September 27th 2021

Chapter 270
Our Look Toward Family

It was fortunate, what with the timeline they were hoping to keep, to get all the work on the house completed by fall, that they were able to get started as quickly as they did. Of course, Maya and Lucas had both had a lot of contact with people who could help them over the years. The Hunters had had that first floor built on, the elder Friars had needed plenty of work in fixing their house after the kitchen fire, while the young Friars had gotten the Hex built out behind the house, after already getting the attic built on. They knew who to turn to, and they found many of them ready and willing to jump in on the task.

The work had started just a few days ago now, with the transformation of what they'd called at one time or another the coat closet and 'the changing room,' into a small, practical, and long wished for bathroom for the ground floor. It wasn't done yet, but it was coming together very well. The next part, now that was more disruptive still, as it involved extending the stairway to the first floor up into the attic. As predicted, the work extended into Lucas and Maya's room, so they'd had to remove everything from that side of the room and cover the objects while the work was being done. Rather than to risk Marianne or any of the dogs getting up there and getting hurt, everyone was sleeping downstairs, in the basement with Granny Lizzie, until they were cleared to return. Marianne didn't mind it at all, no. It was like another sleepover to her.

While the work on the house went on, life went on, too. Specifically, a suggestion made last winter was now coming to fruition. Katy's little sister, Charlie Olsen, was coming into Austin with her husband and their daughter and son, and the four of them would be staying at the Hunter Hart house for the next three weeks. They were arriving today.

"Hey, hey, freeze, you little pumpkin, where do you think you're going?" Maya whispered and pointed when she opened her eyes to find the toddler two steps on her way along the basement stairs. Lucas and Elizabeth were still asleep. Marianne stood stone still on the steps, looking back at her mother with her hand still gripped on the ramp. "Back here, back, come on," Maya waved her over. After turning around very carefully, Marianne climbed back down and ran over to her mother on the inflatable mattress. "I'm going to need to put the gate on there, is that it?" Maya asked, pulling her daughter close. Marianne shook her head. "Oh, no? So, I didn't catch you sneaking up there, is that it?" she asked. She tried not to smirk… she really did.

"It's morning, you said in morning, Auntie's here," Marianne logically reasoned.

"Yes, I did say that, but it doesn't mean… What time is it?" she looked around. "Five… five in the morning, okay, come on," she brought Marianne to lie down with her again and the small girl giggled. "Later in the morning, okay? Later, and not here here. She's going to be at Grandma and Grandpa's house, remember? Go back to sleep," she softly urged her.

As a reward for Marianne's 'infinite patience,' when they woke up for good some time later, it was arranged so that the young Friars and the Hunters and Clutterbuckets would all meet for breakfast at Ma Maggie's. It would give them ample time before the Olsens arrived.

Conversation at breakfast was greatly curated by the children. They were always so excited to share what was new in their lives whenever they saw their big sister and her husband, and their little niece, too. It was summer, so of course they had so much more to talk about now than just school, which was usually occupying the better part of their weeks. All four of them were at summer camp now, which was fun for all of them in their own ways, seeing as they didn't all go to the same camp. MJ was attending the Stage Ready camp, while Haley had gymnastics camp. Only the twins were attending what one might call regular summer camp, the same one where Lucas had once upon a time been a counselor. The Davis twins were also going to that one, and there may have been whispers of a prank war going on between all of them. No one would confirm or deny.

Only adding to the excitement, beyond their camps, was the presence of the quartet up at Sullivan Stables. The return of Scout Anderson in their midst had all the effect one would come to expect if they'd witnessed the whole 'saga' back at the Grand. Nellie was thrilled, Bobby was annoyed, Gracie and Ethan were amused… It wasn't just him there, of course. There were Kabir, and Cat and Kiana, too, and Anton with them. All five of those kids being around the ranch had been going a lot better than anyone had anticipated, Juliet especially. Oh, she hadn't expected them to bring chaos to Sullivan Stables, no, but there couldn't help but be a factor of the unknown in bringing strangers to live in her home. They had all been selected specifically for what Lucas and Juliet hoped to do with this 'camp' of theirs, and it meant a lot of encouragement for the program's future.

"Auntie!" Marianne called all of a sudden, pointing across the restaurant. The others turned and, indeed, there was Charlene Olsen, guiding her son and daughter through the crowded dining room. Caitlin and Harry dashed off to find their grandparents as soon as they could, and they were welcomed with great, loving arms.

"How did you know we were here?" Katy laughed as she got up to hug her baby sister.

"I have my sources," Charlie grinned.

