Jebb woke up with a distinctive reminder that he’d not gone to the bathroom in quite some time. Easing carefully out away from Kira, he headed over to the bathroom. When he came back out, he noticed the bag sitting on the chair. Opening it up, he found one of Kira’s night gowns in it along with a change of clothes for him in it. Someone must have made an early trip to the hospital already. Heading back to the bathroom, Jebb changed into the fresh set of clothes and went back out and found Kira was awake.

“Who brought the bag?”

“I don’t know. It was here when I woke up,” Jebb said with a shrug. “How are you feelin’?”

“Oh, I’m FINE. At least I’m not crampin’ no more. No more contractions that I can feel. Do you think that means I can go home today?” Kira asked hopefully.

“I don’t know. Doc sounded definite that he’d keep you here until tomorrow. Wanting to be on the safe side with so many people out at the farm and all. Plus he said that you’d be plugged into that IV until about four today.”

“So in other words. I get to stay here another night.” Kira sounded dejected as she accepted that she wasn’t going anywhere.

“Looks like. Enjoy what little time you’ve got away from the house. Cause as soon you get home, I’m keepin’ you in bed until the babies get here.”

“You make that sound more fun than it’ll be.”

Jebb smiled at her small attempt at humor. “Well, fun or not, you’re not going to have much choice in the matter.”

Jebb went over to the roll away table and uncovered Kira’s breakfast and saw that a guest tray had been brought up. Hospital food was never anyone’s favorite but it was food. After they’d eaten the food, Doc Appleby came in to check on Kira.

“Well, everything seems to be a lot better this morning. Though I hate to tell you, you still won’t be going home for Thanksgiving Dinner.”

“I kind of figured that. I’ll just have to con someone into bringing me something back.” Kira gave Jebb a smile since the look on his face told her that he’d kind’ve planned to skip Thanksgiving with the Dukes and stay at the hospital.

“I’m sure you could. Now, I wanted to talk to you before any of the family dropped in.”

“About what?” Jebb sat on the edge of the bed and waited for the doctor to answer him.

“Well, like I’d already said yesterday, I’m gonna have to put Kira and strict bed-rest. You can only get up to go to the bathroom once you get home. That’s all. I know that you were taking it easy before but now it’s even more important. If you go into labor again, I plan to admit you back in here and keep you until you give birth.” Kira’s eyes darted between the two men since she saw that the doctor was serious which in turn, made Jebb very serious as well. “Now twins usually come a little early, but two and a half months is a bit more that I’d like. I’d prefer that we try to hold them off until the New Year if we can. Since you’ll not be getting out, I’ll come out to the farm for all of your visits. I’ll leave a list of do’s and don’ts for you before I discharge you tomorrow. But the main things will be to try to stay OFF your feet. Understand?” Kira nodded.

“She’ll stay in bed. I’ll make sure of it,” Jebb said sternly.

“I’m sure you will. Now, I have just a few other patients that I need to see before I head out myself but I’ll see you two later.”

“Bye Doc.”




“Are you sure?” Jebb eyed Kira since he really didn’t like the idea of leaving while she was still stuck here.

“I’m sure. Besides, someone needs to be there to keep your mom from pokin’ around where she don’t belong.”

“It’s not like we have anything to hide.”

Kira couldn’t believe her ears. “JEBB! Yes we do. THE TWINS! Knowing her, she’ll find the ONE book in the house that would tell her that we’re havin’ twins. That or go up into the attic and find the extra crib and highchair. She’ll be able to figure it out pretty easily once she sees double up there.”

“Oh, yeh. I forgot. Where’s your book. I’ll bring it when I come back. And find a way to block off the attic.”

“In the nightstand.”

“Anything in particular that you want from lunch?”

“Not really. Anything will be better than hospital food for supper.”

