The McClane Apocalypse: Book Two (28 page)

She rises and begins clearing their plates, scraping them, rinsing them in the sink and wiping the counter tops with the cloth hung on the long silver faucet’s neck. Kelly helps her and rinses their glasses and silverware. They are shoulder to shoulder at the big porcelain sink with the carving of fruits on the facing. Hannah lays her head against his shoulder for just a second before standing straight again.

“Hey, man,” Cory says as he blasts into the kitchen. “Nice of you to finally get up.”

“Yeah, yeah, I hear ya’,” Kelly jibes right back. “What are you guys working on?”

“Splittin’ wood in the shed,” Cory says with a roll of his eyes. Kelly can concur with that one. But it needs done, and it isn’t like Doc can go out and split wood all day.

“Ok, I’ll be out in a sec.”

“Derek said there isn’t much else we can do in this stupid rain,” Cory tells them.

Hannah has moved to the back counter and has begun taking items down from a shelf. Wordlessly, Kelly walks over and hands her down a box of crackers that is just out of her reach.

“Gonna clean out the hog barn later and if the rain lets up, Derek said we’d go out in the back pasture and shoot some today.”

“Sure, sounds good, Cor,” Kelly agrees with a nod. Although, he’s not sure how much practice his kid brother needs. He sure seems to be able to handle a rifle and shotgun just fine so far. “I’ll start in the hog barn in a minute. John call in yet?”

“Oh, yeah. That’s what I came to tell you. He didn’t call in. Reagan did. She called in a few hours ago. It was kinda’ funny. She got the call signs backwards. Said they were just hanging out in the cabin and that John was still asleep, so she was letting him sleep,” Cory informs him.

John asleep this late in the morning? That is odd. Kelly wonders if he wore himself out with extracurricular activity with Reagan. Fat chance, but the thought makes him scoff aloud, which earns him two looks of confusion from Hannah and Cory.

“Cool. I’ll be out in a minute,” he tells his kid brother who gives him a cocky grin pointed toward Hannah before he takes off again, letting the screen door slam behind him. He is a meddling pest sometimes.

Hannah rests her hand against his bicep, “Can you hand me down a package of noodles, Kelly?”

Her soft, warm touch against his arm muscle makes it jump reflexively under her palm. Today she wears a thin silver ring on her index finger. Normally she doesn’t wear any type of jewelry at all, but this delicate, single band around her slim finger seems apropos for something Hannah would like. He’s never given much thought to what she wears, other than that her clothing looks more fitting for Grams than a twenty year old woman, but Kelly guesses that jewelry and items that need matched up would be difficult for someone who couldn’t see. Most of the time she doesn’t even wear socks. He slides his finger once over that silver ring before reaching for her noodles.

“I want to make a casserole for Bertie and her family,” she tells him. “I know Grandpa will be going over there again today to check on her, so I thought it would be nice if I took a casserole with us this time.”

The night before, they’d eaten a big pot of bean soup and crusty bread with the Reynolds family and their new guest, Cousin Lenny. Grams had taken the soup out of the freezer in the basement and added a large baguette of bread that she’d made. When he and Hannah had gone to the farm for the list of supplies for Doc, Grams had sent them back with plenty of food, including some of her canned stew for the next few days.

The Reynolds’ cousin had stared at Hannah throughout the meal. He’d had the luxury of doing so without her knowing, of course, which is probably why he’d done it. Chet and Wayne had made small talk with her and her grandfather, leading Kelly to believe that she and her grandparents had visited with them often before the world went to shit. But Lenny had sat there silently, quietly staring at Hannah. There was definite interest there, and Kelly had had to suppress his finger on the trigger of his pistol on his hip more than once. Lenny is younger than him, twenty-four he’d found out, and good-looking. But he isn’t a rugged farmer like the Reynolds men. He’d been an investment banker in Nashville when the country had gone bad. He’d been trying to survive on his own, had gone to his parents’ home in the burbs of Nashville after his own sky-rise condo had been raided and had found them murdered. After that, he’d arrived just a few days ago to live with his cousins. He must’ve come there after Derek and John had gone with Reagan last week to check on them because they never mentioned him. He is pasty pale like an office worker and lacks any discernible physical strength. His slight muscle tone probably came from hitting a gym after work before the apocalypse hit. Kelly is quite sure that Doc had noticed him ogling Hannah, too. He’s also quite sure he could easily kick his ass if he needs to. He can hardly blame the guy for staring at her. He does it every day, but Kelly likes to think that his intentions are honorable toward Hannah and he does try to keep his distance. Most of the time. The keeping his distance thing wasn’t proving an easy feat. Hannah is probably the only one who doesn’t know that Lenny had been checking her out, and Kelly’s pretty sure if she could see, she wouldn’t have caught on to it anyways. Hannah is beyond naïve when it comes to men.