"Hey, Auntie," Maya approached behind her mother with a big smile of her own. Charlie passed from one hug into the next.

"Hey, Source," she replied. "David's parking the car, can we still order?"

"Yeah, yeah, of course, come on."

Space was made for the new arrivals, who were all of them still working their way through saying hello to everyone. David joined in, and finally they could order. The journey from Arkansas to Texas being over at last, bringing them to their people, they were all starving, so they quickly went digging into their food when they got it. They were out of the restaurant a lot faster than they expected they would be and they moved the gathering over to the Hunter Hart house, where Katy, Charlie, and their mother went about getting the visiting family settled in. Charlie and David would have the guest room – specifically Maya's old room, while Caitlin and Harry would be sleeping in Haley and MJ's room.

The kids' conversations rewound to the beginning, as their cousins were with them now and they hadn't heard about camp. David was curious to hear about the work being done on the house. After the work his wife's niece and her husband had put in to refresh their music store back in Arkansas, he had the look of someone who felt it would only be right to return the favor in some way or another. They knew better than to refuse him. They couldn't even use the excuse that he was here on vacation when they had been visiting out there, over the days leading up to New Year's Day, when they'd helped with the store.

"Is it my imagination or do they all think that you and I are…" Lucas whispered to Maya, later on, as they were getting ready for bed back at home. He was clearly searching for a way to express himself without saying any significant words that might be overheard by either Marianne or Granny Lizzie.

"Hosting a lodger?" Maya offered just as quietly. Lucas smiled. "No, it's not just you," she signed. "I've been catching looks from everyone ever since we started talking about the work on the house."

"They're not completely wrong about why we're doing it," Lucas signed back, and she had to agree there. Still, she wasn't actually pregnant, not yet.

"We're going to have to tell them, aren't we?" Maya frowned.

"We're just planning for the future. That's all," Lucas offered. She smiled.

"That's as close to the truth as I'm willing to get. I don't want us to end up confusing things for Marianne." On that, Lucas was entirely with her, naturally. All it would take would be for their daughter to catch on and cling on to the idea of her having a baby brother or sister and then she wouldn't let it go. She wasn't exactly caught up on units of time, as Maya had seen that morning.

Oh, they did come very close to blurting out that no, they were not having a baby, that they were only trying to, before they managed to somehow get the message across. Everyone was going around like they were just waiting to jump in, to keep Maya from getting in the path of danger in her 'current' state. Finally, she got them to hear her without having to go into so much detail. They were in the clear.

They didn't want to be in the clear. They would have loved so much to be able to say 'yes, all your suspicions were true.' With the work currently in progress, displacing them to the basement with Maya's grandmother and with their little Sheriff, it wasn't exactly doing wonders for getting them in the chance to try. They made time, when and where the opportunity struck, and really it was a miracle that it didn't leech all the fun out of the effort. They only wished it would all just… happen already. Maya had resisted buying any tests. She'd fooled herself before and been disappointed. Now, this time, she would listen to herself and wait for a genuine sign.

All false assumptions aside, it was really so great to have Charlie and her family in town, even if only for a little while. It was hard to be very upset over the distance, especially when they considered the big picture. There were so many years they had all missed having together, back before the invitation to Tanner and Angela's anniversary party had managed to find its way to Katy's door, leading her to go back to her hometown for the first time in so very long and discover she had a younger sister she'd never known existed. So much had changed about her relationship to her family, and the benefits continued to manifest themselves, in how Maya and the little Hunters got to know the extended Clutterbucket family, even as the benefits went the other way, allowing all of them to know Katy's children, to be part of her life again. They had grown so much, enough to reconcile how much they did need one another.

"Maya!" Haley came running to her big sister with the urgency of a growing idea in her head.

"Yes?" Maya asked, laughing.

"Can we have Caitlin and Harry there, next time, for the Sleepster?" Haley wanted to know. Maya blinked. It was a wonder that she hadn't even thought of it before. It wasn't completely out of the realm of possibility, was it? Between getting the Hart-Lanes and Chens out from Arizona and the Olsens from Arkansas… Why not?

"I'll look into it… for next time," she promised. That was all Haley needed to hear and she started to run back to where her siblings and cousins were playing around the small greenhouse. Then she stopped and returned to her sister again. "Another request?" Maya smiled.

"Can we do my birthday early?" Haley asked, looking off toward her cousins again. They would have already gone back home by the time early July rolled around and she'd turn eight.

"Well, we could have a party with just the family, for you and for the twins, too?" Maya suggested. Haley liked this, too. "Why don't you go see what Mom and Dad think?"

"Okay!" Haley zoomed off again.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners