The Inheritance

My Girl

Ryan's POV:

"You're really big..." I look down at the munchkin attached to my leg.

Nadira gasps, "Ester!"

I roar with laughter, stooping to pick Ester up. "I'm really big?"

"I'm so sorry, Sir—"

I chuckle, kissing Ester's cheek. "I don't mind, Nadira. Ester knows she is my girl." Ester giggles, wrapping her arms around my neck to hug me as I settle her on my hip.

"Uncle Ryan," Ester sings, simply happy to be hanging on to me as I move around the kitchen.

"Are you still looking for food, Ryan?" I look over at my twin brother with a grin.

"I'm hungry. What can I say?" I pull out a box of old crackers, sitting down at the kitchen table to eat. Ester stands up on my thighs, trying to climb up onto my shoulders.

I easily lift her behind my head with one hand, letting her sit on my shoulders. She giggles and swings her feet back and forth, nearly kicking me in the face on multiple occasions.

She pulls on my hair, using it as reins to try and make me move. I watch Nadira as she watches her daughter, looking very apprehensive about me letting Ester treat my hair like a leash.

I finish the box of crackers even though they are stale, standing up with my shorty on my shoulders still.

"Go horsey, go!" I make a sound close enough to the nickering of a horse, and pony around the kitchen, holding her to my shoulders.

Ester giggles loudly in delight, very pleased with this new game. She makes me trot around the house making horse noises for a good twenty minutes, finally releasing me when Nadira gathers her for bed.

Being an uncle is really where it's at. When the kids aren't yours, you get to spoil them and no one has the expectation for you to be responsible at all.

I kick back on the sofa with Teague, sighing in comfort at the spongy couch. I forget sometimes how pampered I grew up with things like a sofa and queen size beds.

I can't speak to the bed sizes at the ranch beyond my own. Perhaps in the main house they have bigger beds, but mine is a twin. As for the sofa? At the main house only Mr. Mallory has a place to sit, there only being one arm chair for the three of them.

I'm sure Mr. Mallory shares the chair with his wife, her being of old age and no condition to be sitting on the floor, but does Mae always sit on the floor? She has to bring in one of the wooden chairs from the kitchen, right?

She may be a submissive, but that doesn't mean she should be denied simple comforts like a chair...

Mr. Mallory is very protective of his girls, he seems to take good care of them, but anytime I come over at night to drop something off or ask a question, Mae and her mother are always sitting at the foot of the armchair.

Mae and her mother wouldn't be made to spend the evenings there, would they? It wouldn't be comfortable at all and I can't think of a single thing they could do, there being no television on the ranch.

Do they just watch Mr. Mallory read?

There has to be more, right?