“Noodles, please.”
She nodded and took Hom and went back to the kitchen. You could hear her yelling with her husband in Thai. Then the sounds of chopping and scraping of the wok could be heard with the yelling. I loved this place.
“It is the Thai version of Rosa and her kids.” Mary laughed. “They are wonderful. So how did you save her son?”
“Tarzan and I were eating a late lunch one day. Kasem came in after school with a bloody nose, black eye, torn shirt. We figured it was a play yard fistfight. I asked Kamon if I could take him back to Forces and clean him up. Lach the Doc was there. She said yes. On our way back, we started talking to him. We found out the local gang had beaten him up for saying no to selling drugs for them. We got him patched up. I started talking to him some more. He seemed like a good kid but needed more than just school to keep him occupied. So, I brought him back here and had a talk with Kamon and her husband. I told them I wanted to find an afterschool program for him that he would enjoy and fit into. They said they could not spare the money. I told them it would be free. They said good luck finding something free. I let him heal for a week, then I had him come to Forces after school. I tested him and then sponsored him into a gym I liked.”
“That’s amazing. I am glad you saved him from that life. How old is he?”
“Kasem is a sophomore. He is trying to figure out what he wants to do. He is torn between going back to Thailand and becoming a Thai martial art champion and instructor, or more than likely, being a Marine. I personally hope he becomes a Marine, but it’s his choice.”
“You wouldn’t want him to be a SEAL like you?”
“No, he would do better as a Marine. It’s just my opinion though.” I took a sip of the Thai coffee that April brought me. I saw Manoj come from the kitchen with a plate and some ramekins. He set it all on our table.
“Congratulations, Benboy.” He held out his hand to me and I shook it. He turned to Mary. “Take good care of this man. He a good man,” he said. He turned and went back to the kitchen. He was talking Thai again at Kamon. I heard him say that Mary was beautiful like Kamon. I smiled. That man loved his wife and his kids. I couldn’t wait till Mary and I were like that.
“This is delicious. I love chicken satay,” she said, taking a skewer. She took some of the cucumber salad and peanut sauce too.
I had a skewer too. It was not long before April brought out our meal. “I hope you enjoy.” She set the plates down and went to refill our drinks.
“This is the best pad Thai I have ever had.” Mary had already dug into hers. I was thrilled.
Chapter 24
Mary
Our dinner was wonderful. The company of Kamon, Hom, April, Manoj, and Kasem, who showed up later, was so special. I realized that this family was his adoptive family just like Rosa and her family were to me. I would make sure that they had a special place in Ben’s life going forward.
We headed back to my house. He stopped at the local Jewel grocery store. “I have to grab some things for dessert, and I figured you needed to get the flowers?”
“Yup, good thinking.” I went to the flower display, and he headed off into the store.
I made my selections and headed to the registers. I paid and waited on one of the benches they had in the front area of the store. It was not long before Ben came through the line with a bunch of stuff. I had no idea what he was going to do with it all, but if he enjoyed it, that was all that mattered.
“You ready?” he asked and took my hand. We headed home. When we got there, he put the things away and left some bread out. I took the flowers and made a simple arrangement. “Looks beautiful, Mary,” he said as I was finishing up.
“Thanks,” I said, putting away the little knife I used for cutting the stems
“How are you feeling? Sore? Stiff?” He was rubbing my shoulders.
“No, I feel good. You want to watch a movie?” It wasn’t too late, but I knew I would fall asleep if we did watch a movie.
He looked at me. “I think you will fall asleep if we do. How about we just go to bed?” He held his hand out to me and took me to my bedroom. He stripped us and tucked us in. I loved being wrapped in his arms, held tightly against his chest.
“Did you have a good time with the ladies today?” he asked. It was like we did every night, talking on the phone. But better since we were together. In bed.
“I did. I have not had girlfriends like that since high school. It is really nice to have them to talk to. How were things with you today?”
“The delivery was fine; the work-out felt good. Dinner with you and the Chimpongs was wonderful. It’s Tarzan and Jenn. I’m still having a hard time with that.” He blew out a breath.
“We will help them. We will be there for them. We will get him through it,” I said. It was hard to know what to say. It was a terrible situation.
Ben ran his hand through my hair. “I know. I know it will take him time. You never get over it. It’s just … how much time between the event and now?” he said sadly. He must have been remembering his losses. I held him tighter; he kept stroking my hair. We lay there in silence until we fell asleep.
We spent most of Sunday morning in bed. We were working on getting dressed when the doorbell rang. Ben looked at me.
“I don’t know. No one was planning on stopping by.” I grabbed my phone off the charger and looked at the app he had put on there. When I saw who it was, I didn’t want to deal with it. “It’s Dennis. Ugh. What could he want?” I said, tossing my phone on the bed. I started walking to the door.
“Who’s Dennis?” Ben’s voice had an edge to it.
“An ex who is the definition of a mama’s boy.” I got to the door. Ben was right behind me.
“Hello, Dennis. What can I do for you?” I was trying to be nice to him. I could feel Ben behind me with a glower on his face.
