Herb was pied out He never wanted to eat pie again in his entire life Oh you shouldn't have Aunt Lucinda said But even as she said it Herb watched her tear off a small piece of the pie's crust and pop it in her mouth She winked at Herb Before their big summer road trip the Peaches had visited Great Aunt Lucinda fairly regularly once a week usually and always brought her some sort of little hostess gift A book a fake plant or comfortable socks with funny sayings on them In exchange Aunt Lucinda cooked the Peach family delicious homemade meals and had endless supplies of chocolate on hand Come in come in she said ushering them inside Before Herb had even taken off his shoes there was an explosion of yaps and barks as four small energetic dogs skidded into the front entryway Their tiny toenails toenails made pat a pat a pat sounds as the dogs raced across the hardwood floors They greeted the Peaches with a lot of barking and jumping and one of the pups even managed to dip his furry snout in the peach pie Aunt Lucinda had carelessly set on a bench just inside the door Dasher Get away from my snack Aunt Lucinda scolded shooing him away Donny Vix Rudy behave Herb plopped down onto the floor and let the dogs
run all over him He hadn't seen Aunt Lucinda's pups in nearly two months not since before his family had left for their monthlong great food truck adventure When they'd finally gotten back to Minnesota at the end of July Aunt Lucinda was away and the pups were at camp which is what their great aunt called the kennel kennel But now that summer was almost over everyone was back home in Duluth and Herb had a lot of missed cuddling and playtime to make up for Truth be told Aunt Lucinda and her dogs were the only things that kept Herb coming back to this big scary mansion Aunt Lucinda had always felt more like a grandma to him than a great aunt Herb's actual grandparents had all passed away long ago and after their mom died of cancer two years earlier Dad's Aunt Lucinda had become an even more important part of the Peaches lives She was the only other family they really had And the pups were an added bonus Herb squirmed around on the wooden floor trying to give equal belly rubs and ear scratches to everyone The four little pups loved Herb and Herb had lots of love to give back The pups climbed over one another eagerly sniffing Herb's face nibbling and tugging at his shirt and poking their noses into his pockets Aunt Lucinda's pack of pups was very naughty but also very sweet
By the time he had finished giving each of the dogs a proper greeting Herb noticed that the rest of his family famiily had made their way into Aunt Lucinda's enormous living room Herb scooped Dasher up into his arms and followed his family The other three dogs chased after him leaping onto the sofas and chairs to greet the rest of the family Freddy had flopped onto a couch Lucy was browsing browsing the built in bookshelves on the far end of the living room and Aunt Lucinda sat in her recliner next to the unlit fireplace Dad was perched awkwardly on the front edge of Herb's favorite big squishy armchair Herb squeezed in behind Dad trying to hide from all the paintings that always seemed to be keeping watch over his every move So Dad said at the exact same time Aunt Lucinda said Well Aunt Lucinda chuckled and went on I'm guessing you have some questions about my letter Dad nodded When the Peaches had returned from their summer road trip in the Peach Pie Truck they had found a letter from Great Aunt Lucinda waiting for them in the mailbox of their tiny house across town It was filled with a bunch of surprises The past summer had been filled with surprises
First the Peach kids had learned that one of their mom's inventions had sold two whole years after she died which turned the Peach family into overnight millionaires Dad had donated most of the money to charity and saved most of the rest for his kids college but he'd also set aside a small sliver of Mom's windfall to spend on fun stuff Then Dad had surprised the kids with the news that he'd bought a used food this he told truck them was what he meant by fun stuff But the biggest shock of all had come when they'd found out Dad was taking a whole month off from work in order to travel around the Midwest selling pies as a family Aunt Lucinda's surprising note had capped off a summer that was full of twists and turns Great Aunt Lucinda had been visiting her daughter in Europe when Herb and his family had returned home so the Peaches had all been waiting impatiently for nearly all of August to find out what her unusual letter letter meant Like I said in my letter I've decided to move into an apartment at the Birch Pond retirement community community and I'm giving you my house Aunt Lucinda said bluntly This is what Lucy had told Herb the letter said He'd even read it with his own eyes but he had a hard time believing it could be true Who just gave someone a house
