Morgan
tells Tanya about an incident on the playground, when he and Molly
were kids.
"Anyway,
he shoved me down in the dirt. My cousins and friends were lining up
to defend me, when we heard this sound like a wounded banshee bearing
down on us from the other side of the playground. Suddenly, Molly
tackles the kid, grabs a handful of hair, and starts banging his face
into the dirt! She was screaming the whole time Nobody
beats up my baby brother but me! Mom
got this call from the principal about it. He was trying so hard not
to laugh, but he couldn't help it. Molly wasn't all that big, but he
said her tackle was worthy of the Pittsburgh Steelers. The other kid
got suspended, but Molly went back to class, and nothing more was
said."
"She
got away with it? Wow! My older brother defended the younger once,
and got suspended for three days!"
"Well,
Mom asked him about that. He said, Molly was mostly remorseful."
"Mostly?"
"She
was sorry she hurt him, but told him if anyone ever started anything
with me again, she'd finish it. That kid got suspended for ten days,
and came back a changed individual. He wasn't a bully any longer, he
could hardly hold his head up, because he'd been beaten up by a
little girl. Humiliation doesn't even cover what he felt."
"Oh,
my! What did Molly think of that?"
"She
lorded it over him for a long time, but finally she forgave him. Then
she married him." He grinned, escorting her to the car and
locking the house behind him. "Do you need your car, or do you
want to leave it here?"
"We
can buzz back by and get it before work, can't we? I have to change
anyway."
"Not
a problem. We'll have plenty of time."
They
drove to Molly's restaurant and parked by the back door. Morgan
didn't knock, he just walked right in. Molly and Kenny were sitting
at the table drinking coffee. Duke was by the stove turning pancakes
on the griddle. The room smelled of good things to eat; pancakes,
bacon, hash browns and coffee. Tanya inhaled deeply and accepted a
cup of hot coffee from Kenny.
"Oh,
it smells great! I didn't realize I was so hungry." She and
Molly exchanged a knowing look.
"Good
sex does that to you," Duke contributed without thinking. His
ears reddened and he went back to his pancakes with greater
attention.
Molly
smacked him on the back of the head with a rolled newspaper. "Hush
up, you! Don't you know that's rude? What your Uncle Morph does with
his time, is his business."
"Yes,
ma'am," Duke mumbled, his pride a little wounded.
"But
the boy has a point, Molly," Kenny added with a straight face.
"Nothing like a little nookie to put a smile on the lips, and a
growl in the belly. Right, my dear?" He grabbed her playfully
onto his lap, making growling noises against her neck.
Molly
shoved away from him, slapping him on the arm. "Behave yourself,
old man. We've got company!"
"Isn't
she something?" Kenny inquired of the room in general. "The
mother of four and has the same figure as she did the day I married
her. She's my beauty!"
Molly's
face softened and she leaned over to kiss her husband. "Well not
quite the same figure," she remarked casually. "I was three
months pregnant, so I look rather better now."
Duke's
ears turned redder than before and he got busy with transferring the
pancakes to a hot serving plate. "I wish you wouldn't talk about
that," he said quietly. "That's kind of personal
information, to be telling in front of company."
"Oh,
my God!" His mother rounded on him. "You'll talk about your
escapade connecting with the barbed wire fence, but when I mention I
was pregnant when I was married, you get embarrassed! Dear me, the
child has some manners in him after all!" Laughing, she took the
heavy platter from her son and set it on the sideboard with a click.
"And
here we thought that the boys were all heathens," Morgan
chuckled. "How did we get that impression?"
"Well,
it just seemed a little too personal," Duke muttered as he
brought the butter and syrups to the table on a tray.
"Where's
Finn?" Morgan asked suddenly to change the subject.
"He
stayed at a friend's," Molly remarked. "We'll not discuss
which friend, as it might offend my son's new found, delicate
sensibilities."
"Is
she pretty?" Morgan winked at his nephew.
"She's
hot as hell!" Duke replied enthusiastically! "I just wish
she had a twin sister!"
There
was rebuke in his mother's eyes, but she said nothing.
"I
knew it wouldn't last," Morgan looked smug.
"Sorry,"
Duke muttered, taking three pancakes off the stack and drowning them
with syrup.
"Where
are the other boys?" Tanya asked.
"They're
on tour," Molly said proudly. "They left last night.
They'll be gone about six weeks. All that driving, Cullen's going to
be wild before it's over. He hates being in a vehicle for any period
of time."
"They'll
just have to sing to him like we did. Do you remember? Any time we
got in the car, he'd scream. The only thing that kept him happy was
She'll be Coming Round the Mountain! We even made up our own
verses because we got sick of singing the same thing over and over.
Dad's were the best," Morgan remembered fondly.
"I
liked yours," Molly told Morgan. "Of course the best ones,
we couldn't sing around Dad. Morgan's a creative lyricist,"
Molly told them with a sly grin. "Though I don't think that some
of those things she was doing round the mountain, were physically
possible."
©
2020 Dellani Oakes
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