Farley woke to find Mona gone from the bed. Wrapping a blanket around himself, he quietly went into the main room of the house. There he found Mona spooning Chloe with her arm stretched over the dog. Both looked quite content and were snoring quietly. Farley smiled at their peaceful slumber before throwing more logs into the potbelly stove.
“What? What?” Rupert said, raising his head from his pallet.
“Just me. Go back to sleep,” Farley said. “Althea and Freddy are gone. Sunrise soon.”
Sleepy, Rupert hunkered back into his sleeping bag.
Chester got up and went outside to do his business off the porch. Silently creeping back inside, he saw the bed was empty and, snatching his bedroll, made for the bedroom.
Shaking his head, Farley couldn’t understand Chester’s obsession with that bed—nor Rupert’s either. They had been positively potty about sleeping in the bedroom. Whispering between the two could be heard through the thin walls. It made Farley feel uneasy. Were those two plotting something? Putting his curiosity aside, an exhausted Farley lay beside Mona pulling his blanket over the three of them—Chloe, Mona, and himself.
It was obvious that marriage with Mona was a package deal. He wondered if he should give Chloe an engagement ring also.