Chapter Text
"Are we getting close yet?" Erin Maxwell asked for the hundredth time.
"No, and I told you to stop asking that." her father George said. You can see the navigation screen. We have another hour and a half to go. Read your book or something."
It was a long drive from Massachusetts to Tennessee where Erin's Uncle Hank and Aunt Mabel Hagstrom lived on a small farm with their three children. They usually visited for a few days in the summer but this year was different. Until this year Erin's mother, Carly, was a teacher and had the summer off but she had been hired as a principal that year and administrators had to work all year. They were shocked at the price of summer camps and daycare and Hank and Mabel often offered to let Erin stay with them over the summer.
Mabel was Carly's older sister and her husband Hank had inherited the farm from his parents. It sat in a valley with most of the cultivated land extending down the valley to the west and a big farmhouse and barn at the east end where the hills closed in on a small hay field. His parents had already leased out most of the tilled land to bigger farms, keeping the main house and barn and the surrounding acreage including a small creek in some woods and a field big enough to exercise the two horses that he kept. The income from the leases paid most of the expenses and Hank had a job in Internet marketing that gave them a comfortable living. He and Mabel loved the farm life and kept a few goats, and chickens that needed to be tended to.
Erin had always gotten along well with her cousins. She was nine and her cousin Hope was ten. Hope's sister Faith was twelve and their little brother Tucker was six. Erin was a little small for her age and very thin. She had dark brown hair that was almost black and kept it in two pigtails that reached down past her shoulders, usually ending with a pair of bright bows. Her dimples and little nose gave her an adorable face that everyone said was cute. They were not able to go the previous year so it had been two years since they visited and Erin didn't remember much except for how much fun it was to ride the horses. Still, she was worried.
"What if they don't like me? What if they make me shovel horse poop all day and make me sleep in the barn?" Erin suddenly said when they left the interstate and started driving through more and more farm land.
"Erin, stop worrying. They will love you and you loved playing with your cousins the last time we visited." her mother said.
"But I was a baby then. What if they're all pretty and I'm ugly."
"Don't you ever say that you're ugly! You're beautiful!" her father snapped.
"But what if."
"Erin! Stop! How about this. For the first week, you call us every night after supper and tell us how you are doing." Carly suggested.
"They could make me say I'm okay."
"Oh for heaven's sake. Okay, we can have a code. I'll ask you what your favorite animal is. You think about what day of the week it is and if you are having fun you pick an animal that starts with the same letter as the day. If it's Sunday you could say seals. If it's Monday, monkeys, Tuesday, tigers. Understand?"
"Okay. I guess that would work. What if I hate it there?"
"Then your father will fly out and get you and bring you home and we'll figure something out. Now would you stop worrying and don't chew your braids!"
When they finally arrived she was in for a number of surprises starting with her cousin Faith. Her father drove up to the house everyone came pouring out to greet them. Erin opened her door and almost didn't recognize her cousins. Faith had grown up at least six inches and had grown out, as evidenced by the two breasts pushing out from under her thin crop top shirt. She was wearing jean shorts cut so high the pockets hung down below the leg hems and her long tanned legs seemed to go on forever. Hope looked a lot like Erin except her little girl braids had been replaced with a cute ponytail.
Faith was the first one to reach the car and she threw herself at Erin, wrapping her in a hug and picking her up and spinning her around. Hope joined them and made it a three-way hug while Erin's parents unloaded a summer's worth of clothes and greeted Hank and Mabel.
"We're going to have so much fun this summer!" Hope bubbled.
"Do you still have horses?" Erin asked.
"Yes, of course and ATV's and a new baby goat but watch out for the daddy. He likes to butt you when you're not looking." Faith added.
Little Tucker pushed his way in between his sister to meet Erin. He was four the last time he saw her.
"Are you gonna live with us now?" he asked as he lifted his arms up.
"Just for the summer but yes. Will that be okay?" she asked as she lifted him up level with her face.
"Will you take me swimin sometime?" he asked.
Erin looked around for guidance and Mabel stepped in for the rescue.
"After she's settled and your sisters show her where the creek is I'm sure she will along with your sisters. Give your cousin a proper hello first. Where are your manners?"
Tucker turned to Erin, put both hands on her cheeks to hold her head steady, said hi and kissed her on her lips. Erin was so surprised she didn't know how to react. Her aunt stepped in again to sort of save her.
"Don't suffocate the poor girl Tucker. Let someone else say hi. I'm so glad you're staying with us honey. Farm life can be a lot of fun at your age."
"Yeah, picking up horse poop is so much fun mom." Faith said from a distance.
"Hank, I wish you would let me give you some money for this. We really appreciate it." Gorge said
"As long as Erin understands that she will have chores just like her cousins we can say that she's earning her room and board. Don't worry sweetie, they don't take long and we won't ask you to lift any fifty-pound bags of feed."
They all went in the house and Hank and George brought Erin's suitcases up to the bedroom that Faith and Hope shared. It was a big room with twin beds separated by a window and pairs of chests of drawers and bureaus with mirrors against the left and right walls. Hank had added a four-drawer chest for Erin's clothes.
"No more sleeping on the floor Erin. The girls each have new mattresses and they suggested that you take turns sleeping with each of them. You won't take up much room."
Erin gave her mother a concerned look but didn't say anything. She had let friends sleep in her bed with her on sleepovers and she liked her cousins so it probably wouldn't be that bad. The only difference was that her friends hardly slept on sleepovers and she didn't have to get up and do chores the next day. Her parents had assured her that if things didn't work out they would come get her and find another option. Her parents could only stay a couple hours before they had to head back home. They had a hotel reservation in Pennsylvania and it was a long drive there and on to Massachusetts the next day. Goodbye kisses were exchanged all around with Erin's parents surprised that they were all kisses on the lips. On the drive back George joked that Hank's family were so kissy that he was afraid that Hank would try to kiss him. Neither he or his wife thought about the number of kisses that Erin had received but she thought about it a lot.
"You all kiss everyone on the lips?" she asked Hope when they were alone.
"Sure, don't you?" Hope replied.
"No, we just hug or kiss on the cheek."
"I hope we didn't freak you out."
"No, no. I like your way better." Erin answered.
"That's good because we all like to kiss a lot, 'specially at bedtime and some other times too."
Erin found that out at bedtime when Hank and Mabel sat in their chairs in the living room and the three girls had to visit each of them for a quick peck on the lips. Tucker had been put to bed and kissed goodnight in a similar way by Faith that night. She often helped out with Tucker and alternated with Hope in taking a bath with him. Because she was developing rapidly she hoped that Erin would take over that job for the summer so that she didn't have to explain pubic hair to Tucker.