Mom didn’t say a word, but Jazzie said enough for all of them. She was sorry, she told them, then blamed him. As he laughed it off, he and Joey made their way to the living room where Dad had the football game on. It was going to be a good day. And he had never been so excited in his life.
Dom joined them about an hour later. He was working on something—it was all he told them—but later, when the game they were watching was at halftime, he asked Tyler if he could speak to him privately. Dad took Joey and started telling him about the game, which the little boy listened to, and Tyler made his way to the deck where Dom had gone.
“I’ve been having the strangest dreams. Even during the day. About a leprechaun.” Tyler might have teased him about it, but he looked so upset that he let Dom continue. “He said that I was to go all over the world and buy up land. To make more of the camps like we have here. And he gave me a pot of gold.”
“I see.” Dom glared at him. “Don’t get pissy with me. You just told me that you’ve seen a little person and that he gave you a pot of gold to use. I’m thinking I have every right to be a little disbelieving.”
“Yeah, all right. But I have it.” He asked him what he had. “The gold. The money. When I touched a coin, it turned into cash.”
“I don’t understand. Are you dreaming? Or are you really talking with a...? Wait a minute. Don’t we have an uncle or something that claimed to be a leprechaun? He was married to Mom’s sister or something.” Dom nodded and said that he was now the king of the little people. “Dom, I don’t want to be rude, but have you had someone make sure that you don’t have a tumor or something?”
“I’m a fucking wolf.” Birds in the trees scattered when he yelled. Even a few deer that had been in the yard took off. Dom let out a long breath and started again. “I’m a wolf. I don’t have a tumor, and I have talked to Uncle O’Reilly. He is, as I said, the Good King of the Leprechauns.”
“That’s where you’ve been. Buying land.” Dom nodded. “I’m assuming that you don’t carry around a pot of gold. No, you said it turned to cash. You’re not carrying it around, are you? I mean—”
“Stop fucking making fun of me.” He told his brother that he was trying to deal with this in his own way. “All right. Yes, it’s cash. No, I don’t carry it around with me. I’ve been using it to pay the bank in payments. O’Reilly told me that I’d not get into trouble if I did it that way.” Dom rubbed his face hard with his hand.
“So this is real. Okay, I believe you. I don’t know why, but I do believe you. Did he give you a reason, other than it’s a wonderful idea for you to do this? I mean, as I said, it’s a good idea, but why did he come to you about it?”
“I don’t know why he picked me. But he said that his kind is dying off, and that having the little ones, what he calls the people at the camp, believe in them helps. I sort of equated it with Santa and no one believing in him. I think that was a movie or something.” Tyler let him talk. He too had to work this out. “I’ve bought a great deal of land already, and I’m having the camp here upgraded. A new furnace. A bigger kitchen. There is also going to be air in the cabins.”
“And what happens when you run out of money?” Dom sat down, unmindful of the snow in the chair. “You’ve already had more brought to you, haven’t you?”
“Yes. And this pot, when it comes to me—I swear to you, Tyler, it’s as big as your truck. And inside of it is all these coins. All of them gold and silver. They were only gold at first. As soon as I touch the first coin, they all change into nicely stacked money. They’re different denominations too, not just all hundreds as were on the top of the pile.” Tyler nodded, not even sure what he could say to that. “I’ve done about all I can without asking for help. I was hoping, really hoping, that you could help me tell our parents in a few days.”
“Why not now?” He said because Tyler was getting married in a couple of days. “Addie told you. I guess it was to be expected. What did you do to help her out? I’m assuming she enlisted all of you for something to do to help us.”
“I was told to get you some flowers and to make sure that the staff knew. I think that Caleb was in charge of inviting people. They’re supposed to show up at seven on Saturday.” He grinned at him. “I’m not supposed to tell you, of course, but I thought that it might get me some brownie points if I were to say something now for you.”
The door opened behind them and he and Dom both turned to see who it was. It was their dad, and Joey was sobbing. Taking the little man from his grandda, he asked him what happened.
“He just started fussing and I didn’t want to disturb his momma. I heard that she is having a good time in the kitchen with all them other girls.” He told him that they weren’t girls. “Well, holy jingle bells, son, I can’t call them women. That just don’t set right with me.”
“Why not?” Dad mumbled something while they entered the house again. Joey was sniffling, and big tears were still on his cheeks. “Why can’t you call them women? Last time I checked, they were all women.”
“Well, to me that sounds like I’m calling them—you know, street walkers.” Both he and Dom looked shocked. “I don’t rightly know where I got that from, but when you say them women, I think of that. And girls—while I guess I know they’re a mite grown up for that word too I just feel better saying it. It’s like me calling you my boys. You’re all grown up, with kiddies of your own now, but forever, you’ll just be my boys.”
With a huff, Dad made his way back to the living room, mumbling about temperamental men and the little girls that he loved. Tyler looked at Dom and laughed. There was nothing their dad could do to insult the girls in the kitchen. They both knew that, because they loved him as much as he did them.
