The coffee pot steams, turning my attention away from my phone screen, and I take a mugfrom the cupboard. As I pour my cup of salvation, my phone dings from the spot I left it.
Colter; Stop calling me, Honeybee!!
I snicker again.
Me; Never ;) x
Sipping my coffee, I decide to take my mug and head over to my parent’s house. My mama will be awake now. Old habits die hard and all that.
Removing a stray piece of paper and a pen out of my messy drawer, I scribble a note to Ellie.
Ellie-belly
Heading over to Mamaw’s and Gramps.
Come for breakfast when you’re up xx
Walking out my front door, I start the one minute and thirty-seven second walk over to the main house where my parents live.
Colter and I have our own houses on the land. I decided to build exactly one minute and thirty-sevenseconds away from the main house as it was convenient with a baby, and then a toddler, and then a small child.
Although, it was once helpful, now that she’s nine, I’m starting to regret that decision.
Colter’s smart, he built on the other side of the property, closer to the stables and the bunkhouse.
Maybe they’ll let me rebuild out to the East.
My favourite part of the land. Hidden with the memories I try to keep locked up tight.
Opening the never-locked front door I take a step inside and instantly smell breakfast cooking already.
“Hey, Mama,” I say in her direction as I walk into the kitchen.
“Hey, baby girl-” she smiles up at me. “What are you doing up so early?” My mom asks, wiping her hands down her apron.
“Couldn’t sleep, dang sun was shining through the curtains,” I reply.
“Well, that’s summer in Tennessee for ya.” She winks at me.
Taking my usual seat on the island, I continue nursing my first coffee of the day in my hands.
“Need any help?” I ask, knowing full well the answer.
“No, thank you, Angel.” She smiles at me. Typical Mama.
She turns back to the stove, flipping the eggs she was cooking before I arrived.
“Any plans today?” I ask, sneaking a piece of bacon off the lazy Suzen set up in front of me.
“Well, I think Daddy’s going fishing, and guess I’ll be here. Where’s Ellie-Bellie anyway?”
I laugh at her. If I know my Mama as well as I know I do, she will not be going fishing with my Daddy. She will be planning a day with my daughter. Like she does every day; especially when school is out.
I smile back at her. “Our pre-teen’s still snoring away. Long gone are the days where she would wake me up at this time with her cowboy hat and boots in the nude demanding we go ‘horsey riding’.”
Since Ellie could walk, she loved the horses, and the cows, and about anything that was an animal. Living on a ranch and with us as her teachers, that girl mastered the way around a horse by the time she was five.
“Well, she can hang around with me. I have some errands to run anyway today,” Mama says, her face lighting up at the thought.
