognized the ring on Ma's finger. It was entirely too big for even her thumb, and she kept having to slide it back on."

Anna laughed, "I can just picture that poor girl trying to keep that ring on. It's a wonder she didn't lose it."

"Well, Grandma Crawford was afraid she would. She took it from Ma and promised to put it in a safe place for her until she was old enough. Tucking it into her jewelry box, she planned to let Grandpa Miller know about the ring the next day. She never got the chance to tell him. That night, Grandpa Miller drove out to the cemetery with a bottle of moonshine and spent most of the night on Grandma Miller's grave. The next morning, a passerby found his truck crashed into a tree a mile from the cemetery."

"Oh no," Anna gasped.

"Nobody knows if he drove the truck into the tree on purpose, but the sheriff determined he had never pressed the brakes. Of course, back then, nobody wore seatbelts. The only known relative that the Miller's had was Grandpa Miller's brother down in Texas. He didn't want anything to do with Ma or the land, so he offered the Crawfords the land in exchange for taking in Ma."

"He did not!" she exclaimed.

"He did. He wasn't married and had no kids of his own. Without the Crawfords, Ma would have become a ward of the state. So, they took her in, and her uncle signed over the deed to the property. The Crawfords discussed it and decided that they would hold onto the land for Ma until she was of age. Then, they would sign it back over to her. Despite being raised together, the kids just continued on believing that their wedding under the tree was real until they were teenagers and realized that it took more than a few words and a ring to be legally married.

"At that point, they fought like cats and dogs whenever they were around each other. Dad spent all his time helping Grandpa on the ranch, and Ma got a job as a babysitter for a family in town. Despite living in the same house, they rarely saw each other except at school. Even then, they ignored each other. After dad graduated from high school, he enlisted in the army and did a tour in the Gulf War where he served as an army chaplain. When he had returned, Ma had moved into her parents' old house, but it was falling down around her.

"Uncle Joe had moved out to California as a pastor of a church at that point, so Dad moved back in with Grandpa and Grandma Crawford to help with the ranch. On Sunday's, Dad was the youth minister at the Baptist church. Grandma suggested he take the young men of the church over to Ma's house and help fix it up a bit as a service project.

"Turns out there had been life insurance policies on both of Ma's parents. Her uncle had put them in a trust for her until she turned eighteen. It wasn't much, but it was enough to pay for the materials to fix up the old house. Over the next six months, they worked closely remodeling the house. They also fell in love and began dating.

"After a year, Dad asked Grandma Crawford if she still had Grandma Miller's ring, or if she had already given it back to Ma. Grandma Crawford had completely forgotten about it, so she still had it in her old jewelry box. Dad took it and used it to propose to Ma under the same tree they had gotten married under when they were kids. Three months later, they were married for real with Uncle Joe officiating."

Anna wiped away a tear before she spoke. "That was sweet, but wouldn't it have been like he was marrying his sister, since his parents raised her?"

Chad startled the baby when he barked out a laugh, "I never really thought about that. You'll have to ask Ma next time she's out here."

"I would never!" she giggled.

"Aren't you all just cozy?" Chelsea teased from the doorway.

Chad grabbed a purple stuffed elephant through the bars of the crib beside him and threw it at his sister. "Just for that, you are on baby duty." He handed Camilla to his sister and left the women in the nursery.

"So much for keeping my distance," he said to himself as he closed himself in his room.