“Well, they would only need one bed,” she told him.
“That’s not fair to force them to sleep in a single bed like that,” he scowled.
“Oh, I think they prefer to sleep in the same bed, sweetie.”
He looked at her, surprised for a moment, but then understanding.
“Will they bring trouble?”
“No. Their pack isn’t looking for them and they are Foster’s great-nieces.”
“Well, let me call Foster and verify who they are and that he thinks they’ll be okay with the kids first. I suppose we could clean out that big storage room on the other side of the kitchen. It’s heated and all. The guy I bought the place from used it as a game room. I’ll get one of those portable jobs to put somewhere in back for all the stuff in there if they don’t mind roughing it in the living room tonight.”
“I doubt they do. They don’t seem to want to go back to Foster if they can help it. I didn’t ask why, so maybe you should check into that first.”
“I will, but it probably has more to do with living with an old man who smells more like liniment and cigars then it does anything else,” he laughed.
Autumn followed Malcolm down the hallway. He retrieved his cell phone and called Foster, having a brief conversation with him before ending the call, then turning to her with a shrug of the shoulders.
“He says they are great girls in a bad situation. He said he sent them here because he knew we needed the help and they needed the break. He also expressed that he wanted them out of his house as soon as possible because he likes his peace and quiet and knows they are tired of tiptoeing around him.”
“Makes sense. It’s a go then?”
“It’s a go. Hopefully, it’ll work out. They’ll be a big help.”
“Alright, let’s go let you meet them and make sure you still feel fine with them before we say yes.”
Malcolm seemed to hit it off with the girls right off the bat, joking with them about not having realized his lot in life would be to take in all the wayward women that crossed his path.
“I can’t think of anything in the world I’d rather do,” he told them. “Now, if you ladies will excuse me, I have to go buy a shed and some bedroom furniture so you’ll have someplace to sleep besides the living room floor.”CHAPTER THIRTY-SIXMalcolm
Malcolm drove over to the next town to the large home store they had there and purchased the biggest portable shed they sold. It had a lot more space in it then just what was in the spare room, but he had a feeling he might need it in the future.
They arranged to deliver that afternoon, so he would need to make quick work of picking out furniture and get home. On his way out, he stopped by the paint center, selecting a wide variety of paint samples to take home with him.
He made his way to a nearby furniture store and picked out a king-size bed, two dressers, and an oversized two-person wardrobe since there was no closet in the room. It wasn’t the most expensive furniture on the planet, but it was solid and had a wonderful smell of pine to it.
“I don’t think we can get this out there tomorrow; we’re booked up. It’ll be the following morning, if that’s okay.”
“That should be fine. It will give me time to get the room cleaned out and cleaned up,” he replied.
“Perfect. We’ll see you Thursday then,” the sales associate told him.
“See you then.”
Back at the house, he took the paint samples inside and lay them on the kitchen table. He could hear babies crying down the hallway and made his way toward them to find Clara and Rowanne balancing two each in their arms while Autumn held three more. Only one baby was still peacefully asleep in her bed, the youngest, Marlene.
“She didn’t wake up?”
“Oh, she woke up first. She fed like a horse and then fell back asleep,” Autumn laughed as he took the oldest boy, James, from her and finished feeding him.
Once he was done, Malcolm burped him and lay him back down in the bed, retrieving Denise from the arms of Clara. Things quickly morphed into this assembly line process of him taking babies who were almost done feeding and burping them before putting them back down to sleep.
Victor, Martin, Winston, Jackson, and Phillip were all back in their beds by the time the front doorbell rang.
“Perfect timing,” Malcolm said, trotting out of the room to open the door.
He stepped out and walked around the side of the house with the gentleman that had arrived with the shed, showing him where he would like it put. Normally, he would have poured a concrete pad for it, but it would most likely be moved once they started a new house, so he just had it set on the two-by-eights he had on hand, letting them serve as a loose floor.