“Tony, what are you doing? I’m pretty sure that is not why Zane pays for you to take those lessons. I seriously doubt he expected you to need to defend yourself against the furniture,” Jenny said, looking at the little boy with a mixture of awe and pity. “Mom’s not going to be happy with you.”
Tony looked up from his position on the floor, where he landed sprawled out, after rolling away from the couch. He wore a bemused expression, his mouth just hanging open. He lay there staring at her without saying a word.
“Well, did you break anything?” Jenny asked with a smirk, trying hard not to laugh.
Finally snapping out of his dazed state, he rolled over and jumped up, flushing pink with embarrassment, or shame. She wasn’t sure which. “You do realize that couch is extremely old and heavy. There’s no way you can get it back on its feet.”
He just stood there staring at her, still unable to speak. His cheeks were so red at this point, he looked like he had the world’s worst sun burn.
Mark started to speak, but Jenny stopped him. “I know what you’re getting ready to say. Just hold that thought.”
Apparently, Tony had caught on to what Mark had been about to say, and asked, “Can’t he sit it back up?”
“Not so fast,” she said, wagging her finger at him. “Go ahead. I want you to try and sit it back up.”
“Jenny, it’s okay. I can get it,” Mark said, taking a step toward the couch once again.
“Hang on, Mark. This is not just about sitting the couch back up,” she said, turning back to Tony. “Go on. Try to sit it up.”
After trying, unsuccessfully to lift the back of the couch off the floor, he started pushing on the seat of the couch. When all he was able to do was get it to rock up less than an inch from the floor, then thump back with a loud ominous thud, he looked up at Jenny with fear in his eyes. “I can’t move it.”
“Now, do you realize, if you had somehow ended up under that thing, you could have been seriously hurt?” she asked, crossing her arms in front of her. “What if it had landed on one of the others?”
“Yeah,” he said, dropping his gaze to the floor with a blush. “I’m sorry.”
“So, why were you using the couch for a martial arts opponent to start with?” Jenny asked, all the sudden sounding a lot like her mother.
“Gabe and Nathan dared me to,” the little boy answered just barely above a whisper.
Jenny just shook her head and looked over at her little sister. “Zoe, go get Mom, please.”
Zoe darted from the room without a word. A few minutes later she returned with her mom, Lisa and James trailing behind her.
When Jamie noticed the couch laying over, her mouth dropped open and she looked around at the rest of the room. “What happened in here?” she asked, looking to Jenny for an explanation. “It looks like this room as been hit by a cyclone.”
“All I know is what I saw when I walked in the room. Tony jumped from the ping pong table to the couch and knocked it over,” she answered, waving her hand from the table in question to the couch. “He claims that Gabe and Nathan dared him to do it.”
Jamie rubbed her hands over her face, then stood and stared at the ceiling for a full minute before she was able to speak. “Tony, do you have a need to do everything your older brothers dare you to do?”
“I don’t know,” he grumbled, looking like he wanted to run and hide.
“One of these days, they’re going to dare you to do something, and you’re going to get seriously hurt. Or hurt someone else.”
“Sorry, Mom,” he mumbled under his breath.
Jamie just shook her head and looked over at Jenny. “Either I had more patience when you older ones were their age, or you didn’t get as crazy. Which was it?”
Without hesitating, Jenny replied, “You had more patience. I remember Zane, Luke, James and,” she turned to look at her handsome husband now, “Mark, doing almost the same exact thing when they were just about the same age. Maybe even a little older. It was even the same couch.”
“Now that you mention it, I remember that, as well.” Now she was eyeing James and Mark so hard they both looked embarrassed with remembered shame. “Would you two, please, sit the couch back up like it belongs.”
They both walked over to the couch. One on each end and leaned over and picked it up. It was back on its legs like it weighed no more than a of couple pounds. Mark looked up at Jamie, and asked, “Are you ever going to get rid of this couch?”
She gave him a strange look and replied, “I don’t know. Why?”
He shrugged, trying to hide a grin. “I was just thinking, I might like to have it. If you ever decided to replace it.”
“It’s like fifty years old. Maybe older. Carl and I have had it since we first got married. My aunt gave it to us when she bought herself a new one. Why are you attached to an old couch? I know without asking you have the money to buy a new one.”
He looked over at Jenny like he was trying to decide how to answer. “Just memories.”
“I’d ask, but I’m almost afraid to,” the older woman said, her eyes growing wide with suspicion.
“It’s nothing bad.” Jenny said, her cheeks flushing pink. She knew exactly what Mark was thinking about. It had been four years now. That first kiss had been what started everything.
“Honestly, I think the fourth of July is starting to become my favorite holiday,” Mark said, with a twinkle in his eyes.
Now Jamie was really looking at him in a confused way, and Jenny was even brighter. He just stood there laughing, unable to hold it in. The older woman just shook her head and turned to walk out of the room. There was no way she was going to ask.
