Chapter 84
When Seeley and Wendell came over on Wednesday to help make the pies for dinner, they grabbed Fischer who had invited Alana as well. They knocked on the front door and waited for it to be opened, after a few minutes with no response, Fischer reached over and rung the doorbell. A custom chime of LEGS played briefly which made them laugh. After a few more minutes on the porch, Seeley looked over at Wendell and shrugged, reaching for the latch, he opened the door and stuck his head inside, saying, "Hello? Anyone home? Tempe?" The only response he heard was a high pitch shriek and then the loud thud of something large hitting the floor. Pushing the door in and running towards the noise Seeley and Wendell took off. Fischer turned to Alana and said quickly; "Stay here" and he took off after his friends.
The three of them rounded the corner to the kitchens and stopped short. Flour was sifting down from the ceiling and almost every surface was covered in flour and eggs and various other ingredients. As were the three girls huddled together and laughing on the floor, their backs to the open door. Just then, another egg was launched from behind the large island in the middle of the kitchen. Ducking so the missile hit the counter and not them, they all laughed and trilled together, "yoooouuuu missed!"
A soft Australian accent drifted across the room, "If you girls keep making noise, I won't be missing for long!" LaNiecy said with a smile. Grayson stood up halfway and in a crouch started to walk around the island, Marie stood and pelted him with an egg. Hitting the floor hard, he said, "Man, that girl gets better every year my bride!" and then he scuttled back to where he and LaNiecy were barricaded.
Seeley stood back and grabbed Wendell and Fischer and said in a conspiratorial whisper, "this looks like fun, let's see if we can help Grayson and LaNiecy, go get Alana and come back here." He pointed towards where she was standing a slightly scared expression on her face. Bringing her over, Fischer said, "Okay boss, what's the plan?" he'd turned his ball cap around backwards like the rest of them and was crouched into a mini huddle. Seeley said, "Okay, Alana you go straight in and join the girls, Fischer and I will flank the outside of the kitchen and meet in the middle with Grayson and LaNiecy, Wendell when I whistle, you come up through the middle, we'll throw eggs to you, you get the girls. They won't expect you to be here if they see just Alana and Fischer. What do you think?"
"I think I'm going to get my $$ kicked by a 90 lb girl" Wendell said, "Why don't Fischer and I flank and you take the hit from the middle?" he wasn't optimistic that he'd be able to dodge the girls once they figured out they were surrounded. "I mean, you're the offensive player here, I'm just a dumb blocker."
"Fine, you and Fischer block, I'll run up the middle, Alana will distract them okay?" They actually put their hands into the middle of the circle and whispered "break" which made Alana laugh silently. Just as they were about to put their plan in motion, a soft Texas drawl stopped them, "I see the annual food fight has begun. It never fails; we'll be cleaning eggs or flour out of the vents for months. If it's not at this house, it's the ranch in Texas. Are you sure you all want to get in the middle of it? I did once, walked with a limp for a month" he winked at Alana and then put his glasses on. "I'll be back sometime this evening kids, you all have fun."
Seeley raised his eyebrow at Wendell and then nodded to the room where another burst of laughter erupted. "I'm going in" Fischer said, "Cover me" He and Wendell took off, running as quick as they could down the edge of the kitchen and jumped behind the Island. Grayson was momentarily surprised but high fived them as they slunk down, at the same time that they started running Alana ran in and slid on her knees behind the girls. They shrieked and then grabbed her and told her it was good to have her there, Tempe saw Fischer out of the corner of her eye and knew they were going to help Grayson and his bride. Alana said, "Seeley is behind me, he's going to get the guys to throw to him and then he's going to get you from behind, he says you won't expect it."
Angela snorted and said, "Okay, so when we hear the 'signal' everyone turn and throw at Seeley, okay?" Grinning broadly Tempe and Alana agreed. They slowly filled up their hoody pockets with eggs and sat on their heels so they could turn and fire. Just then there was a piercing whistle, turning quickly they saw Seeley come into view and they started pelting him with eggs as he was trying to catch the air bombs being thrown by the guys. Not able to withstand the hits and still catch at the same time he turned and ducked back behind the doors again.
Looking down he was completely covered in eggs, dripping from his hair, his pants everywhere. The girls were laughing and high fiving each other and Tempe shouted, "You had better get a lot better at strategy before you join the Army Mr. Booth, that was terrible!" she was laughing hysterically and the others were all joining in. Fischer shouted, "Alana, you turncoat!"
Smirking she said, "Hey, I'm a girl and we stick together!" Marie hugged them all and said, "I love it when we win!"
Seeley realized that he was defeated and his plan had totally backfired, so he took off his white t-shirt and waved it outside the door and then whistled again. Seeing the white flag of truce flying Tempe said loudly, "do you all concede victory?"
Reluctantly there was a chorus of yes's from behind the island. Standing up almost completely unscathed, LaNiecy made her way to the other girls and said, "Next year, I'm on their team Grayson, you are not very skilled at fighting with food." Laughing, he stood and began to dole out the towels to wipe themselves off, "Okay dear."
Seeley came from around the door; the only part of him not covered in goop was his bare, muscular chest. The girls eyes all widened and then there was a collective sigh, at which point Tempe said in a mock menacing tone, "back off girls, that's all mine!" and she walked over, completely covered herself in flour, cinnamon and eggs and hugged him tight. Growling he said, "You are so going to pay for that!"
