"Is the baby healthy?" Adam persisted.
I nodded. "Yep."
"And you're not finding out the sex?" he took a card from the dealer, another insurance agent from the same company Lucian worked for. He had territory in the next town over. They tried not to cannibalize on one another's stomping grounds.
"We want to be surprised," Lucian replied for me. I smiled at him and put my hand on his knee.
Adam owned the house next door. Thankfully, his personal space issues didn't extend to being a bad neighbor. He kept to himself, for the most part, extending the occasional invitation to us for dinner or a game of horseshoes.
It was his barn that had been the hiding place of the owl and deer. Lucian recounted the tale while I rolled my eyes and giggled at my silliness. But to be fair, Adam said he'd seen the owl as well.
"Yeah, he's a big one. I don't see him very often." Adam considered the cards in his hand and put two down. "But I figure an owl that big has the right to come and go as he pleases."
Lucian nodded as I chuckled. "As long as he stops trying to come into our kitchen, I'm okay with it."
Adam promised to keep an eye out for any weird animals, and then I watched them play. I wasn't “allowed” to play after I won every hand for three months in a row. I was sure they'd let me win, but they swore they hadn't, and that I was just that hard to read. After some begging, they let me play just one hand per night, which I always won.
I tried to jump up when the oven dinged that the pickles were done, but it was more like a creaky hobble out of the chair as my hips protested.
Lucian put his hand on my back. "I'm okay," I said before Adam tried to help me, too. "Just getting achy sitting on the wooden chair." More so now that I was pregnant. We really should get cushions for these. Now that we’re older, our bottoms don’t have as much of their own natural cushioning.
"You don't have to stay down here and tend to us," Lucian's buddy from high school, Robert, said. "Go relax, we can see to ourselves."
"I think I will." I'd never left one of the poker games early, but if anyone was allowed a nap it was me. Thinking of that gigantic owl was making it harder to sleep, when I didn’t have to pee, of course. "I'll get these pickles out and then go have a late nap."
As soon as I walked into the kitchen, I saw it. The back porch floodlight had tripped, showing me that damn owl was on our porch rail again. I'd had enough.
Like I told Adam, I didn't mind the owl being around. He was a gorgeous bird. But if I wanted to walk out onto my back porch and enjoy the evening, I should've been able to.
I'd been anticipating him showing up again. "I've got your number, you big, beautiful bird," I whispered.
On the counter next to the back door, I'd put a giant air horn. I'd just open the door and stick my arm out, blasting the horn to scare the owl. Maybe then he'd be content to stick closer to the barn and stop watching me in the kitchen.
His eyes followed me across the kitchen until I couldn't see him from my angle by the door. I turned the deadbolt on the back door and peered out the glass to make sure he wasn't close to the door. He was still in his spot on the railing. Good.
Inching the door open, I stuck my arm out and pressed down the top of the air horn, but nothing happened.
I jerked my arm in and inspected the canister, glancing frequently out the window to make sure the winged beast hadn't moved closer. He hadn't, and I realized I'd left the tab on the can. I pulled it off and tried again, sticking my hand out the door.
Pressing the nozzle of the horn, I squealed as it went off, louder than I'd expected.
Yanking my arm inside, I slammed the door shut to the sound of scraping chairs from the dining room. Lucian and Adam ran through the door first. "What the heck?" Lucian roared. "Are you okay?"
I grinned triumphantly as I looked out the window. The owl was gone. I hadn't seen it leave, but my angle had been bad with my arm out the door. "It worked. He left."
"Who?" Adam took the air horn from my hand and set it on the counter across the kitchen.
"The owl!"
Lucian and Adam stared at me like I'd grown an extra head while the other guys filed back into the dining room snickering. "You could've warned us," Lucian said.
Adam came into the kitchen and raised his nose in the air, sniffing. Crap. The oven. The pickles were still inside. "Let me get this."
I handed him a plate for them, and within minutes, he and Lucian walked out with a plate full of oven-fried pickles. They were only a touch extra crispy; nobody would know the difference.
Their irritation did nothing to squash my triumph at getting my back porch back. I cracked the door open and peered out into the night. No sign of the owl.
With a deep breath and stretch, I stepped outside, just because I could. I left the door open, though, I wasn't stupid. If the owl showed one feather, I'd be back inside in a flash.