After changing Joey’s diaper and then feeding him his bottle, they watched some more football together and made the little boy laugh. It was nice, he thought, having their kids, all his brothers who had some, here at the house. He was excited about the next phase of all their lives in the coming years.
~*~
Sara loved having all the girls around helping her. They were having fun, most of the time at each other’s expense, but she so loved the banter and good mood they were in. Addie, of course, had picked up the pies and had done a wonderful job of it. The rest of them were making something that they’d found in her old box of recipes. Jazzie was peeling potatoes. The poor girl didn’t have the first idea how to be around them all.
“You’re getting married Saturday.” The rest of them knew—Addie had told them when she’d arrived today. “I have a simple request for you. And please, you can tell me no if you wish.”
“I don’t think many people get away with telling you no about anything.” When she spoke, her hand flew to her mouth like she’d shocked even herself. “I’m so sorry.”
“No, don’t be. You’re absolutely right. Now, as for my favor? Ladies, if you’d come with me, I’d like your opinion about this too.” They went up the stairs the back way. “This won’t take but a moment or two.”
They’d not used this staircase in so long that until the boys had had the entire house remodeled, she’d forgotten it was there. It had been a handy thing when all the boys had been here. She’d call them down to breakfast that way before school. But one day, one of them—she couldn’t remember which right now—had fallen through one of the steps. They had blocked it off in favor of not fixing it. Money had been tight back in those days.
“I was digging around in my closet when I found this. I do hope you will tell me no, should you not want to wear it.” She pulled out her wedding dress wrapped in plastic and laid it on the bed. After taking off the cover, she watched their faces to see if they thought it was a terrible idea. “I had it cleaned. My goodness, I had no idea that it would cost so much. But it was well worth the price. It just shines now.”
“May I try it on?” Sara’s heart seemed to jump in her chest when Jazzie asked. “It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve seen. My mom’s dress was just a pl
ain white dress. But this, this is made for royalty, I think.”
When she went into the bathroom, Quinn with her to help with buttons, Sara sat on the bed. Playing with the quilt on hers and Kelley’s bed, she tried her best not to get her hopes up. When Quinn came out, looking for the shoes, Sara asked her if it was all right.
“I’m not telling you. But those buttons? Those are going to make Tyler insane. I bet that Kelley said something along those lines too.” She blushed and said how they’d had to have a few of them replaced when he’d ripped them off. “See, I knew I loved that man.”
When Quinn disappeared again, Sara looked at the others. “I didn’t want you to think that I didn’t want you to wear it as well. But to be honest with you, I had forgotten that I had it. The dress was my mother’s, and her mother’s before her. I could have sworn we sold it for some extra money a long time ago.” Addie smiled at her and Clare told her that she did good, that the dress and wearing it suited Jazzie more than it did the rest of them. “Yes, she is sort of a girly girl, isn’t she?”
When Quinn came out the second time, she was smiling hugely as she picked up the veil that was made for the dress. As soon as Jazzie came out—her hair had been hastily pulled up into a bun—the veil was put on her head, and Sara cried. She was simply the most beautiful bride that she’d ever seen. And Sara’s mom would have loved her.
“All these years, all the decades that have gone by, of all the women that wore that dress, I believe that you are the most beautiful of them all.” Sara pulled out her hankie and found the pictures that she’d unearthed with the dress. “This is my mother and father on their wedding day. She was a little plump, as you can see. And this couple here are her parents. Kelley and I had a lovely wedding. We were married in the pack woods, and it made such a lovely backdrop to it all.”
There were two more pictures, one of them so old that it was too delicate to touch. They looked at them, marveling at them all. But she couldn’t take her eyes off of Jazzie. She was born to wear the dress, it occurred to her, and she wanted her to have it, for her own daughter to wear.
“I would like for you to have it.” Jazzie hugged her, telling her that it would be an honor to wear it for her wedding. “No, child. I want you to take it to your home with Tyler. And to keep it safe, as I have done for you. Then when any of you have a daughter to be married, you pull it out, dust it off, and let them shine too. But only should they want to.”
Each of them hugged her. Sara felt like instead of her gifting something to them, they had given her the best gift of all—their unconditional love. And when they were helping Jazzie get out of the dress, Sara made her way to her bathroom to fix herself up. Today, this was what she knew families were about. Togetherness.
Even with the slight delay, dinner was going to be on time. The turkeys, two of them this year, made the entire house smell like the holidays, and would be done in another hour. The other things, pies and other goods, were something that she knew they’d all enjoy. For the first time since the boys had started coming along, she knew also that there would be enough food for them all, with a little extra for good friends to pass the day.
Looking out the window over her sink, she could just make out Mr. Cartwright’s house. It was in much better shape now, with all the renovations that had been done to it. She so loved that Jazzie and Tyler were so close. It meant that they could ask her to sit for Joey whenever they needed her.
Sending the man her love, she thanked him for this and the bounty that they were about to have. He’d made it possible, she knew, that not only were she and Kelley taken care of, but her sons were happy as well. The man, they owed so much to him. And before anyone could stop her, she picked up some of the flowers that Kelley had brought her, just a few of them, and made her way out to the little graveyard where Mr. Cartwright and his missus were resting.
