The Farmer's Daughter

Chapter 12

Chapter 12:

                Daniel looked at me, his eyes showing that he was clearly shocked at my answer. I just continued to smile at him, I myself trying to wrap my brain around the fact that I said yes as well. Then, Daniel smiled his crooked smile that I’ve grown to like, and his eyes began to sparkle like they’ve never sparkled before. The moving of Claire caused me to turn away from him, and when I looked down, I saw that she had opened her eyes; and is doing a nice big waking up yawn.

                She looked from me to Daniel and set her eyes on him. He looked at her, and I could tell that he was a little nervous with a baby around him, but he had that little boy grin on his face. Claire looked at him with curiosity, and once she saw that he was nothing new, she looked back at me.

                I looked up at the entrance of the door, and saw my cousin and his wife standing at the doorway, both having a very cheesy happy grin on their faces. My heart instantly began pounding, and my cheeks began to grow that lovely shade of red it gets when I’m embarrassed.

                “How long have you been standing there?” I asked, looking at my cousin.

                He shrugged. “Long enough,” he answered, stepping into the nursery. By the look on his wife’s face, long enough meant that they’ve seen the whole thing. I groaned, great, they are not going to let this go.

                Getting up from the rocking chair, with the help of Daniel, I walked over to Mindy and handed her Claire. She instantly went into her mother mode, and began talking to the baby in her little kid voice. I always found it annoying when parents did that with their kids, but now that I’ve started working here at the nursery, I found that I do it too; so I can’t really judge; I’d be a hypocrite.

                “You still coming over for Sunday lunch?” I asked, referring to my cousin.

                “Yep,” he answered popping the ‘p.’ “We’re bringing double chocolate cake this time.”

                I laughed. Every first Sunday of the month, our family gets together at my house, and we have lunch. Only it doesn’t end when everyone is finished eating, it goes on into the late night, sometimes until nine. The only reason is, because when it’s football season, all the guys, and me, watch. While the women, go in my mom’s craft room and talk about random things. I tried going in there once, but I found it was completely boring, and they wouldn’t include me in the conversations. So I found it better to stay with the men.

                “And guess what,” Mindy said. “Mike actually helped with the cake this time, and didn’t he screw up the dessert.”

                “I’ll have you know,” Mike began, putting his index finger up to begin making his point. “I had to go to fix the barbeque, so would you rather have no barbeque steak or desert?”

                I laughed at his argument. If anyone knows my family, they know that we’re meat eaters, we love our steak. The way my cousin, my dad and uncle cook the steak; oh it’s to die for! I swear when we have our little family get together the three men are in charge of the main course, while the women cook the deserts, and little side things, and appetizers.

                “Mike, you might want to stick with what you’re best at,” I commented. “And that’s staying outside with the meat.”

                He chuckled and nodded his head. My cousin and I get along great, sure he’s older than me, but he treats me like I’m his little sister. I have a relatively big family, and I’m about the only girl who actually gets along with the guys.