185 - Extra Bun

*Seriously? That’s how your family announces a pregnancy? – Case*

Climbing into the pickup, Molly called Priscilla and once again it went to her voicemail. This was not like her, Priss always took his calls. Even if she was in class, she would text him and then call him later. All day, she had avoided his calls and had not called him back.

While she had been living with Chance and Rye, she had always brought him coffee and breakfast. Now that she had moved into an apartment in town with Leo, he realized how much he missed her. He wanted to tell her that she could have some land out here to build a house. For his own sanity, he needed his oldest daughter close to him.

Maybe he was being a little overprotective with her, but he wanted his babies close to him. No matter how big or grown they were. Priscilla was the oldest, it was only right that she would be the one to spread her wings and fly away first.

The phone chirped with an incoming message as he started the engine of the old farm pickup. Glancing at the screen, he saw a message from Priscilla.

*Took a nap, have a headache. Love you*

He asked if she needed anything, if he should bring anything over. She quickly replied everything was fine, probably just stress from school and the shift in the way she and Camille were having to run the business.

*Let me know if you need anything, Little Pretty. Call Momma T if you need ro*

The typo glared at him after he sent the message. Smart phone, his ass. Tossing the device in the bench seat he threw the transmission in gear and headed home.

Something seemed off with her lately. Maybe it was just that she was growing up and starting her own life. A lot of it was probably that he wasn’t ready for it. They had just lost Becks in January. He wasn’t ready for Priss to move away.

While she was at Chance and Rye’s place, she was still close by. He waved at Rye as she pushed the boys on the swing set in their yard. She waved back, but he could tell she was already tired. This pregnancy was hard on her and by the end of the year, they would have three children under the age of three.

He missed having the house filled with babies. Becks had wanted a big family, and he had given her one. Sixteen children before she had passed, seventeen altogether. His pretties seemed to understand he was ready for more babies, only Tammy had insisted on condoms since Reba was not quite five months old.

Not for the first time, he wondered what Case would look like with a baby in her belly. The image of Noel heavy with his child quickly followed as he stopped at the gate that would lead to the driveway and then the main road through the farm.

Putting the truck in park, he slid out of the truck and opened the large gate in front of the track that led to the equipment barns. This gate was not fancy like the ones that lined the road leading to the houses. Like the others on the farm, they were practical pipe fences and gates that were used to keep animals in their pastures and out of the fields.

He missed having Cowboy with him when he had to get out and deal with the gates. Typically, he would stay in the pickup and Cowboy would deal with the gates. Once it was closed, latched and locked, the other man would get in and they would go on until the next gate.

But Cowboy was working with Carly this week, so Molly had to get out, open gate, get back in and pull the pickup through, get back out, close the gate and then get back in. Thankfully, the next gate was one of the electronic gates and he just entered his code into the keypad and the wide gate rolled open.

The gate with the Lynch and Lowery coats of arms on it was the largest of the electronic gates on the farm. It had to be wide enough for the tractors and other equipment to get through. Punching in his code, he added a double star at the end and only one half of the gate rolled open.

Pulling through the gate, he waited to see the gate close behind him before he pulled out onto the road leading to his house less than half a mile down the road. Using the remote on the sun visor, he opened the gate to his compound, and he was able to pull in smoothly.

The phone on the bench seat rang and he picked it up to see Aramis’ name and his little girl smiling back at her ‘favorite’ uncle. Grabbing it up, he pressed the green button and then opened the door to step out, leaving the keys in the ignition.

“What’s up?”

“Hey, Molly, you got a place Meagan and I can stay at over summer?” Aramis asked.

“Probably, what’s up with your apartment near the college?”

“They’re shutting down over summer.” He sighed and Molly could picture him running his hand through his hair and pacing the little patio. “Improvements and other crap.”

“That sucks. I’ve got the farmhand’s cottage, it’s open floor plan with a loft bedroom. But you know that your dad never used his inheritance to build his house, he just took Alana’s place. You can use it and build a place.”

Aramis chuckled. “Priss said that we should make a cul-de-sac like the trio has and all five of us live out there.”

“Tell me where you want to do that, and I’ll start have the infrastructure being moved out.”

“You’re serious?”

“I am.”

“I didn’t think that it would be so simple.”

“This time it is, next time, no guarantees.”

Aramis chuckled from his end of the line before saying he needed to go help Meagan. Molly meant to ask the younger man if he had talked to Priss lately and if he also felt like something was off. He had his own family to worry about, and did not need to add the worries of his friend’s father’s to the list.

With his mind back on Priscilla and how something seemed wrong with her, he headed towards the house. He couldn’t help but think that if Becks was still here, she would be able to tell him what was going on and what to do.

Going through the door, he was greeted by Yvonne who told him that he needed a shower. He let her guide him upstairs and he lost himself in her body in the shower. When they came back down, he discovered that she had an ulterior motive.

The little oven sat on the island and all his pretties stood waiting for him to open the wooden door.

As Molly took the *buns* out of the little wooden oven, he sat them on the marble countertop of the island. A year ago, it would have been Becks that was doing this. She would have loved to see so many buns in Priscilla’s oven.

He took a picture of the four buns and the little oven and sent it to his oldest daughter. Almost immediately, his phone dinged with a string of excited emoji faces.

A little hand stretched up trying to reach the buns. One by one, Molly held the pieces of toy bread out for his son.

“Dat mine,” Geoffrey said as he took the hamburger bun from his father.

Molly watched the three-year-old walk off with the wooden bun and then turned towards his pretties “Is that his or does it belong in the breadbasket?”

“I got the sesame seed bun,” Alicia told him.

“Mine is the clover roll,” Case said nervously.

“Clover roll? Tammy asked as she picked up the golden-brown roll. “This?”

“Yeah,” Case nodded, “you can do it with three or four pieces, and they form a clover.”

“You bake?” Michaela asked.

Case gave a small nod and single shoulder shrug. “My mother was a baker. I learned from her.”

“What the hell? Shouldn’t we have listed that in our assets?” Alicia asked.

“She’s not a holocaust cloak,” Eliza laughed and got a fist bump from Amanda as she declared, “As you wish.”

Tammy rubbed her temples, “Someone, please, for the love of all that is holy, put those two in the pit of despair.”

Chuckling, Molly picked up the conch bun. “What about this one?”

“Me.” Noel said softly.

His pretties moved to his opened arms. “I love you all, pretties.” One by one, he kissed each of them and told them that he loved them. Noel and Case both shed a few tears and were assured that they were part of the family.