Page 199 of Maple Mountain
Archer placed a hand on my rounded belly.“How are you feeling, Mrs.Keel?”
“Fine.”
“Yowsa.”He yanked his hand back.“She’s a kicker.”
I was still in my wedding dress, having just married Archer a few hours prior, but I’d switched to more comfortable shoes.The summer breeze teased the hair curled at my temples, and I breathed in the scent of grass and fresh air.
My parents were currently helping Lenni with her kite as she was shrieking in laughter at her friend Summer who was running around like a maniac.
The park was filled with townspeople.Community and happiness abounded.
Jane pushed the double stroller on the sidewalk with Mr.Powell next to her.She’d had a set of twin boys not three weeks prior.And then Poet had followed suit a few days later, giving birth to a healthy baby girl.
Cas and Salem headed in our direction, their daughter strapped to Salem’s chest like a koala.By unspoken agreement, everyone ambled toward us.
“Sorry we’re late,” Salem said with a sigh.“Sully needed a diaper change and then needed feeding and then another diaper change.”
“No worries,” I said with a smile as I fiddled with my aquamarine and diamond earring.“She looks pretty content now.”
“Milk coma,” Cas explained.“Only way to fly.”
“Fly high,” Brooks said in amusement.
“Sorry we’re late too,” Poet said.“Wren was napping and you never wake a sleeping baby.”
I tilted my head back and saw Grampy’s green kite withWill you marry me?scrawled across it.
“Are we taking bets on whether or not she says yes this time?”Jane asked.
Half the group said no, the other half said yes.
The green kite picked up a wind current, soared for a moment and then did a dive bomb into the grass.
“Bummer,” I said.
Grampy grabbed the kite, took Muddy’s hand, and then walked to us.
“Well?”Poet asked.
Muddy looked at her.“Well what?”
“What did you say?”she demanded.
Muddy grinned.“Wouldn’t you like to know.”
“Yes, we would like to know,” Poet said.“Are you going to make an honest man out of my grandfather?”
“I’m prolonging your grandfather’s misery by saying yes this time,” Muddy said with a fond look at Grampy who just squeezed her hand.“Now he’s stuck with me forever.”
One of the twins began to cry and Jane leaned down to pick him up.
Muddy held out her arms.“Gimme.”
Jane handed the baby over; just in time too because the other began to cry in earnest.
“Which one do you have?”I asked Muddy.
“Fitz,” Muddy said, pressing her cheek to the top of the baby’s head and crooning.