“I’ll be back quick as I can.” Jebb leaned in for a kiss and brought his hand to rest behind Kira’s neck. When the kiss deepened a bit, Kira grabbed his shirt to hold on. When the monitor went off in response to the increase in Kira’s pulse rate, a nurse came to check on her which caused them to pull apart in a hurry just a bit embarrassed. “Sorry about that,” Jebb said to the nurse. “I’ll see ya in a while.” After a quick peck, Jebb left the room.

As he walked away, the nurse spoke to Kira. “Don’t worry Honey. I think my pulse rate would’ve gone up too. If that’s how he says good-bye, I’d love to see how he says hello.”

Kira grinned a bit and the nurse walked back out of the room just in time to finish watching Jebb head to the elevator. All the while wondering how her patient got lucky enough trap a Duke Boy into marriage. Of course he didn’t seem to mind being caught.




When Jebb had gotten home lunch was about ready. With Daisy’s help, Jebb went ahead and put plates aside to take to the hospital so he and Kira could have supper together. When he went out to find a place to sit, Emily pulled him over to where she was sitting with some of the more distant relatives that were closer to her age. When Bo and the other guys saw that he was heading over to sit with the younger ones, he just shrugged as he sat down. Vance and Coy would be here an extra week so he might as well as humor his sister. Nearly everyone came over to ask about Kira and the baby. That only made him want to get back to the hospital even more. As everyone started to finish up lunch, Jebb noticed that Emily was just pushing the peas that his mother had put on her plate around instead of eating them.

“Want to have some fun?” Jebb asked his sister while he nudged her.

“How?” Emily asked as she and the other children that were sitting at the table looked at him expectantly.

Jebb reached for Emily’s straw and put a pea in it. Turning, he aimed for Bo and fired. He missed and got Judd instead. Emily stifled a giggle as her cousin tried to figure out what had just hit him. Giving his sister a wink, he sent another pea flying, this time hitting Luke.

“Bo. Quit it.”

“Quit what?”

“You know what. You just hit me with a pea,” Luke said sounding annoyed.

“I didn’t do anything.” Turning around, he saw Jebb give a slight smile. “Jebb!”

“Yeh?” Jebb cocked an eyebrow as if to ask Bo what he planned to do about it.

“I didn’t really think you’d do it.”

“Do what?” Coy asked.

“This.” Jebb shot another pea and caught Coy right between the eyes.

“JEBB STEWART DUKE! I thought you knew better than to throw food at the table.” Emily cringed as she heard her mother scold her brother.

“Now, Pauline, you can’t hardly yell at him like a child anymore. He’s a grown man in his own house. He don’t need a mother yellin’ at him,” John intervened.

“That’s right, that’s what a wife is for,” Abner added from a table over that earned him a stern look from his own wife.

“Who do you think gave him the idea?” Bo muttered mostly under his breath. His cousins sitting around him gave him a questioning look. “I heard them talkin’ about how much fun a food fight would be yesterday.”

“How come you didn’t tell us?” Luke asked glance over at his uncles.

“I forgot.” Bo shrugged. “I didn’t think he’d actually do it, not after Kira went into labor yesterday so she ain’t even here to start it.”

John had seen his son shoot the peas but hadn’t said anything. No harm in having a little fun. Of course he’d never been able to get away with it himself. Being the youngest in the family growing up, he always had too many brothers watching him to make sure he didn’t do anything to get in trouble. John thought about the fact that his son had always dealt with stress by acting out as a child. Well, now, as an adult, no one could say that he hadn’t recently been under a lot of stress. If a food fight would relieve some of that stress, then it seemed to him that as a good father, he might as well give him one.

“Son, I’m disappointed in you,” Pauline looked over at her husband as he spoke. Good. Maybe he’ll reign their son in. “Shooting peas ain’t no way to start a food fight. Not when there are mashed potatoes on the table.”

Pauline gave John a look like he’d just grown an extra head. “John? What are you saying? We’ve never allowed food fights at the dinner table before.”

