Bread and Butter

Toni got home from her visiting and shopping and went to find Travis - she wanted to tell him about Terry and M. She found him down by the barn. He’d been riding and had just taken the saddle off his horse.

“Hey Travis, honey,” she came up and kissed him.

“Hey yourself, love of my life. What have you been up to today?”

“Out and about. I picked up something for your mother’s birthday and I want to talk to you about something. I went over to see Ceri and Bron, and by the way, they sent some lovely bread, just baked.”

“Mmm, that sounds good.  Let’s go eat it.” He put his arm around her back and started for the house, thinking about warm bread and butter with jam.

“Well, the thing is, Terry’s M has gone missing. She was with one of those doctors without borders organization type of thing and it doesn’t look good for her from what I heard.”

“Bloody hell, that’s a hit for Terry, I’m sure. Sorry to hear about it.”

“He’s moved out of the house they shared and is living with Ceri and Max at the moment.Travis, I offered my house to him. Ceri said he’d probably call about it.”

“Well yeah, that was a good idea, Toni. I’m glad you did that. I hate to see it setting empty.”

“I do too, and it might work out for him. It’s smaller than that big house they had.”

They reached the house and went inside to find Tee already pulling out butter and jam.

“Hey boy, anybody tell you that was your bread?”

“No sir, but it’s still warm…and I thought…”

Travis grinned and mussed his hair, “That’s what I thought too. Where’s the bread knife?”

Tomalee laughed and handed Travis the knife, “That boy... he don’t ask. He sees food and finds a knife and fork.”

Toni set some little plates on the kitchen table, “Tomalee, I hope this is not going to upset your dinner plans.”

“No Ma'am, you eat bread and butter now, I have something special later for you.”

“Tomalee, has Toni talked to you about hiring a housekeeper?”

“She don’t say nothing to me but I say do it. You know I got enough to do in here without chasing after my lazy niece. She work good but you have to tell her, you know.”

“See there, Toni, I told you Tomalee wouldn’t be offended.”

Toni still had a problem hiring servants; Travis had asked her to do this weeks ago. She gave him a little quirky smile, “I just hadn’t got around to it yet.”

“What does a housekeeper do?” Tee asked.

“Keeps house,” Travis’s eyes were twinkling.

“She will make sure everything is clean, laundry done and the house runs smoothly.” Toni answered him.

“She won’t keep your room.” Travis said spreading jam on his bread.

“Why not, Uncle Travis? It’s part of the house too.”

“Not the last time I looked in there.” He munched on his bread.

Toni smiled, it looked like a typical boy’s room to her. “I’d like to have seen your room at his age, Travis.”

“My room’s got nothing to do with his.”

“This bread is good, Toni. Where did you get it?” Tee, hoping to change the subject.

“My friend, Ceri, makes it.”

“You ought t take them some steaks over. Call it bartering.”

“That’s a good idea, Travis. I’ll do that.”

“Since you’re letting your house, have you been over there lately?”

“No, I don’t like going over there by myself,” Toni met Travis’s eyes.

“I’ll go with you, honey. We’ll have a look-see.”

“Can I go too?”

“Yeah, Tee. There’s probably weeds in the garden needs pulling up, yeah, you can go.” He grinned.