Chapter four
A little over a week had gone by since Guthrie got in trouble for not checking in with Adam and Hannah.
Today was Saturday and he had made plans with Ford and his friend and neighbor Eddie to go fishing.
He had even asked permission.
He wasn't really happy about having to ask to do what he wanted on a Saturday, but he figured to go along with the rules and save himself any hassles.
In the last week though, he'd been pushed around by all of his brothers...especially Evan.
Evan had made sure to let Guthrie know that he was in debt to him. Then, last night Evan had come home late...two hours late from a date.
Guthrie didn't let his brother know that he saw him sneaking in at 2:00 a.m., but this morning at the breakfast table, Evan and Ford had both been picking on Guthrie.
Evan was laughing at him about making eyes at a girl on the school bus.
Crane and Brian were laughing it up as Evan shared the scoop with them.
Hannah smiled sweetly and tried to console Guthrie by telling him that he had good taste. "Amanda is a beautiful girl. I can understand why you'd be lookin' at her Guth." Hannah had offered.
"Yeah, if you're nearsighted!" Evan laughed and Ford, seated next to Guthrie, elbowed his youngest brother.
It didn't help that Daniel started crooning a Waylon Jennings love song entitled Amanda.
It all had become too much as Evan, sitting across the table from Guthrie, put both hands over his heart and started singing harmony.
"Yeah, well at least if I took a girl out on a date, I'd come home in time for curfew, Mr. two hours late!" Guthrie yelled at Evan, his face beet red.
It was Evan's turn to go beat red when Adam spoke up. "Listen up, all of ya. No more yelling at this table. I've heard enough. Evan, did you break curfew again?" Adam asked, his eyes narrowing as he stared at Evan, pointing his fork at the boy.
"Sorry Adam. Yeah, Cassie forgot her house key and I had to wait until her folks got home." Evan offered.
"So, if I call Mr. Johnson, he can confirm that he was out late and found you and his daughter waiting to get in the house?" Adam asked Evan.
"Okay Adam. I lied. We just missed curfew. I'm sorry. I won't let it happen again." Evan stated hopefully.
"Darned right you won't. At least not for the next two weekends. You can stay home for the next two Friday and Saturday nights. No dates. You can go to rodeo classes, but that's it.
"Adam, you can't do that! I'm seventeen years old! I'm too old for grounding!" Evan yelled, throwing his napkin onto his plate and jumping up from his chair.
"Oh, I'm sorry. You wanna make it three weekends?" Adam said with a scowl.
"You don't ground anybody else! Look at Daniel, he comes and goes as he pleases!" Evan said, continuing his rant.
"Daniel works at night and he's over eighteen, and he has his high school diploma!" Adam yelled, breaking his own rules about table manners.
"Praise the Lord and pass the biscuits!" Daniel exclaimed reaching both hands towards the ceiling. He was hoping to bring some levity to this heated argument.
"Oh shut up!" Evan yelled, his attention turning now to Daniel.
"Hey, why don't you shut up? And stop trying to drag me under the bus with ya, huh?" Daniel yelled.
"Fellas, fellas. Let's settle down. We're trying to have breakfast here." Crane interjected. Hannah had already uprooted herself from her spot and walked over and put her arms on Adam's shoulders, trying to coax him to sit back down. Guthrie sat quietly, satisfied immensely with himself.
It was good enough for Evan. He was sick of him picking on him.
"I'm not hungry!" Evan said, lowering his tone. "Excuse me, I have work to do." He said storming out through the mudroom and off to the barn.
"Well, I guess he don't want his biscuit." Brian said calmly, reaching over to take Evan's biscuit off of his abandoned plate.
"Don't mind if I do." Brian continued, smiling at Adam as though he were completely unaffected by the whole incident.
After that, everyone had eaten in silence. It wasn't long after they each walked outside that Ford had crawled all over Guthrie for snitching on Evan.
"You're a little snitch, you know that? We were only teasing. We all tease each other, but you're the only one that tries to get the rest of us in trouble.
Don't even think of asking me to hang out with you today. I'm not wasting my weekend playing with a baby." Ford continued. Guthrie watched, red faced as his brother closest in age to him stalked off towards the barn to join Evan.
"Fine, I don't wanna spend time with any of ya. I don't play, I'm too big to play and besides, I've got plenty of friends!" Guthrie yelled after Ford.
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As Adam and Brian left the house to head out to the barn, they saw Guthrie standing near the paddock. "Whatcha up to squirt?" Adam asked his youngest sibling.
"I'm fixin' to meet up with Eddie to go fishin'. You said I could go, remember?" Guthrie replied.
"Yeah, as I recall I did say you and Ford could go fishing with Eddie." Adam replied.
Guthrie knew he had to think fast to pull one over on his overprotective brother. He didn't suspect there was a good reason for Adam to not let him go fishing without Ford, but lately, Adam had been so overprotective, Guthrie decided not to take a chance on blowing it.
"Uh, yeah that's right, me, Ford and Eddie. Ford's in the barn now. I guess he's getting his fishin' gear. I'm just kinda waitin' around for him." Guthrie lied.
"Well, you remind Ford that I need you two back here by one o'clock. Don't be any later than that. I want y'all to grab some lunch as soon as you get back and then check in with Crane. He has a list of chores for you both to do for the rest of the afternoon." Adam said.
"Alright." Guthrie answered him glumly.
" Hey Guthrie?" You might wanna steer clear of Evan for the rest of the day, too partner." Brian chimed in. "I think he had a hot date with a cheerleader tonight, but you messed that up for him." He added with a chuckle.
"Evan messed that up for himself." Adam corrected Brian. "But speaking of that. Guthrie, I don't want you becoming a tattle tale. That was a pretty mean thing of you to do, wouldn't you agree?" Adam asked.
"Well, you're the one that told us that you wanna know where we are and what we're doin' at all times." Guthrie replied, perhaps with a little too much sass in his voice.
"You be careful how you talk to me young man. And that's not the point. Now, Evan was in the wrong for breaking curfew and for lying to me, but you only decided to tell on him when you got angry with his teasing and that's a mean thing to do to your brother." Adam said then continued, "how would you like it if it were the other way around?"
"It's no worse than having all your brothers bossing you around all day." Guthrie said sticking his hands in his pockets and kicking at the dirt beneath him.
That statement brought a chuckle from Brian, much to Adam's dismay.
"Guthrie, I know you have a hard time being the youngest, but we're all just looking out for you, understand?" Adam said, reaching out and pulling Guthrie's chin up so he could look him in the eye.
"You don't have it so bad, you know? We also are here when you need anything and we would do anything in the world for you. I hope you know that. Not everybody in this world can say they have that. There's folks out there that don't have anybody. What do you think?" Adam said.
Guthrie looked at Brian first, who gave him a wink, then back to Adam and replied, "yeah, I know."
"Good. Cause we love you and all we want is what's best for you. You'll be on your own soon enough. That's when life really gets hard. You'll see one day." Adam said.
"Okay Adam, okay." Guthrie replied. He was losing interest, and his patience, in yet another big brother lecture. Adam may as well have been saying blah, blah, blah, because this particular little brother was fed up with lectures.