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Adam stepped out of the stagecoach and onto the sidewalk in Virginia City. Brushing the dust from his clothing, he reached up and took his bags from the driver.
"Thanks Frank," he told the man as he set his bags down on the platform. "You heading back out again soon?"
"In about an hour," replied Frank as he jumped down from the driver's seat. "Just enough time for a bite and a beer then it's back on the road."
"Have a safe ride."
"Thanks Adam; say hey to your family for me."
"Will do," smiled Adam.
Picking up his luggage, Adam crossed the street in the direction of the livery stable. With his family being in town as often as they were, there was bound to be one of the Ponderosa's horses taking up residence. If there was, it meant he didn't have to hire a ride to get home. Normally Evelyn or one of his older children would have met the stage with the buckboard, but seeing as he was back a day early, there wasn't time to make arrangements.
"Adam! Hey, Adam!" a voice called, stopping him in the street. Adam turned to see his brothers Hoss and Joe coming towards him.
"Evelyn said you weren't back until tomorrow," Joe said when they reached their older brother.
"Anything go wrong at the lawyer's office?" Hoss asked.
"No, everything is in order with the lumber contract. We just finished up earlier than expected so I caught an early train. I wanted to get home as soon as I could; haven't seen Evvy and the kids in almost three weeks. Hopefully all has gone well in my absence."
Hoss and Joe gave each other an amusing look.
"Am I missing something?" Adam enquired.
"Let's just say that Evelyn has had her hands full with a certain youngster of yours," smirked Hoss.
"Well I have a one in seven chance of getting it right, so I'm going to take a wild guess and say Miss Margaret Jane," Adam said sarcastically.
"She's actually been quite helpful and well-behaved," Joe assured him. "It's Luke who's been causin' the problems lately."
"Yep, he'd be my second guess," Adam said, shaking his head. "So what did he do, or rather, get away with?"
"Come on big brother, I'll buy you a beer and fill you in," Joe offered.
"You buy me a beer? Boy, this must be serious," he joked.
"Ya better take him up on his offer, Adam, it don't happen every day," laughed Hoss.
"You got that right," Adam told Hoss.
"Are ya coming for a beer or not?" Joe asked with irritation in his voice.
"Lead the way, brother," Adam conceded, giving Joe a slap on the back, "I have a feeling I'm going to need a drink."
"Ma! Ma! Pa's home!" Jake shouted, seeing the wagon drive into the front yard.
Adam jumped down from the buckboard's seat just in time to be bombarded with hugs and kisses from his brood of seven.
"That's some welcome there, Adam," Hoss chuckled.
"I know, you'd actually believe they missed me," smiled Adam.
"Of course we missed you, Pa," assured Mary as she hugged Adam's waist tightly.
"Did ya bring us anything from Saffrisco, Pa?" Jake asked, tugging on one of Adam's pant legs.
"That's what I was waiting for," laughed Adam.
"It's called San Francisco, Jake, not Saffrisco," Benny corrected his little brother.
"Says the kid who gets all the big words wrong when he says them," Luke countered.
Benny waited until their father's back was turned before mouthing shut up and punching his twin in the arm.
"I did indeed bring something back for you lot," Adam told Jake as he took his bags out of the back of the buckboard.
"Does that include me," a voice said behind him. Adam turned to see Evelyn walking towards the wagon.
"Of course it does," he replied, dropping his bags. Adam wrapped his arms around his wife and delivered a long, soft kiss to her lips.
"We weren't expecting you until tomorrow. Why didn't you send word? I would have come to pick you up," Evelyn asked when they broke their embrace.
"I know you would have Evvy, but there wasn't time. We finished business early, so I decided to take the earlier train. Met up with Hoss and Joe in town, so all worked out."
"Thank you for giving him a ride, Hoss," Evelyn said turning towards her brother-in-law. "Can you stay for dinner?"
"Would love to, but Charlotte is waiting for these supplies," he answered, pointing to the back of the buckboard.
"She's making chicken and dumplings, isn't she?" she asked suspiciously.
Hoss burst out laughing. "Yes ma'am, she sure is."
"One of these days, Eric Cartwright, I'll make something you'll absolutely love! You mark my words! After all, I haven't killed your brother with my cooking."
"Yet," quipped Adam then grunted loudly from the hard jab to his ribs delivered by an insulted wife. Everyone started laughing at the sight of Adam doubling over, including Adam.
"Well, I'll see y'all later," Hoss chuckled as he clicked the team into motion.
"See ya, Hoss, and thanks again!" Adam called then picked up his bags and placed one arm around Evelyn's shoulders. "So, if you'd like to help me unpack I can tell you all about San Francisco," he suggested rather slyly.
"I'd love to," she smiled as the pair started to walk towards the house. Before they entered, Evelyn turned and reminded the children of the chores which needed to be completed before supper.
Luke waited a couple of minutes after the front door was closed then turned to Benny. "You wanna a game of checkers?"
"Sure, why not?" he shrugged.
A worried expression appeared on Jake and Maisy's faces.
"Ya better not," said Jake.
"Yeah, Luke, Pa'll be pretty heated if he catches you an' Benny playing checkers instead of doing your chores," Maisy agreed.
"We got time for a couple of games. It takes Ma and Pa at least a half hour to unpack," Luke explained.
"A half hour?" blurted Maisy. "You're plum crazy, Luke! Why would it take them that long to unpack two bags?"
"Don't know why, just does is all and they get real mad if anyone bothers them."
"You're joshin'," Maisy said disbelievingly.
"No, Maisy, it's true," Lizzie chimed in. "Whenever Pa comes home after a trip it always takes 'em a long time to unpack."
"Yeah, and the longer the trip the longer they take," Benny added. "Pa was gone for a while for this trip, so I figure we have about 40 minutes until we need to get back to our chores."
"Lizzie, will you braid my hair with that new twist ya learned?" Mary asked her sister.
"Sure, Mary. Maisy, do you want me to do your hair too?"
"Might as well, seeing that we got forty minutes," she shrugged. "I ain't in no hurry to clean the coop. I'll go grab my brush from the living room."
As Benny and Luke ran to the porch and started to set up the checker board while the girls followed Maisy into the house to hunt for a brush and ribbons. Morgan and Jake, however, remained in the front yard.
"So do I need to keep stackin' the kindling, Morgan?" the six year old asked his older brother.
"You can if ya want to, but I'm gonna go watch Luke and Benny's game."
"But Morgan, we'll get in trouble if'n we don't do our chores."
"We'll do 'em Jakey, just not yet," replied the eight year old boy.
"I don't get it," Jake said with a confused look on his face.
Morgan disregarded Jake's comment. "I'm gonna watch the game, you comin'?"
"But Morgan, what if..."
"Quit bein' such a pain, Jacob!" snapped Morgan. "If they ain't doin' their chores yet, why should we? Ya comin' to watch or not?" he asked but didn't wait for Jake to respond before heading towards the porch.
"Yeah, I'm comin', ya stupid-head grumpy pants," Jake grumbled then joined the rest of the chore shirkers on the porch.