"So….may I ask what possessed you to punch out my coworker? Or were you just bored?"
Sanderson rolled his eyes, then winced as Diana put his hand in a bag of ice.
All four kids watched from the kitchen doorway.
Harry too.
"Not that I'm complaining, he is a pain in the ass. And it was one of Hoot's hobbies, punching out the Doctors that annoyed me. And he was getting annoying. But we have to set a good example for the children or something."
Sanderson scrunched his face up, "Yeah. Well he was getting on my nerves. So you be the good example."
Diana cocked a eyebrow, "Hoot's moodiness too."
Sanderson stuck his tongue out, then lifted his hand from the bag of ice, looking at the reddened knuckles.
"Mom. Can Harry move up to my bedroom?"
"No Rachael. But you can move out to the kitchen."
Eversman pushed past the kids and Harry, making his way in the kitchen.
"What?" Sanderson asked.
Diana turned and looked at him, Eversman held out his hand, inside was a bloody tooth.
Diana looked to Sanderson in shock, "You knocked his tooth out?"
At that Eversman turned to the kids, "You see that. Fighting is bad."
Diana rolled her eyes, she looked to the kids, "Go upstairs. Now. I need a word with Jeff."
A gasp came from the children at the mention of Sanderson's name. Even Eversman looked nervously to Sanderson, who told him, "I'll be fine." With a look back to the clearly disappointed children, he spoke up, "Why don't I take the kids before World War 3 begins."
Diana glanced up as Sanderson glared at her, at Sanderson, then smiled at the kids, "Go with your Uncle Matt, he'll help you clip Harry's nails."
Confused for a moment, Eversman looked to Sanderson while the kids piled out towards the front door. On the way to the garage in the house next-door, Eversman's house.
"Who the hell is Harry?"
"The Chicken," Diana told Eversman, her icy glare never left Sanderson's head.
"Shit!" He swore, then ran after the kids to keep Harry out of his house.
No sooner had he left, Diana belted Sanderson upside his head, "You Knocked The Tooth Out Of My Coworker!"
"A minute ago you were glad!"
Again, she hit him, "You Knocked His $300 filling out! Do you know how long I will have to hear him bitch about this! I'll have to either pay him off or sleep with him now!"
With a groan Sanderson looked heavenwards, "Or quit."
Diana stormed across the kitchen, she opened the freezer door and took out some chicken. She slammed the door closed and grabbed a large metal pot from the ceiling. "We can't afford for me to quit."
He groaned again, then lifted his hand from the ice.
Diana pulled a knife from the cutting board, "Put you hand back."
He listened.
She then cut the plastic from the chicken and dropped it in the pot. "Between my widow's benefits and your paycheck, we were barely making ends meet. If I work five thirteen-hour shifts a week we should be able to get by. We have to think about college, cars, bills, accidents like Jordan's."
Sanderson's flexed his numb fingers.
Diana pointed the knife at him, "We can't afford for you to hurt your trigger finger."
He laughed inwardly, "Funny. You know I'm ambidextrous."
Diana was not amused, she began to hack at the guts frozen in the chicken with the knife. "Sanderson…I don't know how we're going to pay the bills until Daniel's old enough to go to school and I can work regular days. And he is not going to daycare."
Sanderson drummed his good fingers on the kitchen counter.
Aware of how many bills there were, more then aware.
"Unless I take some details…..but I would be away from you guys for a few months at a time. But it's a lot of money really fast."
She shook her head, "I'm not telling you what to do. Don't get yourself killed just to pay bills. We'll figure something out. We have four kids and a chicken…we can put them to work. Right?"
Taking the bag of ice, Sanderson got up and walked across the kitchen, over to Diana. "It'll be fine."
She looked up at him with tired green eyes, "Lets just burn the bills and say we never got them."
He smirked, then took her chin in his good hand and kissed her forehead. He ran his hand over her cheek and looked down in her eyes. "Just don't burn the Cosmo."
Diana laughed and pushed him away.
With a smile he cried, "Come on! Don't you wanna know what your man is thinking of after sex?"
"No," she smiled.
"Well I do," Sanderson declared.
She pointed back to the dining room chair she had drug in from the kitchen, "Sit down and ice your hand."
Curious, Sanderson asked, "So, do you think Doctor man is handsome?"
A snort came from Diana.
"What's that mean?"
Diana looked up from hacking at the chicken, "He's not my type. I like a man in uniform. The next man I date will be a Marine."
Sanderson rolled his eyes, "We're a little far from a Marine Base."
She continued her hacking, "Then it will be a while."
Again Sanderson flexed his numb hand, "Why a Marine?"
Diana pulled out some frozen guts, "I'll be good and old. And will look good next to a black uniform. The way I figure it, all the kids will be grown and married, you'll be remarried. And I won't have to rely on my widow's benefits. I can't afford to get married and loose them."
"What if I'm not married?"
Diana looked up at him, "If you're not married, and I'm no where near a Marine Base. We could get married. So long as you have a lot of shiny pins on your uniform."
"No pressure though,"
"None," she smiled.
"Hoot was right," Sanderson muttered.
Diana glanced up, quietly asking, "How's that?"
"You are a pain in the ass."
At that she threw the frozen chicken guts at him. A row of half laughed swears came from Sanderson, as he picked them out of his hair and off his shirt. He got up and ran over to her. To his surprise she didn't run, instead she pulled out more frozen gizzards.
Sanderson snatched the frozen chicken from her hands. Then he mimicked the kids and stuck his tongue out at her.
"Give me my frozen chicken back! You big……stupid-head." She stammered, unable to think of anything else to say. Quoting her youngest daughter Rachael.
In a act of equal maturity, Sanderson tossed the chicken in the air like a basketball, "On one condition."
"I am not giving you a blowjob."
His eyes widened, "I didn't know that was a option. I'll remember that for Christmas though."
Diana flipped him off, "On our golden anniversary."
Thinking, Sanderson twirled the frozen chicken between his hands, "Ok. I'll give you your chicken back if you…….kiss me."
He never thought she would take him serious. Halfheartedly he had been joking.
When she stepped up to him, took his face between her hands and kissed him. It took his breath away. For just a moment he was too stunned to even realize what was happening.
For just a moment though, no longer.
Then his body reacted, he dropped the chicken and took her face in his hands, sliding his fingers in her hair and pulling her even closer.
The kiss was just as intense as she imagined or thought about before that moment.
Hoot had been the last man she had kissed in that way.
Before she realized it her hands traveled down, down over his chest. And then she realized what she was doing. She realized where her hands were traveling. Quickly she pulled them back and broke the kiss.
She looked into his blue eyes, "Like that?"
Breathless he nodded, "Ok. You can have your chicken back."