Total pages in book: 110
Estimated words: 107803 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 539(@200wpm)___ 431(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107803 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 539(@200wpm)___ 431(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
My sister and Levi had decided not to find out the sex of their baby, but Ensley knew. They’d agreed that someone in the family should know, just in case.
Laughing, Ensley handed Lilibeth her tea, which she took, then drank almost all at once.
“I’m uncomfortable and I’m hot!” Emeline said to no one in particular, as my mother joined us, a smile on her face.
Leaning down to kiss Emeline first, then Lilibeth, she tried to placate her daughter. “Five more weeks to go and you’ll be full term.”
Emeline groaned. “Don’t remind me, Mom.”
“How are you feeling, Lilibeth?” my mother asked.
“Hot.”
“Do you want to tell everyone what happened the other night?” Ensley asked, winking at Lilibeth.
“No, I do not.”
I had to press my lips together tightly to keep from laughing.
“What happened the other night?” Emeline asked.
“Nothing,” Lilibeth replied, finishing off the iced tea.
Ensley clucked her tongue. “Be careful you don’t drink too much there, Lilibeth.”
She shot Ensley a dirty look. “Very funny.”
Emeline pouted. “Wait, I want to know what happened!”
Lilibeth looked at me, and I winked. “Your secret is safe with me, Lili.”
Putting her hands together as if praying, Ensley pleaded, “Please let me tell the story! Please!”
“Well, now I want to know too,” Mom said with a chuckle.
Rolling her eyes and sighing, Lilibeth tossed up her hands. “Fine. Tell the story.”
Ensley jumped up and turned to face everyone, rubbing her hands together. “So, you all know I stayed with Lilibeth while Caden went to the ranching convention in Denver with Dad, Uncle Mike, and Gatlin. Caden didn’t want Lilibeth to be alone.”
Heads nodded. My grandmother, Nellie, had now joined us, and she sat down next to Emeline, fanning her.
“I brought over a watermelon that Mrs. Harper asked me to bring for Lilibeth. It wasn’t huge, but it was a good size and one of those round ones.”
“Oh, I’d kill for some watermelon right now,” Emeline sighed.
“Well, you can’t have any of the one I brought for Lilibeth because she ate…the entire…watermelon.”
My mother’s hand covered her mouth to hide her smile. My grandmother flat-out laughed.
Emeline gave Lilibeth a commiserating look. “I’d have done the same thing.”
“Thank you, Emeline,” Lilibeth replied.
“Get back to the story!” my mother urged.
Ensley went on. “So, Lilibeth ate the whole watermelon. I was going to stay in the guest bedroom, but we got the idea to have a movie night, so I slept in Lilibeth and Caden’s room and we watched Steel Magnolias.”
“Such a good movie,” my mother added.
Ensley waved my mother off. “Yes, yes, Mom, we all know how much you love that movie. Anyway, I made us lemonade, because Lilibeth was craving it, along with her Sno-Caps.” Gesturing to me, Ensley said, “Good job, stocking up on those, by the way.”
I tipped my cowboy hat at her.
Clearing her throat to get everyone’s attention, Ensley went on. “We watched the movie, ate our snacks, and went to bed. Around two in the morning, I feel someone poking my arm. I opened my eyes to see Lilibeth staring at me. I asked if it was morning, and she said no, but that she needed me to get up because she’d been dreaming that she had to pee. In her dream, she made it to the bathroom and began peeing.”
“Oh. No.” Now Emeline covered her mouth with her hand.
“Oh. Yes!” Ensley laughed. “She woke me up because she’d peed the bed and needed to change the sheets!”
Laughter erupted, and even Lilibeth chuckled as her cheeks turned a deep pink.
“It wasn’t my fault! Who would’ve thought you could dream you had to pee, make it to the bathroom in your dream, then really pee in real life!”
My mother took Lilibeth’s hand. “Sweetheart, that’s nothing. When I was pregnant with Gatlin, I craved Nellie’s sun-brewed tea. I filled up a gallon jug once and brought it to work with me when I was teaching. I drank so much of it one day that while I was standing in front of the room teaching, I sneezed and instantly started peeing. I peed so much, one of the kids thought my water broke and burst out of the classroom, sprinting to the office to tell them I’d gone into labor.”
“Oh no!” Lilibeth said as she giggled.
“I remember you telling us that story,” Emeline said with a wide grin. “God, I hope nothing like that happens to me.”
My grandmother smirked at Emeline and said, “I craved spicy foods the last month of my pregnancy with Ladd. I ate so much of it. I remember I was around my due date, maybe had a week left, and I was at the store here in town, and Kaylee Miller—who was Janet Miller’s mother, and a huge gossip herself—stopped to ask me how I was feeling. My stomach started to make this terrible noise, and I started to feel sick.