“Coffee, anyone?” I asked, just to feel useful.
“Yeah, thanks. That’d be great,” Carter said, smiling at Aria.
They were cuddled in Mike’s armchair and she was playing with the buttons of his shirt, looking a bit droopy.
Mal noticed the same and glanced at the clock on the wall. “She’s due for a nap and so are the boys. I’ll go make the boys’ bottles.”
Good. Because I didn’t know how to make them.
I fixed us coffees and juice for Payton—Mal told me that was what he’d want—while Mal made sure the babies were nourished.
“What about Aria?” I asked, peering over toward the family room.
“She’s going to be asleep on Carter by the time we get back.”
Mal was right. I very carefully handed Carter his coffee, because the little girl was asleep in the crook of his arm, sandwiched to his side in the chair. It was cute as fuck.
As soon as we were all settled, with the babies now tucked into cushions on the couch next to Mal and sucking down their bottles, we got serious.
I glanced at Payton who was concentrating on his book, juice, and some carrot sticks and apple slices, wondering what I could say while he was there.
“So, everyone went to the hospital?” I asked.
Mal nodded. He had his mug in one hand and his phone in the other. “Everyone dropped everything and ran.”
“It’s really impressive, if you look at it that way,” Carter murmured.
I shrugged. “They have a dedicated staff to take care of everything at a moment’s notice and they’re good people.”
We fell into silence. The boys finished their bottles, Mal got them to burp, and then settled them back in the playpen to sleep. I began to think about lunch. At least Payton and Aria needed more sustenance soon and they’d likely be hungry even if the adults weren’t.
I wandered into the kitchen and tried to figure out what Jenn had been doing before everything went south. Luckily it was straightforward and I was able to make sure at least everyone here would be fed.
Juanpablo alerted us to an arrival, and soon enough Russ walked in, frowning ever so slightly. He came into the kitchen after greeting the others quietly, and I gestured at the coffee machine.
“There’s pasta salad and garlic bread soon,” I told him.
Russ was a good man. Wren had always talked about him as if he was as big of a character as any Harrington and just as vital for the ranch.
“Good.” He clapped my shoulder as he went to get his coffee.
I didn’t ask if there was news. He would’ve said if there’d been any.
A moment later, everyone but the smallest three kids gathered around the table. Carter had put Aria in a little nest on the couch and she hadn’t stirred.
Payton was subdued, and picked on his food in a thoughtful way.
We were eating, when Mal perked up. “Wait, has anyone called Ora?”
Carter asked the obvious. “Who’s Ora?”
“Fern’s girlfriend.”
“Fern has a girlfriend?” I asked, because I was sure Emery would’ve told me in his family update.
Russ cleared his throat. “I called Samuel as soon as I got Isley and Jerrica to the hospital. He said as far as he knew Ora hadn’t been called, so he did that for us.”
These names were not familiar to me, which was weird. I was pretty sure I would’ve remembered them, even in the long list of names of staff and acquaintances I’d been given.
