Ichabod rolled his eyes. “They’re artists, they’re fine, they’re a little goofy and gothy and hippie and very Gen X-y.”
“That sounds…different. What’s their position on me?” That was what he wanted to know. The rest of it was details.
“Mom wants to know if you’re willing to raise Angora sheep or…Angora rabbits? I don’t remember. She always wants either llamas or alpacas. I don’t know. She’s got plans. Dad’s going to sit and watch football.”
“Llamas and alpacas, yes. Rabbits and sheep no.” He tilted his head. “Though I would consider a conservation herd, like churro sheep.” Angora anything was a giant pain in the butt, but alpacas were hearty.
“Cool. I told her it was up to you, and I mean it. I’m going to get the kids a puppy for Christmas. That’s my extent with animals. Thinking about getting a cat for myself.”
“What kind of dog?” He wasn’t sure that Ichabod was ready for a dog.
“Saint Bernard—they’re fuzzy.”
Oh dear God. That was… wow. Although Saint Bernards were great with kids and not too high-energy due to their size. “The only drawback to them is they don’t live as long as some of the other breeds, honey. Is six to eight years enough?”
Allie’s eyes went wide, and she stared at him and then at Ichabod. “Daddy? Is that bad? Is our Santa puppy going to die?”
Ichabod stared at him, and Ellis winced. Oh, he was so not getting laid tonight.
“I’m not going to get you a dying dog, but everything dies.” Ichabod closed his eyes and sighed. “Which was this remarkably gothy thing to say right now, given that we were talking about my parents. We’re not going to have to worry about your puppy dying. It’s just—” He pointed imperiously. “Christ! Mash bananas!”
He chuckled. “Right. Sorry, guys. Sometimes I forget I’m the only one who grew up on a ranch.” He kissed Chrissy’s cheek before putting her in her booster. “We got lots of bananas, kiddos.”
“Naners!”
“Yeah.” He peeled bananas, and each girl got a plastic forkto moosh with. He smashed about triple the amount they did in a quarter of the time, but it was hilarious to watch them.
Chrissy ate as much as she smooshed, and Allie was…enthusiastic. Banana flew through the air, and Mavis licked it right up, not snapping at it so she didn’t bite a careless child’s hand.
They sang some songs together. Ellis taught them a couple of old cowboy ditties he’d learned from a roving hand when he started out at his first ranch. Zane even stayed with them instead of going off to play video games, even though he scoffed a little bit at the singing. He was entirely too cool for that. But Michael, he was pretty good at yodeling.
“Okay, guys, that’s the bread in the oven. What should we do while we wait for it to cook?” Ichabod gave him a sidelong glance that told him what he would like to do, which made Ellis hope he didn’t spring wood right there in front of all the kids.
“We could play Uno,” Allie said.
“We could watch a movie!” Chrissy threw her arms up, banana flying again because her hands were covered in it.
“I’m going to go play some video games,” Zane finally said, getting up from where he’d been sitting at the table. He ducked his head, not looking them in the eye. “This was fun though.”
“Thanks for all your help, son.” Ichabod reached out to clap Zane on the shoulder. “I appreciate it.”
Ellis heard what the kids probably didn’t in that statement. It was more like,“Thanks for hanging out with us, Zane. Thanks for spending time with your brother and sisters and being with me. I know that it’s hard as a teenager and you did it.”
“Sure.” Zane flushed a bright pink and slumped his way out of the room.
Ellis grinned at Ichabod and picked up Chrissy to take herto the sink to wash her hands. “What kind of movie did you want to watch, kiddo?”
“Blue’s Clues.” It didn’t matter what time of day it was. It didn’t matter what they were talking about, whether it was a movie or TV. It didn’t matter to Chrissy. She wanted to watchBlue’s Clues.
“Michael, what’s your vote?” Ichabod asked.
“Well, if the horses are settled for right now, I would play Uno with Allie.” Michael stared at him as if willing him to say he would go back out in the cold to the barn.
“Why don’t we give it a little bit of time, maybe while the bread is baking. That way you can play a game of Uno with me and Allie, and your dad can do a little bit of his computer work while he’s watchingBlue’s Clueswith Chrissy. Does that sound like a plan?” Ellis squinted and ducked his head, wiggling his shoulders a little bit, like he was encouraging everybody. He didn’t want to be high-handed and arrange everybody’s day for them.
“I think that sounds great,” Ichabod put in. “I do need to do a little bit of my admin work. Come on, Chrissy-do,” he said after Ellis had washed her hands. “Let’s go watchBlue’s Clues.”
Chrissy leaped into her dad’s arms, and Ellis dried his hands off before going to get the deck of Uno cards. Mavis went with Chrissy because the couch was more comfortable than the cold floor, he was sure. But everybody else stayed at the table with him, and they had a roaring game of Uno.