“Hi, Mary. Um, these are for you. Um, Mother said I should come by and see you.” He had a box of chocolates in his hand that he held out for me to take.
“I really can’t accept those, Dennis,” I said gently. “Dennis, this is Ben. It would really hurt Ben’s feelings if I took those.” Ugh, I hated this. I could feel Ben practically growling behind me. Dennis was a nice person, but he just couldn’t separate himself from his poor widowed mother. I didn’t want to be mean to him, but he needed to understand it was over. It was only two dates that didn’t work.
“Oh, okay, Mary. If you are sure?” Dennis sounded so sad and depressed.
“I am sure, Dennis. Take care,” I said as I started to close the door. Ben stopped me and stepped out on the porch. I didn’t know what he was going to do, but I hoped he would not hurt Dennis.
“Dennis, we wish you luck in life. But I will take care of Mary now. She is good.” Ben held out a hand to Dennis to shake.
Dennis looked at Ben’s hand and then at Ben. “She was a real nice girl. She was real nice to Mother when we went out. Mother liked that,” Dennis said. He shook Ben’s hand and went on his way. Ben came back in the house.
I could tell he was thinking something as he shut the door. “Did he just imply that when you went out, he brought his mother along on the date?” Ben was really trying to figure this one out.
“Yes.” It was the worst date I had ever been on. Dennis had spent the whole time trying to please his mother. If he did anything she did not like, she’d berated him in front of me. Dennis just sat there and took it. I felt very sorry for him. I tried to be nice to him, but he really thought I would go out with him again. There was not enough tea in China to ever convince me to go out with him again.
Ben stared at me in disbelief. “I kinda feel sorry for him,” he said.
“Yeah. I do too,” I said.
“Hopefully he will find someone.” Ben walked to me and hugged me. He kissed the top of my head. “Because you are mine.”
“Always.” It popped out of my mouth. I smiled. It felt right.
“I need to start dessert. What are you going
to do?” He was kissing my neck.
“I think I will sew.” He was making my knees go week.
“Okay.” He walked me to my sewing machine and left me sitting there to do my thing. I watched him walk into the kitchen. He wore those jeans so nicely. You could see his powerful thighs. And then there was his ass. I was sure you could bounce a quarter off of it.
“Mary, if you would rather watch me, you can come in here,” he called. He caught me with my chin on my hand, holding my head up so I could stare at him. He invited me in there, so I went. It was more fun to watch him anyways.
“What at you making?” I saw he had bread, milk, eggs, sugar, butter, cinnamon, a bowl, and a baking dish. The bowl and baking dish must have come from his place since I did not own mixing bowls or baking dishes.
“This is Irish soda bread. I am making bread pudding out of it,” he explained as he cut up the bread.
“Oh, that sounds good.” I watched him as he worked. I loved how his muscles moved. He was efficient as he worked and cleaned up as he went along. Before I knew it, he had the bread pudding in the oven and a pan of sauce on the stove. “You did that without a recipe.” I was in awe of him. He’d made something from memory.
“Yeah. It’s my mom’s recipe. She made it every Sunday. If I had all of my stuff, I would have made the soda bread from scratch. But Jewel’s is just as good.” He smiled. I loved that he was sharing things about him like this. I was excited to try his mom’s recipe.
“How long until it’s done?” I asked.
“About forty-five minutes.” He looked at me “You are thinking something. What is it?”
“Would you want to meet my parents?” I’d just had the idea. I normally talked to them on Sundays. They tended to be home.
He walked over to where I was sitting and scooped me up in his arms. He smiled up at me. Then he kissed me. “Of course.”
“Well, put me down and I will go get my tablet. We can video call them.” My dad had given me the tablet one Christmas. He’d said he and Mom wanted to see more of me. They knew how much I didn’t like flying, so this was a great compromise. Ben let me go and I went and grabbed the tablet. I pulled up the app and sent the request to my mom’s tablet.
“Hank, our daughter’s calling,” I heard my mom yell for my dad.
“Hi, Mom, how are you?” I said. She was outside on their screened-in pool deck. Dad came into view a second later.
“Hi, Dad, how are you?”
“Good, good. How have you been?” he said, taking a seat next to Mom.
“I’ve been really good. Mom, you remember I told you I was talking to a guy named Ben?” I asked.
“Of course. You really liked talking to him and hoped to meet him soon,” she said.
“Well, I got to meet him. Mom, Dad, meet Ben O’ Doyle.” I turned the tablet so he filled the camera. “Ben, meet Hank and Peggy Thornton.”
“Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Thornton, how are you?” Ben smiled. He looked so handsome.
“Oh! Well hello, Ben, please call me Peg, so nice to meet you,” she said.
“Hello, Ben, I’m Hank. So, I must ask, what are your intentions with my daughter? You are cooking in her house after all.” Nothing ever got by my dad. We were still in the kitchen, and he must have seen the dishes or the pan on the stove.
“Hank, don’t start.” Peg slapped her husband on the arm.