“True. But you forget, we’re at the Jester’s house now. His house, his rules. If he wants a food fight, I think that as guests, we’d be rude not to accommodate him.” John picked up his spoon loaded down with mashed potatoes and smiled. “What do ya say Big Brother? Want to play?” With that, John slung the spoon sending the potatoes flying and landing in his brother’s beard. Pauline stared at her husband as if he’d lost his mind while the rest of the clan looked to the patriarch of the family and waited with baited breath to see what he’d do.

“You know John; you really shouldn’t have done that,” Jesse said his most stern voice that each of the younger Dukes knew too well.

All of the Dukes looked back and forth between the two brothers until Jesse suddenly broke out in a smile. He then picked up some cranberry sauce and hurled it his youngest brother. He’d not had a food fight since he was Emma and Emily’s age. Once the head of the clan threw the sauce, it became a free for all. Several adults went running for cover to avoid getting their clothes soiled while the rest of the Dukes joined in the fun and did the forbidden for a Duke, waste food.

Jebb grabbed a biscuit and sent it flying at Bo while he was flicking corn at Coy. Vance dumped some gravy on Luke and Coy tossed some green beans that hit Daisy and got tangled in her hair as she went running for cover to save her dress. Judd grabbed the sweet potato casserole and hit Jebb with it. After that, no one could keep track of who was throwing what. Emily teamed up with another cousin to corner her sister and pelted her with stuffing and someone threw a slice of pecan pie and hit Pauline in the back of the head as she, too, was heading for the house. Among the food throwing, the farm dogs all started to yip as they watched the antics of the humans in the yard.

In no time at all, everyone out in the farm yard was dripping and covered with various food items from the table. Exhausted, one by one the Dukes collapsed back into the chairs surrounding the tables. Laughing, Jebb ran his hands through his hair and started to pick deviled eggs out of his blond locks. He couldn’t ever remember having a food fight like this one. When he’d started one in grade school, he’d had a hard time sitting for a week afterwards. Though by the look on his mother’s face earlier, she’d switch him now if she thought she could get away with it. Looking over at his father, it looked like he and Jesse were still at it. Jesse’s beard was coated in potatoes and gravy and Jesse had ground some cooked carrots into John’s hair.

“Well, I guess this took care of the leftovers,” Bo said as he joined his cousin. “I can’t believe you did that.”

“I can’t believe that Pop challenged Uncle Jesse.” Looking over at the older men, Jebb saw that they were finally joining the younger ones in the chairs again as giggles and chuckles rose from various family members.

“You know, if Jesse hadn’t thrown the food back, no one else would’ve had the guts to join in.”

“I know. No one would have dared crossed him.”

“No one ELSE you mean. No one but you and your father,” Bo pointed out.

“What can I say? I’m a chip off the old block. He taught me everything I know.”

“I’m beginning to get a glimpse of what our future Thanksgivings will be like. At least next year, YOUR SON will have an excuse to be throwing food. This might have to become a new family tradition. You can bet the younger ones will want a repeat of today,” Bo said chuckling.

“By looking at Pop, I think he will too. Where’d Mom and Daisy go?”

“They ran for cover once the food started to fly. I got your mom with some pie,” Bo said with an evil grin. “Kira’s gonna hate that she missed this. After all, it was her idea.”

“I know. She would have gotten all of us. It’s a good thing I put her food aside BEFORE we sat down to eat. I better go get changed. Then I’ll head back,” Jebb said as he started to stand.

“Not so fast. She made me promise that you’d have some fun today. Besides, I told her I’d watch the game with her. She and I have a friendly wager on it.”

“It figures. She practically kicked me out this morning after Doc came to check on her.” Jebb shook his head.

“Everything okay?”

“Yeh. Just making sure she understood that she wasn’t going anywhere today.”

“I’m sure she just loved that. I better go change now, too, if I want to get to the hospital in time for kick-off.” Bo then stood as well.

“Have fun cleaning The General up afterwards,” Jebb said with a smirk.

“Nah, I took your advice yesterday. I stashed a change of clothes when we were bringing the tables and chairs over. I put them in the wood shed.”

“The wood shed?”

“I figured that if we had a food fight, I might end up in there anyway.” Bo laughed.

