"I feel like a new man."

Allison turned at the return of Frank, finding him standing in the doorway to the kitchen in her father's robe. Looking him up and down, she felt a chill run up and down her spine. It had been a long time since she'd seen a man in this situation who wasn't a blood relative of hers, and to have one who was handsome and fit only doubled up earlier thoughts she'd had about Frank.

"How long for the water to heat up so I can go again," he asked playfully. "Do I need a special ticket, like they have a Disneyland?"

She laughed. Turning down the heat under a large canner and shedding her apron, she waved him to follow, saying, "Let's find you and the kid something to wear."

As Frank poked through the closet that still held all of Allison's father's clothes, she rummaged through a box she'd found earlier that was full of clothing left behind or forgotten by family members over the years. Gramma used to drag it out when she had visitors, first asking if anyone knew who this or that belonged to, then telling them they could take anything that would fit their kids at that time. Eventually, the box would overflow and she'd take it to the local Goodwill.

Allison found a onesie that was about two sizes too large and a small stocking cap that, honestly, she thought she remembered having been on the head of one of her niece's American Girl dolls a couple of years back. Without asking, she stripped the towel from Robert and redressed him, slipping the smallest pair of sox she could find over his little feet as well. 

"It would be easier if we just used the clothes you brought with you for Little Bit," she said, using a nickname one of her cousins had had for her own son back when he was a toddler. "But all the warnings about how the virus can be retained by natural fibers..."

She let the thought go as she turned to find her grandfather standing before her. Oh, it wasn't Grampa, of course, but the resemblance Frank had to the ol' man while wearing these clothes was incredible. 

"Do I look like a farmer?" he asked as he looked down at himself in the old, worn work clothes. "Cuz [i]honestly[/i], I don't know what I'm supposed to look like to work outside."

"You look perfect, Frank," Allison said, using his name to keep straight in her mind who she was actually seeing before her. A bit of emotion came over her and she recalled the missing members of her family, and for a moment, Allison almost wanted to move forward and wrap her arms around the man who, until yesterday evening, had been a stranger to her. "It'll do."

He talked about earning his keep, saying, "Just point me in the right direction." 

"Okay, then ... let's do this," Allison said, smiling. She grabbed up the wet towel on the bed and headed out, leaving Frank to deal with the youngling. On the way back toward the kitchen, she told him, "Usually, I'm already three hours into my day by now, but after last night..."

She didn't finish her sentence, feeling that Frank understood well enough. She continued, "I'll get you outside and explain some of the chores, but then I have to get back inside and deal with the green beans I'm canning."

Allison was aware that she'd blown off her morning tour around the perimeter, and considering that men with guns had been just beyond the property line the day before, she felt as though she was taking chances with her security. But this day was an unusual one, and she was playing it by ear at this point.

Out at the barns, she quickly ran through a dozen chores that she would herself would normally have performed after her morning patrol. Frank asked questions, but for the most part he seemed to understand what was expected of him. Allison, when satisfied, said, "Okay, you start on these, and I'll get back to what I was doing."

She looked to Frank and smiled, then came forward to take Robert from his arms. The man had brought the baby backpack out with him, but Allison knew he wouldn't be able to work hard and care for the little guy at the same time.

"There's a playpen in the basement for when the relatives visited with their little one's," she explained. To Robert but for Frank's benefit as well, she said with a playful tone, "We'll be fine inside while daddy works, won't we Little Bit ... yeah, we will."

She stepped back, checked Frank for an expression that told her it was okay to take the toddler, then headed back toward the house. On the way, she whistled to the three Australian Shepherds, which had been playing nearby. When they rushed to her, Allison gestured a hand toward the distant pastures and ordered, "[i]Guard[/i]."

Without hesitation, the three shot away at full speed, heading down the driveway and across the yard. If Frank kept an eye on them for a while, he would see that they used little gaps in the fences to move from one pasture to the other, sometimes startling the animals in them, sometimes not; it was obvious that this was a normal daily activity for one and all. 

In the house, Allison laid Robert on a rug on the floor and wrapped a blanket around the baby to keep him in place. Downstairs, she easily found the old playpen, still folded up and hanging from an overhead hook. Back upstairs, she assembled it again, wiped it down with a wet rag, put the pad in place, and covered that layer with a couple of blankets.

"Ready, Freddy?" she asked Robert as she retrieved him and lifted him into the enclosure. 

She'd put the playpen in the dining room just past the kitchen doorway so that the two of them could see each other. Then, giving Robert some rubber toys which she'd wiped off as well and seeing that the kid seemed happy enough, she returned to the kitchen to finish canning the beans. She looked to Robert often, waving and speaking to him if he was looking her way, which often he was.

After a while, Allison realized that she was absolutely bubbling with joy. The feeling had crept up on her unseen, and when she thought about it consciously, she couldn't help but laugh. Catching sight of Frank through the kitchen window as he continued with his chores, she considered the very serious turn her life was taking. She'd never imagined that something like this could happen, and as tickled as she was finding herself, Allison feared she could be setting herself up for disappointment -- or worse.