The BlackWolf Effect (Book IV)

CHAPTER THIRTEEN - Thanksgiving

It was nearly brutal. There was a no holding back rule since there were no small children and no women. The only one who broke this rule was Henry but other than restraining himself during a tackle, Henry gave it all he had. Grass and dirt flew in the air and shouts of encouragement came from the women. It got so brutal that three men went tumbling into the tree after a slightly violent tackle. Henry was the one who made the impact and his back slammed against the tree but since he was built tougher than a human, he got up and dusted off and began the next play. The game itself lasted for an hour and by the end, all of the men were covered in grass stains and mud.

"Well, we won," said Timber, happily. "Joe is pretty good."

"He'd better be," said Emily with a grin.

"Let's get dinner ready, shall we?" said Grace as the men walked by to go change in the master bedroom.

Timber, who was not the only pregnant woman in the kitchen, had to maneuver carefully. There were three other bellies to avoid, all at different stages. The work was divided up and the women began to prepare the food. Grace already had the larger of the two turkeys in one of the ovens and two pies were baking in the other. Timber had been given the yams which proved to be challenging because she kept eating the marshmallows. She found it helped with the nausea she was fighting despite her tea.

"Hey, don't eat them all," said Henry, coming into the kitchen.

"I'm pregnant," said Timber. "I will if I want to and you can't do anything about it."

"There won't be any left for anyone else," said Henry, looking disappointedly at the almost empty bag.

"That's why I got multiple bags," said Grace, bringing out two more unopened bags of fluffy white marshmallows. "I did the same thing when I was pregnant with Emily. Only for me, it was the pecans for the pie."

"Whipped cream is my weakness," said one of the pregnant women.

"Smells good in here," said Joe. "Grace, you raised one hell of a cook. I had to start exercising more when Emily started cooking for me."

"You're sweet," said Emily, standing on her tiptoes to kiss his cheek. Joe towered over Emily at five foot ten. Timber thought it was cute.

"There's beer in the fridge, y'all," said Grace.

"Thanks," said Henry. "Hey, hey, hey, don't crowd! I'll get it."

All of the men had tried to enter the kitchen at the same time at the announcement of their favorite cold beverage but as it was loaded with seven women, there was not enough room. Henry grabbed the case of Red Tail and went to the living room to pass out the drinks and watch the Lions play the Cowboys.

The kitchen was then filled with talk of babies and husbands. The aroma of the impending feast filled the entire home. Timber and the other expecting mothers sat on stools as they made their dishes. Emily had finished her green bean casserole and moved to help Timber.

"You alright?" asked Emily. "You look a little green and pale."

"I think I'll be okay, but I'm running low on energy. Can you take over? Je dois me tourner. Can you give me half an hour?"

"Absolutely," said Emily. "Mama, Timber is tired. I'll be right back."

Emily reached into the fridge and grabbed a wrap for Timber and helped her up the stairs. As soon as she was out of sight, Timber Turned and followed Emily into her old bedroom. The walls were still pink but she had taken her furniture to San Francisco. Emily hand fed her the tortilla with raw beef and helped her down slowly.

"This is really hard on you, being pregnant, isn't it?"

Timber nodded but shrugged and smiled.

"I'll be back in thirty minutes to wake you up," said Emily and she left Timber to sleep.