The New Hand, Part Seventy-Eight

by J. Rosemary Moss

Genre: Slash Fan-Fiction (Bonanza)
Rating: PG-13

LINK TO PART ONE

~

The dinner table at the Ponderosa was crowded that night. Adam watched Pa and Josephine speak quietly together on one end of the table as Hoss and Joe did the same at the other. That left David, Abby and Adam in the center.

David was seated opposite Adam and next to Abby. Adam had intended to stay quiet and let Abby and David talk, but Abby seemed determined to bring him into the conversation. At last Adam relented and the three of them settled into a comfortable discussion about where the engaged couple would find a house. Then, to Adam’s surprise, Little Joe jumped into the conversation.

“If you don’t want something too big,” Joe said, “I know the perfect place.”

“It doesn’t have to be big,” David assured him, leaning over toward him. “Not till we fill it up with children, at any event. What do you have in mind?”

“There’s a little house—well, more like a cottage, really—right on the Ponderosa,” Joe explained. “Adam, Hoss and I fixed it up real nice. I meant to move in there with my fiancée, Laura. But she died before we could get married.”

Abby gasped. “I’m so sorry, Joe,” she said, reaching out to take his hand.

“So am I,” David echoed at once. “I didn’t realize that you’d been engaged.”

Joe colored slightly as he squeezed Abby’s hand. “It was a while ago. But I hate to think of the place going to waste—why don’t you take it over for now? You’ll be a lot closer to the main house than you would be in Virginia City, but you’ll still be far enough to have a bit of privacy.”

Adam watched as Abby glanced up hopefully at David. David smiled down at her and then turned and gave Adam a half-shrug. Adam smiled and shrugged back in reply.

Joe grinned—apparently he’d been following the unspoken conversation. “That’s settled then,” he said.

Adam glanced back at his Pa and Josephine. They were so engrossed in their own conversation that they hadn’t even heard David and Abby’s decision.

He raised his eyebrows at that. Pa and Josephine were both smiling at each other—in fact, Pa was laughing heartily now over some story Josephine was telling him about her first marriage. They certainly seemed to be enjoying each other’s company.

Adam turned back to back to the others. “Why don’t we have a toast to the new home?” he asked. “Hoss, would you come down to the wine cellar with me and help me pick out a bottle?”

Hoss gave him a doubtful look. “I’m not much for choosing wine, Adam. There’s that one sweet one I like, but I don’t know what goes with what.”

“That sweet one will be fine,” Adam assured him. “Come on—you can point it out to me.”

Hoss looked like he was about to object, but something in Adam’s expression seemed to change his mind.

“Okay, older brother,” he said. “I’ll see if I can remember which one it is.”

LINK TO PART SEVENTY-NINE