“I don’t think you need to go back today. I can just drive your grandpa over; that’s no prob,” Kelly offers, hoping she’ll agree to this.

“Oh, it’s not a problem for me, either, Kelly. I’m happy to do it. Plus, Grams needs me to give Bertie a book that she wants to lend her. I think it’s something to help her get through this, so it would probably be better if it came from a woman. She needs to spend some time with women, Kelly. It’s not like being around you men is gonna make her feel any better,” she corrects him with a scowl as if he’s a dunce.

She kind of has a point. He knows nothing about women and even less about understanding the graceful one standing directly in front of him ordering him around.

“All right. I just don’t really like you going over there so much,” he grumbles as he hands her another item from the shelf that’s too high for her to reach.

“Don’t worry about me, silly. When you go back out, tell the kids to pick me some corn. I need it for the casserole. Oh, and tell them to collect the eggs. I noticed they aren’t sitting in the basket on the counter,” she orders.

“You should just rest, Hannah,” Kelly tells her. “You had a late night, and you’re always busy around here cooking for everyone and cleaning and helping with the kids.”

“I’m fine, Kelly. Besides, it’s not like I’m cleaning out the hog barn or cutting wood or working on a tractor,” she says with a wrinkle of her perky little nose on the mention of the hogs. He knows she doesn’t like them.

She’s so adorable that he’d like to wrap his arms around her and kiss and convince her to stop cooking and go off somewhere with him for an hour... or two. She presses her hand firmly against his chest, pushing him back two steps. That’s strange. She never pushes him away. Usually she’s trying to do the opposite. He doesn’t like this.

“Watcha’ up to, kids?” Sue asks as she strolls casually into the kitchen carrying Isaac. Her hair sticks up in the back in a disheveled mess, her eyes still puffy from sleep. The baby is squawking and squealing.

“There’s my favorite new nephew,” Hannah remarks and gives Kelly a sly grin as if to tell him that she knew Sue had been upon them.

“Your favorite new nephew slept through the night. It’s the first time. Hallelujah and amen!” Sue exclaims on a laugh. “Derek got up and took care of the other kids with Grams and Cory. Oh, heaven, you are a full night’s sleep!”

Kelly grins, touches Isaac’s soft head and leaves the kitchen to the women. He decides to split wood with Derek for a few hours before tackling the hog barn. With three of them doing the work, it should go faster, and they’ll be able to get more done. They talk from time to time, take short breaks and before they know it, they’ve got another eight cords put up. By the time the three of them get the hog barn cleaned out, which Hannah had correctly assessed with the nose wrinkling, it’s after lunch. The rain hasn’t let up any, but Kelly decides to head in for a shower so that he can take Hannah and Doc to the Reynolds again. It probably isn’t very neighborly to show up smelling like the hogs.

Grams is at the stove, taking trays out of the hot oven.

“Herb’s in the shed getting some things to take with you guys. Said to tell you and Hannah that he’ll be ready in about an hour, Kelly.”

“Thanks, Grams. Gonna hit the shower first,” he explains before he heads down to his room.

A little over an hour later, the three of them are back on the road, but this time Grams rides shotgun in the SUV while he and Hannah sit in the back seat together. Doc’s driving them, and apparently Grams has decided that she needs to go along. Perhaps she is concerned about Bertie’s health, or maybe she just feels like Bertie needs to talk to an older woman. He really wishes Hannah would’ve stayed at the farm. But when she’d come from the hallway that leads to her bedroom wearing white ankle socks, brown loafers and a pale blue cardigan over her dress, he knew she wasn’t going to take no for an answer.

When they reach the Reynolds farm, Wayne comes out to greet them as Kelly helps Hannah and then Grams down from the high step of the SUV. Hannah is wearing her hair in two braids down either side of her face, giving her a child-like look. It does nothing to inhibit his lust for her. She allows him to help her to the house as he balances the casserole on one arm. It’s almost dinner time, but they aren’t planning on staying late tonight. This casserole will be left with the family, and Grams has a different meal for them waiting back at the farm.

