AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Where’s the baby?”
“In Mommy’s tummy for right now.”
A horrified look crossed Rose Marie’s face as she gaped at her mother. “Mommy! You ate the baby?”
Everyone burst into laughter as Ethan gave Rose Marie a simple explanation to satisfy her curiosity and dispelled that notion. The rest of the meal was relatively calm.
Afterward, Grandma Kate joined Hank and Travis at the windows by the back door, looking out over the ranch and the horse barns. Veronica sat in the living room with Grace and Rose Marie where they were decorating the Christmas tree. Hank was looking forward to picking out a Christmas tree with their woman that weekend. He saw the satisfaction in Grandma Kate’s eyes as she asked, “I was right about the two of you, wasn’t I?”
“In what sense, Grandma Kate?” Hank asked.
She crossed her arms in front of her, mirroring their stance and looking out the windows as well. “So much of Veronica’s life was online and she was so sequestered in her bleak apartment.” She gestured out the window with a delicate, wizened hand. “She’s discovering the beauty and life outside the windows on her world. She has you to thank for that.”
Hank put an arm around Grandma Kate’s shoulders and said, “Ma’am, we have you to thank for bringing her here. If you hadn’t done that, we’d still be living only half lives, walking into cold, dark homes every night.”
Kate smiled, her gaze on a distant point. “I do believe these things have a way of working out. Is there anything you wanted to ask me about?”
“As a matter of fact there is, ma’am,” Hank said as he and Travis shared a glance.
Chapter Eighteen
“Okay, I think that should stay on, Travis. Let me put the headband on now,” Veronica said as she tugged on Travis’s wig and nodded. “Team Flashdance is going to be a hit.”
Travis squirmed in his neon pink tights and multicolored leotard, pulling the seam out of his butt crack again with a groan. “Nika, how do you ladies put up with these things?” The back of the leotard wasn’t big enough to cover his whole ass and he felt so exposed.
Veronica giggled and moved behind him. “It looks fine. The tights cover you so don’t worry about the leotard. Even though it’s not technically part of the Flashdance costume, the tutu will cover your butt, too. I couldn’t have every woman in Divine ogling your fine physiques. You look fantastic. I’ll probably have to keep beating all your admirers off of you.”
“Does this leotard make my butt look big?” Hank asked with a snicker as he stepped into the bathroom doorway and flexed his biceps while he turned and displayed himself. Travis tossed him his long curly red wig and lisped, “Pink is your color, big boy.”
Veronica snorted as she adjusted the Velcro tape on the pink net tutu around Travis’s waist and said, “You guys are being such good sports with this charity event. I wondered if you’d go through with it.” She tugged Hank’s wig onto his head nice and straight and then slid on the neon pink headband so it sat across his forehead, same as Travis.
As she used a makeup brush to turn their cheeks bright pink, she asked, “Any chance I could get a picture with you in our costumes?”
Travis scoffed. “I suppose. Pretty soon, everyone in Divine is going to see us in drag. Might as well immortalize the moment.”
“It’s for such a good cause, too,” she said as she fixed their lips and then brushed on bright blue eye shadow.
“A boy’s ranch, huh?”
Hank nodded as he tugged down his wig. “Yup. Emma told me they’ll be able to break ground on the boy’s ranch house in the spring, thanks to the good response to this fundraiser. The boys will have a chance to learn life skills, as well as how to ranch, hunt, fish, and how to cook, too. Some of those boys have never had anyone give a damn about whether they learned anything. That ranch is going to have a huge impact on a lot of kids.”
“Sounds like it,” Travis said as he yanked at the tights because they were pulling at the hair on his legs and then put on his sneakers. “They have instructors lined up?”
