“Just bacon and eggs,” Dalton said. “But plenty of them.”
“Amazing,” Ella groaned happily as she reached the landing.
“And I helped,” Dove said brightly.
She was standing on her footstool, wearing her grandmother’s apron over her pajamas and a big smile on her face.
“Now Iknowit’s going to be an amazing breakfast,” Ella said on her way over to the stove to kiss Dove’s soft cheek.
“Want to start the toast?” Dalton asked.
“I was on toast duty,” her dad complained.
“No, no,” Dalton said. “You were going to write us some notes about painting the barn.”
“You and your notes,” her father sighed.
But he didn’t argue, and he stayed in his seat.
In just a few minutes, they were all seated around the table, taking a moment of silent thanks before digging into their breakfast and conversation.
“You’ll want to start with prep,” Dad said. “Hose her down, get the lay of the land, and when you’re done with that, it will be time to go into town and get some paint.”
“Excellent,” Dalton said, taking the written rundown from him.
“When you find wood rot, you’ll replace it,” Dad said. “Shouldn’t be much because we did this five years ago. But we’ve had some harsh winters in between.”
“Yes, sir,” Dalton said.
Ella bit her lip. Last time they did this, her brother had been around to help out. Dad hadn’t been able to do this particular job himself since then, and he hadn’t let her or her mother do it either.
“Only needs to be done every five years or so,” Dad said gently, patting her hand, as if he had read her mind.
“We haven’t let things go too much since Andy, have we?” she heard herself ask.
“Of course not,” Dad said. “What we couldn’t do ourselves we hired out. Everything is fine.”
Ella nodded, and was surprised at how much relief she felt.
For a long time, she’d wished she had more education so she might have had more career choices at her disposal. But this conversation was making her realize how much she really loved working her family’s land.
It might not be what she had pictured herself doing as a child, but she could feel her parents’ and grandparents’ hands working alongside hers sometimes, and that was a feeling she wouldn’t trade for a fancy job in the city.
“You two are sure you won’t need my help?” Mom asked.
“Don’t worry about us, Mom,” Ella told her firmly. “Dad would have said if it wasn’t a two-person job.”
“I don’t have to go to book club,” Mom said, clearly choosing to worry anyway.
“After you stayed up half the night to finish thebook?” Dad teased her. “You’regoingto that book club, or I am.”
“You?” Mom asked, laughing.
“You probably read half that book out loud to me,” Dad teased. “I could write an essay about it, I bet.”
“It was such a good one,” Mom said fondly. “Harry’s Trees.Wonderful.”
“You can go to your book club,” Dalton said firmly. “Ella and I are an amazing team.”
