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“Mom, Dad?” she called.
“In here, sweetie!”
Birdie walked down the worn hallway. The paint had once been lilac, but it was now faded and stained from years of McAllister abuse. Looking at it with fresh eyes showed her how much in need of renovating the house was. Maybe she should talk to her siblings about this?
She was the youngest of four. An older sister and two older brothers. Birdie was the only sibling left in Lyntacky.
Entering the large, sunny kitchen dining area, Birdie found her parents doing naked yoga.
“A little warning!” She clapped a hand over her eyes. “Child in the house who absolutely does not need to see your dangly bits.”
“Birdie, being sky clad is natural. Were it not for the shock some of the people in town would get, your father and I would never choose to wear clothes,” her mother said as she bent into a downward dog, exposing more than any child should ever see of their parent.
“I get that and how much you two like being naked, but not many people agree. Plus, I thought we’d covered this already. Naked yoga is for when one of your children is not around.”
“You’re not usually here in the morning before work, to be fair,” her mother said.
Spinning, Birdie headed into the kitchen, hoping there was some bleach to wash out her eyeballs.
The walls in here were sunshine yellow, and two huge sunflowers were painted on the white ceiling. Pictures created by the McAllister children when they were at school were pinned all over the place.
Faded now, like the rest of the place, the kitchen needed some work. The furniture in the living area was mismatched and only got replaced when something broke. Her parents were definitely not into material possessions.
“Good morning, our little chick.”
“Morning, Dad.” Birdie filled the kettle and then set out mugs for tea. None of them sat evenly on the countertop because her sister, Blue Jay, made them years ago. Pottery was not her talent, but her parents had been so proud that they vowed never to drink out of anything else. They’d held true to their word.
Meadow and Hamish McAllister had lived in Lyntacky their entire married lives. They’d been traveling in their house truck when they stopped here. Falling in love with the small town, they’d stayed. After purchasing this land—she wasn’t sure how they’d managed that considering how hopeless they were with money—they started growing organic produce to sell to the locals.
The only problem, as far as the McAllister siblings were concerned, with living off grid and running a self-sustaining lifestyle, was you needed to be smart with the little money you received, so you could pay your mortgage and utilities.
Meadow and Hamish were neither. They were enthusiastic about many things and hopeless at most of them. A recipe for disaster and being taken advantage of.
Birdie’s older siblings had flown the coop at the first available opportunity, leaving Lyntacky behind. Finch was in the Air Force. Lynx traveled the world in a band, and her sister, Blue Jay, worked in a fashion house in New York.
And then there was Birdie, who had never plucked up the courage to leave. She’d also never really excelled at anything but was average at a lot of things, which was deflating when she thought about it, so she tried not to.
“Do you want tea?”
“Lovely,” her father called back.
“But you have to dress first.”
Twenty minutes later, they were seated at the small table in the window, where the morning sun streamed in. Her parents were in sunshine yellow matching kaftans and would have nothing on underneath.
“It will be a warm day. I need to get into my gardens before the sun rises fully,” her mother said.
“Sawyer Duke dropped off timber last night, Dad. I thought we talked about this.” Birdie kept her tone calm. “No more buying things until we have the debts under control.”
Hamish gave her a smile, which was his stock response to any talk of money. Her father did not raise his voice or get riled up, unlike some of his children.
“Now, Birdie, we need to get that aviary built before winter.”
“And how are we going to pay for the timber?” Birdie sighed. “We’ve been over this, Dad. We’re only just meeting the mortgage payments, and along with the medical bill repayments, we’re stretched.”
“The world will provide,” her mother said serenely.
Birdie seriously thought about slapping her. Instead, she rose and put her cup in the sink with a little more force than required. Blue Jay’s mug was up to the test. When she returned, she had herself under control… just. This conversation had played out in many ways over the last few years.