******
A little bit later, supper was finally ready, and they were all getting sat down to eat when Mark noticed Tony was being unusually quiet. “So, Tony, how much trouble did you get in for knocking the couch over?”
He just shrugged his shoulders, trying to act like it was no big deal. “I’m grounded for two weeks from video games.”
“That’s all?” Zane asked, sounding awed. “You grounded us for four weeks from anything inside. We had to play outside. You even grounded James, Luke and Mark.”
“Yeah, I remember that,” Mark chuckled. “You’re right, she did ground us, as well. Then my mom grounded me at home, too.”
Jamie just shrugged it off. “Well, you all were my test subjects, being the oldest. And you other three’s parents told me to treat you like you were mine, so I did.”
“Wait a minute. How did Tony turn the couch over?” Carl asked, giving his young son a stern look. “And which couch did he turn over?”
“The black one,” his wife answered, very dryly.
His eyes grew huge, and he turned to look at his son once again. “He turned it over by himself?” he asked, not sure which feeling was stronger. His irritation or his awe.
“Yep.”
“How?” he asked, sounding a little amazed.
“Tony, tell him. I think Zane needs to hear this, also,” Jamie said, giving her older son a dirty look. “He is partly to blame, after all.”
“How is it my fault?” he chuckled. “I wasn’t even here.”
“Come on, Tony,” their mom urged. “Tell Zane what I’m talking about.”
“I jumped off the ping pong table, and kicked the back of it,” he said, then quickly looked back down at his plate, his cheeks flushing.
“Okay, I see your point,” Zane said, trying not to laugh. “I’m still not sure how he was heavy enough to do it, though.”
“Zane, this is not funny,” she huffed. “He could have gotten seriously hurt. Or hurt one of the others.”
“Mom, I didn’t tell him to do it,” he said, waving his hands in front of him like he didn’t know for sure what else to say.
“No, that honor belongs to Gabe and Nathan. They’re grounded, right along with him.”
“Tony, you’ve really got to stop letting them talk you into stuff,” Zane said, still struggling not
to laugh.
“Zoe, you need to eat,” Jamie said, switching gears and looking over at her little girl.
“I don’t want it,” the little girl pouted. “I’m not hungry.”
“Okay, but just remember, here in a little bit when everybody else is eating chocolate cake, and you say you’re hungry, I’m going to give you your chicken and rice back.”
Alex looked over at Zoe and nodded his head. “She will. She’s done it to me before. You have to eat your dinner before you get dessert.”
“You mean there was a time when Alex didn’t want to eat everything in sight?” Mark asked with a grin.
“I don’t want to eat everything in sight. Just the food,” Alex said with his own cheesy grin.
The little girl shook her head, sticking her bottom lip out farther. “I still don’t want it. I’m not hungry.”
“Zoe, Alex is right. She’s done it to me before, as well. You really want to eat your chicken and rice if you want chocolate cake later. I know chocolate cake is your favorite dessert,” Michael said in a singsong voice, trying to help his brother get his sister to eat her dinner.
She just shook her head back and forth, her lip still stuck out, and crossed her arms over her chest.
“Boys, I appreciate you trying to help, but this is a case of going to have to learn the hard way,” Jamie said, shaking her head with a grin. “This is one I’ve been through with all of you. Except for Nathan.”
“Nathan hasn’t gone through that phase?” Mark asked, giving the little boy in question a surprised look. “Even I went through that with my mom, and I was always hungry when I was still growing.”
“No. It has never mattered what I put in front of him, he’ll eat it. And he always has. He’s the only one I think that is going to be worse than Alex when he reaches puberty. Although, Gabe is already showing signs of being pretty bad.”
“One time when I was still in that age range, I ate nearly a whole meatloaf,” Mark said, thinking back. “And that’s saying something. My mom’s cooking was still pretty rough then.”
“That just makes me wonder where Alex is going to top out at. He’s already six four, and he’s only sixteen,” Jamie said with a grimace.
“I was around that height at sixteen. Maybe a little taller. Can you remember how tall I was?” he asked Jamie.
She just shook her head. “I think you’re right. You were close to that height. The details start to blur over time. Especially when you are trying to raise so many children.”
“Oh wow. Almost a whole meatloaf?” Jenny asked, like something had just occurred to her. “I wonder what our kids are going to be like,” Jenny said grinning at her husband.
“Zane done something like that once. It wasn’t meatloaf though. It was chili. It was a good thing when I make chili, I try to make enough to have quite a lot of leftover, or we wouldn’t have had enough for everybody else. He ate nearly a whole pot by himself.”
“I don’t remember that,” Zane said, shaking his head.
“I do. I was trying to get my share before you ate it all,” Phillip said, smirking at his brother. “It was football season, and we’d had a really hard practice that night. I think you were too busy eating to think about anything else. It didn’t help that chili is one of your favorite foods.”