“I wanted to come by and thank you personally for what you’ve given us.” She knocked snow off the marker that had been made for him. “You made a great many things possible for us, my family and I. You old poop. Every time I come out here, I want to scold you for not telling us what you were doing.” She looked around and saw that Rayne had joined her.
“He’s here today. Once they travel on, it’s seldom that they return. He wanted me to talk to you about something.” She told her that if he was changing his mind about the money, she would gladly give it to him to have him here. “Mr. Cartwright said that he’d never do that. He is having too much fun watching you and Kelley come to terms with it.”
“I think we’re getting better with it. Having little ones around makes it so much nicer to have money. And all the things that we’re doing around town too. There wasn’t any way that we could have done that without his generosity.” Rayne told her that he could hear her. “I know, but I feel silly talking to him. I loved that old man.”
“He loved you as well. Like a daughter that he wasn’t able to have.” That touched her heart. “Mr. Cartwright wanted me to tell you about Dominic. He’s working on a very big project, and needs someone to help him. It’s to do with the little ones, the people that are handicapped.”
“What’s wrong? Did someone try and hurt them? I have to tell you right now, if someone has touched a hair on any of their heads, I will—” She stopped threatening when Rayne laughed. “I’m thinking that I should talk less and listen better.”
“He said to tell you that his uncle has contacted Dominic and wants him to have more places like he has here. A great many people, children and adults alike, could benefit from a program like he’s making happen. But he needs some help, mostly in the way of support, so that he can finish what he’s started.” Rayne laughed but continued. “He said that he could use a bit of his momma’s organizational skills, as well as a few fundraisers. He has the money, Dominic does, but he needs someone to keep him out of jail, if he were to tell them where he got the funds.”
“I don’t know who.... His Uncle O’Reilly? He’s come to ask him for this?” Rayne nodded. “But I thought...I don’t know what I thought when he disappeared with my sister. I just assumed, like everyone did, that he’d died or left the country. He’s around?”
“Yes, Mr. Cartwright said that he’s the king of the leprechauns now.” Sara sat down on the little bench that she and Kelley had been repairing every year since it had been put here. “He would like for the children—the little ones, he calls them—to be around where more of his kind can see them. If not, then leprechauns will be no more. They need to be believed in, or they cannot survive. Is that true, Sara?”
“I think I read that someplace. And this thing that Dominic is doing, it’s to help these children have someplace to go?” Rayne said that was it. “Why hasn’t he come to us about it?”
“Because he wasn’t sure if he was dreaming or not.” Sara could see that. The poor boy must have thought he was off his rocker to be talking to one of the little people like that. “Sara, will you help? Mr. Cartwright wants to know.”
“Well of course I will. We all will. What a thing to ask his own mother. I will help him in any way that I can. First I’ll get the rest of them involved.” She thought about seeing Tyler and Dom on the back deck. “He’s spoken to his brother, hasn’t he? Well, that’s a step in the right direction. Yes, we’ll get this going as soon as we can. Thank you, Rayne, Mr. Cartwright.”
On the way back to the house, she thought of all the things they could do. They’d have to wait on fundraisers until after Christmas. Things were still tight around town, and she didn’t want to hit them with something like this. She knew a couple of families that would give until it hurt.
When she walked into the kitchen, Sara had a long list of things she wanted to do. At dinner, she thought, she’d asked her son about it and tell him where she’d heard it. It was a real treat for her to know something before her husband. And she knew he didn’t know, because he wasn’t blasting it all over the place. Yes, she thought, she was going to do this. The little ones nee
ded them.
Chapter 5
Glenda had been released last night. And in the way of helping her out, they had given her a certificate for the local dive for two meals, as well as one night in a hotel. What the hell was she supposed to do the rest of the time before she got little Ryan, she wanted to ask them, but didn’t. They’d just find something wrong with that as well.
She had started calling him by the name she was planning to change it to while she was eating her dinner last night. Joey—Joseph, if she remembered correctly—wasn’t a good name for her soon to be son. He should have been hers from the beginning, and would have been but for the little alarm thing that had been on his ankle at the hospital. What the hell was the world coming to when they had to put alarms on kids just born?
She’d been notified that her little boy had been in an accident when she’d heard that Jazzie was in labor. They’d been working to save her son while Jazzie had been in the same hospital giving birth. It had been her intention to go in, talk to her, and ask for the baby. Then when she saw the little man, just all bundled up in his crib, it was her intention to kill Jazzie and take her grandson. But she’d just tried to take him, figuring that as busy as they were with making sure that poor little Jazzie was all right, no one would miss him. At least long enough for her to get out of the place, get him stashed away, and come back for her son.
Getting all the way to the door with the baby, Glenda had been sure that she was home free. In her mind, she already had a place to put him until she could return for her son, because at that point, she thought that her Ryan was going to live. Then the alarm had gone off, screaming so loudly that the baby started wailing. She’d had no choice but to put him down and run. After that, everyone, including the police that were on the floor, was paying a great deal too much attention for her to try and snatch him the second time.
Tyler Page 5