“What? You know our daughter does not cook. There is a pan on the stove. It’s not hers. He’s brought stuff over to the house. How long is he staying? I have a right to know,” Hank said to Peg. They both looked at us. I looked at Ben. He was looking at me. He had the goofiest grin on his face. He started laughing.
With a smile on his face, he turned back to them. “I am so sorry. Hank, I plan on asking your daughter to marry me. I know this seems all so fast, but when you know, you know. I hope I can prove to you I will be a good husband to her and be the man she needs. But you should know I love her very much even in this short amount of time. Mary, would you close your eyes for me, please?” he asked.
I closed them. I could feel him moving, but I had no idea what he was doing. “It’s a family heirloom,” he said. I heard my mother gasp.
“Well, we have never seen Mary so happy and that is all we could ask for,” my dad said.
I felt Ben move again; he kissed my temple. “You can open your eyes, honey.” I blinked them open. I smiled. I saw my parents were happy and smiling.
“So, what did you do for your first date?” my mom asked.
“Mary took me for lunch with the seals,” Ben answered.
“You used to do that with Aunt Helen. How nice! You enjoyed the zoo?” Mom asked.
We both answered yes. We giggled. The conversation with my parents went well. We hung up just before the timer went off. Ben went and took care of it.
“What did you show my parents?” I really wanted to know. It was a family heirloom after all.
He stepped from the counter and reached for my hand. “I want to tell you a story. Let’s go sit.” He led me to the couch in the lounge. He sat down then pulled me into his lap and swung my legs over his thigh. He sat close to the arm of the couch so it could support my back. It was very comfortable. He took my hand in his and rubbed the back of it.
“My gramps was fifteen when he met my grandmother for the first time. Her father went to go fight in World War II; he wanted to make sure she and her mother were taken care of. So, he took them to his brother. He was the priest of my family’s church. She and her mother were introduced to the congregation and Gramps thought she was the prettiest little thing. She was twelve years old at the time. It was a good thing her father did that because he did not make it home. Gramps felt so bad for her and her mom. They lived in a tiny apartment on the church grounds. He would go by and see them after school and help with chores. He would buy them groceries with the little money he got from working at the local car shop. Gramps loved cars. He was going to be a mechanic with his own shop one day. He kept hanging around her and her mother for the next three years. When he turned eighteen and graduated high school, he knew he had three years to make a start of his life so he would be ready to take care of her.” He paused and looked at me. I was listening to his voice as he told me this story.
He continued. “Well, it turned out the man who owned the shop he worked at had no children. He had lost his one true love before he could even ask her to marry him. He had seen what my gramps had been doing for my grandmother and her mom for the last three years. He pulled my gramps in his office and told him about his life. Gramps was shocked that his boss had never had kids. He loved kids. Always had suckers for them. His boss then told Gramps that he wanted to pass the shop on to him. My gramps was shocked and humbled. His boss made him a partner. Then he pulled out a small box from his desk and handed it to my gramps. He said, ‘Don’t make the mistake I did. Don’t waste time.’ Gramps opened it and found a diamond ring. Gramps tried to give it back, but his boss would not hear of it. Gramps said thanks and ran over to my grandmother’s. He found her mom in the kitchen, shelling peas. He told her mom what had just happened and asked her mom if he could give my grandmother the ring as a promise. Her mother cried and said she was so thankful for coming to this church and having Gramps in her life. She was so happy her daughter would be taken care of. She said yes. He gave my grandmother that ring that night. He said he would be waiting for her, and on her eighteenth birthday, they would get married and start their lives together. She said yes. So, for the next three years, he worked every day, then went and saw my grandmother after work.”
He shifted me a little and went back to his story. “It was the day of her eighteenth birthday. Luckily it was a Friday, so they could celebrate all weekend. It was two weeks before she would graduate high school. They had their wedding in her uncle’s church that day, just liked he promised. He surprised her and took her to their new house. She was so surprised because he never said a word about it. He moved her and her mother
into that house that weekend. He was so happy. So was she. A few years later they had my father. Not long after that, his boss retired. He had met my great grandmother a few times over the years. The day he retired, he came to Gramp’s house and asked my great grandmother if she would like to come with him. He didn’t want to live his days out alone and he hoped she would feel the same way. So, she did. My gramps now owned the mechanic shop, had his wife, his child, and his house; life was perfect. Well, my dad grew up. He loved numbers. He never enjoyed working in the garage the way my gramps did. When he graduated high school, he went to college. With his love of numbers, he found investments and financial planning. He majored in finance. The day he graduated from school was the day he met my mother. He was running late and accidentally tripped over her at her florist shop. He said he instantly fell for her and wanted to skip graduation and go get married. They didn’t. They dated for a month before he asked her. He had gotten a job in downtown Chicago and would travel from Morgan Park every day. He was making very good money. He bought a house a block away from Gramps and moved him and Mom into that house. Then they went over to Gramps and told them they wanted to get married. My grandmother took off her promise engagement ring and gave it to my father. He turned around and asked my mother before the ring had a chance to cool. They were married that weekend.” He paused and took a breath. He stood up and set me on the couch. He knelt before me.
Ammo and Mary Page 12