"I hope so!" she said leaning up to kiss him. The rest of them began cleaning up the counters and themselves as she handed him a towel. After they had cleaned up as much as they could without actually shucking clothes and showering, they began to get the things ready to prepare the pies. They were going to make 2 dozen of them, that way everyone would have one to take home and there would be enough to donate to the mission downtown as well. Tempe was overwhelmed with the military precision that Marie and Angela operated under while assigning tasks to each of them. They set up the pie making in an assembly line style, but still it did take time. Chatting casually they all talked about past Thanksgivings with their families and friends. Marie told them about past holidays in Texas with Billy and his band mates, before she moved up here to be with the main household. After a few hours the whole house was permeated with the smell of apple pies, pumpkin pies, as well as the homemade cinnamon rolls Grayson and LaNiecy made for breakfast the next day.
Once the pies were cooking and cooling simultaneously, they started in on getting the rest of things that they could pre-prepare done. Tempe and Alana worked on the vegetables and Angela showed them how to make the radishes into roses. The guys were working on making the marinades for the chicken wings to be served during the game as well as some of the other treats that would be served. Through it all, LaNiecy and Grayson supervised, she helped them with the stuffed peppers and the Portobello caps. They'd even purchased a Tofurkey for Temperance, which made her feel very much at home.
Before anyone really knew it, it was dark and they were mostly prepared for the next days' festivities. Alana and Fischer left to catch a movie and Wendell left to go pack and get ready to leave for his Gran's house the next day. Angela, Tempe and Seeley decided they would play some cards for an hour or so before he left and the girls began to decorate the dining room. They had decided to go with a black and white theme. Angela had ordered red roses that had been delivered today and were on ice in the freezer, she knew that just the one color mixed with the black and white would create the drama they were looking for. When the cards were done and Seeley had to go, Tempe walked him to the door. He'd put his hoody on at some point during the day and his egg covered t-shirt was in the large kangaroo pocket.
Standing close to him under the porch light, she put her hands on his abs and stroked up his chest to his pecs. Seeley merely stood there and let her touch him, all the while reciting hockey stats in his head to try to keep the inevitable from happening. Just when he thought he wouldn't be able to hold it any longer, she stood on her tip toes and kissed his bottom lip. Lightly licking his top lip, she kissed him softly before pulling away and saying, "Good night Seeley Booth, I'll see you in the morning" she turned to go and he reached out and grabbed her arm. "I know you aren't thinking you can just walk away after that, were you?" he leaned down and kissed her mouth, then moved to her jaw line, his lips softly trailing kisses to just below her ear, one hand on her back, the other moving her hair out his way. Sighing softly she put her hands back under his hoody and said, "I'm never going to let you go Seeley Booth, never."
Relaxing against her somewhat he moved to kiss her again and whispered against the top of her head, "I'll always be here, no matter what, always right here." He pulled her close and hugged her and then he was down the porch and heading to his truck. Waving as she went inside, he started the truck and drove down the driveway to the street outside. Tempe watched him turn left onto the street from one of the large windows that faced the front and then went to her room. Angela was taking a bath and singing at the top of her lungs, so she climbed into her pajamas and pulled out her journal again. She wrote and wrote until Angela came out, "I've used most of the hot water and all of the towels, but you should still be able to get most of the egg out of your hair Sis" she said before taking her towel off her hair and moving to the end of Temperance's bed. "What you got there?" she asked pointing to the journal. "Oh, nothing, just thought I'd write some stuff down. It's no big deal."
She got up and put the journal in her desk and said, "I'll take a quick one, I want to get up early to help Marie and LaNiecy with the rest of the cooking, it was so much fun! Is Billy inviting anyone else besides us?" she wondered, gathering up her soiled clothes. "Yeah, Dusty and Harmonia are coming and a couple of his business friends; they'll talk shop though and then leave, so mostly we'll be family. Do you mind?" Angela wasn't sure that Tempe would be up to a huge introduction quite yet.
"No, I don't mind, I think it'll be fun. I'm glad Max is coming; he and Hank get along real well, so it's just Jared that will be odd man out. Seeley said that he hoped he wouldn't bring Howard; he was going to find out tonight. That kid is creepy if you ask me."
"I've only seen him once, so I don't know if he's creepy or not, but if he keeps Jared entertained and not bored or lonely and doesn't steal from me than he can come. I'll lock his creepy $$ in a closet if I have to." She laughed and then tossed a rolled up pair of socks at Tempe, "Go take your shower, I'm going to bed. Night babe" she hugged her and walked through the bathroom to her own room. Tempe hugged her back and went to take a shower. While she was waiting for the water to heat up she sat on the edge of the tub and wondered what Seeley was doing. If she'd only known he was standing in his room staring out the window and wondering what she was doing, she may have felt better. As it was, she just felt…lonely.
Not sure where the feeling was coming from, she shook her head to clear it and then jumped in the shower. When she was done she got her pajama's on again and went to her bedroom. Plugging her phone into the charger she looked and saw there was a text, "Hey Bone Lady, see you in the morning, thanks for a great day and I love you, BMOC".
She texted him back, "Ditto" and then turned off the lamp and went to sleep. Seeley was sitting cross legged on his bed waiting to hear from her. When he got her text, he smiled and plugged the phone in and lay back on his bed. Sitting up suddenly, he got the small velvet box out and opened it up. Holding it in his hand, he turned the light on and watched the light dance across the many facets. Closing his hand around it, he said a silent prayer and then put it away and closed his eyes to sleep.