Sweet Southern Haven

The Bennett Girl

{Adeline’s POV}

The Bennett girl is supposed to be in today, but I had a million things to get done this morning. I decided that sending my daughter Daphne would be the best way to get her here. I sighed as I mopped the floors in the old Bennett house. Roy, Mack, and I had all grown up together. We were the best of friends, and we were even close to his ex wife and daughter. He’d loved her so much, but his ex wife was always on his case. She wanted him to sell the ranch, and move to the city with her. He couldn’t bring himself to do it, this was his daddy’s farm, and before that, his granddaddy’s farm. It’s been passed down in the Bennet Family for eight generations, and no matter how much love he had for Maria, he couldn’t bring himself to leave behind the ranch that raised him.

“Come on mama, we’ve been at it since dawn, I’ve got to go get stuff taken care of on our ranch!” My youngest son Owen complained. He was always so annoyed with any extra work, but I knew if I was going to get this house in tip top shape before she got here that I’d need my sons to help me. Owen was the spitting image of his daddy, short, dirty blonde hair, and pale blue eyes. He was tall like his daddy too, standing at about 6’4, he was muscular, but his body was more lean. Meanwhile his brother Silas looked more like me. He had my chocolate brown hair, but his was shaggy, as he didn’t cut it often. Most times, he’d just run his fingers through it, slicking it back loosely, and putting on a cowboy hat. His eyes were brown like mine, and he always kept a well trimmed beard on his face. Silas was 6’8, the tallest of my kids, and he was always more bulky, and muscular than his brother.

“Oh hush Owen, it’s not the end of the world. It’ll be alright if we’re running behind on the ranch. Not much to do honestly since we hired Mitchell, he gets most of our work done by the afternoon.” Silas said, life had handed my oldest son a rough hand. He was married, and his wife Camille was such a wonderful woman, but a few years ago, a fire broke out in their house in the middle of the night, while Silas wasn’t home. By the time he got there it was too late. Camille didn’t make it out, and had I not been babysitting Emmaline, he would have lost his wife and daughter. Emmaline is five now, about to start kindergarten, if I can manage to get my son to send her. He’s been afraid to really let her go anywhere since losing Cammie.

Emmaline sat on a barstool at the kitchen island, coloring a picture that she had drawn of her favorite dog Biscuit. “Look nana, I drew a picture for the new girl!” She smiled, showing me the doodle she had done. Emmaline was quiet, more often around strangers she wouldn’t say a peep. Her chocolate brown hair lays just below her shoulders, and her eyes are the same brown as her daddy’s. She’s only five, but she’s so sweet, and always tries to help however she can.

“It looks beautiful sweetie, we can hang it up on the fridge before she gets here, I’m sure she’ll love it!” I smiled turning around and pulling the chicken casserole I had made, out of the oven. I placed it on the cooling rack and went back to mopping, finally finishing the last room in the house. I put away the cleaning supplies and smiled as I fixed the picture on the wall of Noelle, and Maria from when Noelle was just a baby. I thought she might like a reminder of home while she was here. I’m not sure exactly what she’s running from, but from that the detective told me, it’s not good. The detective told me that it’s important that no one knows that she’s here, so she’s supposed to have minimal exposer to anything outside of the ranch. I know it’s going to be difficult, but Roy was such a good friend to us, always willing to help us when we were in need, so of course I want to help his daughter.

I grabbed the picture of Biscuit that Emmaline had doodled and hung it up on the fridge. About that time I heard my daughter Daphne’s pickup pulling in outside. “She’s here..” Owen said coldly, as he rolled his eyes.

“Stop it! She’s here to move into her daddy’s ranch, but she’s going to need some help! Roy was always around to help you boys when you needed it, don’t you remember?” I said pointedly at Owen. “That time when you went riding and fell off your horse, Roy spent the whole night out searching for you. Packed you back home because you had broken your leg, even managed to track down your horse and bring it back! Not to mention all the times he’d help out on the ranch while you boys were sick. This is the least we could do, now try to act happy!” I shot at him.

The truck door shut, and I could see Daphne walking up to the house. She looked upset, nervous, she probably said something she didn’t mean to. It was one of my daughter talents, fitting her whole foot in her mouth. Behind her I could see the ginger, red hair of Noelle. It was straight, and long, reaching down to her mid thighs. As Daphne opened the door, I finally got a good look at her. She was stunning, truly beautiful. Her eyes were pale green, almost a sage color, like Maria’s, and her skin was pale, but sprinkled with freckles. She was short, much shorter than I had expected, and she was curvy. I half expected her to either be really skinny like her mama, or chubby like her daddy. Here she was though, truly a perfect mix.