“Step again, Hannah,” he tells her at the last porch step before going into the house.

“How is she doing, Wayne?” Doc asks without preamble.

“She seems to be doing better, Doctor McClane. Do you wanna’ check on her?” her husband asks to which Doc nods.

Wayne takes Grams upstairs to look in on Bertie, along with Doc who carries his medical bag. Kelly is left to wait with Hannah. Chet and Lenny are nowhere to be seen. Wayne trots back down the stairs and offers them a seat in the parlor after he thanks Hannah for the casserole and deposits it on their kitchen table. He seems like a pretty good guy. His responsibility for this dwindling family is always written all over his face, and yesterday his concern for his wife was very evident. This is the same parlor where his dad had died that night. Kelly notices that the sofa is gone. It’s been replaced by another that doesn’t fit with any of the rest of the furniture, leaving Kelly to assume that perhaps they’ve taken it from an abandoned home somewhere. He walks Hannah to the sofa where he deposits her and takes a seat across the room in a straight-backed chair. A moment later, the front door opens again and in come Chet and Lenny.

“It’s no good, Wayne. I can’t get that bolt loosened,” Chet says as if he’s at his wit’s end. “Hey, Hannah.”

“Hi, Chet,” she returns with a soft smile, her eyes are searching for noise. Kelly’s seen her do this many times.

“Hi, Hannah,” Lenny echoes.

“Oh, hello, Lenny. What are you all working on?” she asks as the two men come further into the room. Chet and Kelly nod to one another.

“Got a rusted bolt on the hay wagon. Figured we should work on projects around here since we can’t bring in hay or anything with this rain,” Wayne jumps in to explain. “They’ve been working on it for a while.”

“Hey, maybe you could help, Kelly. You sure as heck look a lot stronger than me and Lenny. That sucker’s stuck on good,” Chet says.

“Chet, he didn’t come over to work on crap...,” Wayne berates his younger brother, but Kelly interrupts them.

“No, it’s cool. I’ll take a look at it,” he offers and stands.

“Ok, thanks, man,” Wayne tells him and also stands to go out. When they all get to the door, Kelly turns back to Hannah to let her know he’ll be right back and notices Lenny has taken a seat on the sofa right beside her.

“Aren’t you coming?” Kelly asks him with a touch of menace in his voice. It can’t be helped.

“Nah, I’ll just be in the way. I’ll wait here with Hannah,” he says with a wink and a conspiratorial nod as if he’s not infringing on Kelly’s woman. Of course, nobody knows that she is his. That is because she i
sn’t
his! Damn it!

“It’s cool, Kelly. She’ll be ok,” Chet assures him, but Kelly does take an extra second to level a cool glare on Lenny, who seems surprised by it.

“I’ll be fine, Kelly. Go and help. When Grandpa comes back down, I’ll tell him where you are,” she says as if nothing is amiss.

He turns and follows the two brothers out to their big bank barn with the stone foundation. It’s a good forty yards from the house, which further pisses him off.

“So is Lenny staying here permanently?” Kelly asks as he works the wrench while Wayne holds the nut steady with another wrench so it doesn’t twist on them. Chet scoffs.

“Yeah, unfortunately. His mom was our mom’s sister, so we’re kinda’ stuck with him,” Chet says.

“Chet,” Wayne warns in a low voice.

“What? He’s kind of dick, Kelly. When we were young, he broke our Aunt Maggie’s lamp and blamed it on me,” Chet explains to which Wayne laughs.

“You were like ten and eight, Chet. Jesus, man, let it go already,” Wayne says with a grunt as he tries to hold fast.

“No, he’s kind of always been a dick,” Chet swears.

“Oh yeah?” Kelly asks, wanting to know more about this Lenny who is right now sitting with his woman.

“Yeah, he went to Cornell, so he always looked down on us farm kids. He’d come home every once in a while with his snobby college friends and bring them out to the farm. Acted like it was a novelty or some shit,” Chet tells him.

“Ok, so he was a dick. But we’re all he’s got now, and you need to let the past go, Chet,” Wayne tells him as Kelly feels the bolt finally slip.

“Got it,” he says when it’s out. “What were you trying to do with this?”

“We need to weld a part onto the frame. We’ll use the generator. The metal’s rusting away. I’m afraid the frame’s gonna collapse on us when we bring in the next round of hay,” Wayne tells him.