“By looking at Mom, I believe that’s where she thinks we all belong.” Jebb laughed. “I wonder if after all this, if Daisy will still do some shopping for me tomorrow.”

“What do you need her to get?”

“I was hoping she’d hit one of the after Thanksgiving Day sales and get a T.V. to put up in the room since Kira’s going to have to be spending her days in bed. Make it a little less boring, keep her entertained.”

Bo looked at Jebb in mock horror. “I can’t believe it. I never thought that could ever happen to a Duke male.”

“What?”

“You’ve been married less than a year and already can’t keep your wife entertained in the bedroom.”

“Cute, Bo. Do you REALLY want to go down that road? Remember, this is your SISTER that we’re talkin’ about.”

“Uh, maybe not.” Bo looked away sheepishly.

“Not to mention, you ain’t got no room to talk to me about keeping a woman happy in the bedroom until you stay with one longer than a month at a time.” That statement caused Bo to give Jebb a cross look.

“Ain’t no one ever complained.”

“Of course not. You don’t stick with any ONE woman long enough for them to look past your reputation. They’re all too thrilled to be with one of the infamous Duke Boys to care about anything else. Keeping the same woman satisfied for longer than a couple of weeks, well that’s a different ball game altogether.”

“I thought I said I DIDN’T want to go down this road with you about Kira.”

“Too late. Besides, I didn’t say anything about needing help keeping her entertained at night.” With that, Jebb headed inside to get changed.




“Everything okay in here?” A short brunette nurse asked as she came into Kira’s room for the second time in an hour.

“Yeh, fine.” Kira had to hold back her laughter as the nurse eyed Bo with a suggestive look and then left out again. Turning to her brother, “Bo, I think that all of the other patients are getting neglected on this floor. All of the nurses keep coming in here because you’re in here.”

“Well, at least that means you get the benefit of the extra attention, too.” Bo was enjoying the attention that the nursing staff was giving him. He was already debating which nurse to ask out.

“You really think so huh? Somehow, I get the feeling that I could be turning blue and they wouldn’t notice.”

“I’ll make sure to tell them if you start putting on a color show,” Bo smirked. “Speakin’ of which, I know someone else who turned all shades of red earlier today. You would have LOVED to of seen Pauline’s reaction to the food fight. Especially when Uncle John threw the first spoonful of potatoes.”

“Looking at Uncle John, I think I can see just what Jebb’s gonna be like in another twenty to thirty years.” Kira laughed. “I think I’ll be able to handle it.” She was so glad that Jebb took after his father rather than his mother.

“I’ll bet that Jebb will be here before the game ends. He said that you practically kicked him out of here this morning. I think that Coy challenged him to a race around y’alls back forty. That should keep him busy for a little while.”

“Good. That will get him to thinkin’ just how he’ll want to work on the car. Being a test driver, you think Coy can steer him to where he can get a new engine and stuff for the car.”

“Maybe. I think Cooter’s already puttin’ some plans together too. So ya think that we need to get Jebb to workin’ on it to get his mind off everything?”

“He has been stressin’ a lot. I think a little grease under his nails just might help take the edge off. Of course all of y’all will be busy building the new barn in the coming week.”

“Did you have to remind me?”

Kira smiled at her brother. “Sorry. Well, did I miss anything else today?”

“Just everyone giving their suggestions for the baby’s name. I only have one. DON’T NAME HIM BEAUREGARD! He’ll never forgive you.”

“What would you suggest otherwise, Beauregard?” Kira giggled.

“How should I know?”

“You’re lucky you haven’t had to think up a name for a baby of your own already. Or are you just all talk after all?” Kira teased.

“I’m just careful is all. I guess that the little guy is letting you know that he wants a name, and soon. You two had better settle on one.”

Kira thought about the fact that she and Jebb had already settled on a name for one baby, it was the second they were still debating. And that required them to pick out two names since they weren’t sure if they were having a girl or a second little boy. But of course, Kira couldn’t exactly say that though.

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