“Wait. I’ve got the one that tops it all,” Jamie said, grinning when she heard Alex groan. He knew what story she was getting ready to tell.
Zane laughed, nodding his head. “Alex and the chicken.”
“What about Alex and chicken? Did he eat a whole one?” Mark asked with a funny look on his face.
“It’s not about how much of it he ate. It had to be about eleven or twelve at night. Everybody was supposed to be in bed, and I could hear giggling. I knew it had to be coming from the kitchen. Because it certainly wasn’t coming from upstairs,” Jamie said with a grin, watching Alex’s expression turn sour.
“I take it Alex doesn’t like it when you tell this story,” Mark said, trying not to laugh.
“No, he doesn’t,” Jamie grinned.
“It’s not that I don’t like it,” the teenager grumbled. “I don’t remember it.”
“It was just last year during football season,” she continued, grinning at her son. “Anyway, when I got to the kitchen, I found Tonya, Gabe, Nathan and Tony all laughing hysterically at Alex. He was standing at the fridge, in his boxer briefs, with the door open, eating the last three pieces of fried chicken. Thankfully he still sleeps in his underwear, or this story could be a lot worse,” Jamie said, grinning when she heard her son groan again. “Anyway. He had already eaten the first two pieces of chicken by the time I made it to the kitchen and was working on the last one.”
“Okay, but what’s funny about that?” Mark asked, feeling like he had missed the punch line.
“He was asleep,” she answered, still grinning.
“Oh,” he said with a chuckle, shaking his head a little bit.
“Hang on. It gets better.”
“How?”
“I ran the younger ones back off to bed. Cleaned up his mess. Then I got him awake enough I was able to walk him back upstairs to his room, but he wouldn’t budge until I let him finish his chicken. The next day, he asked me where those three pieces of chicken had gone. Of course, that just started his brothers and sister laughing all over again. And when the rest of them found out, every time they saw him eating, they would ask him if he was sleep eating.”
“That explains why everybody kept asking him that. I think the joke has just finally died down in the last few months,” Mark said, trying not to laugh.
“To this day, I don’t remember doing that,” Alex said with a scowl.
When Jamie looked over at Zoe’s plate, she noticed most of her chicken and rice was gone. “Hunter, is there a lot of food over there, under your sister’s chair? Or in it?”
“No, Mom. She’s actually been eating.”
“Oh, have you seen her eat it?” Jamie asked, sounding a little skeptical.
“Yeah. I told her it was good and asked her if she would please try a little bit of it for me,” Hunter said, with his head down. Because he was shoveling his last bite of food in his own mouth, he missed the look on his mom’s face.
Jamie just shook her head and smiled, thinking for about the millionth time, that Hunter and Zoe had a very special brother-sister bond. He always could get her to do stuff the others couldn’t. “Well, time for chocolate cake then.”
Chapter 15
Friday, July 26
Zane skipped down the porch steps of his parents’ house, where he and a bunch of his brothers and sisters and some friends had met before heading to the local bowling alley for some fun and games. Everybody from Phillip down to Tonya were planning on going. Jamie said anyone younger than that had to stay home. She didn’t want to deal with a bunch of cranky children the next morning when they came in too late tonight and didn’t get enough sleep.
He was whistling, or tweeting more like a bird, to be more precise, as he walked across the yard to where Jeff Campbell stood leaning against his pickup truck. He had a huge grin on his face, like he was feeling rather pleased with himself. His partner gave him a scrutinizing look, knowing the man was up to something. He just had to wait to find out what.
Never one to disappoint, Zane didn’t leave him waiting for long. “Some of the guys and I want to make a bet with you.”
Jeff groaned, glancing toward the porch where Hannah had just walked out and immediately felt his mouth go dry. She was wearing denim shorts and a red tank top with her curly, dark hair having grown out just enough to brush her shoulders. She looked amazing, as always, and left him really wishing he could ask her out.
He swallowed hard, doing his best to wet his throat before trying to answer. “A bet? What kind of bet?” he asked, not feeling certain he really wanted to hear this.
The other man grinned when he noticed where he was staring. “You can’t keep your eyes off her for ev
en a second, can you?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about?”
He chuckled, shaking his head. “Sure, you don’t.”
Jeff huffed, giving the other man a hard look. “The bet, Zane. What did you want to bet about? And what’s the stakes?”
“At least one of us will get a higher score than you while bowling, and we don’t want money.”
“Is Tyler bowling tonight?”
“No, he and Lucy are out at his mom and dad’s, having dinner.”
Jeff chuckled low and shook his head, knowing Tyler would be the only one he would have really had to worry about. “I know you think you have everything stacked in your favor, but you don’t.”
“Well?” Zane asked, raising an eyebrow in question.
“Seriously? You guys want to make this bet?” Jeff asked, leaning back against his truck, once more.
“What? Are you afraid you’ll lose?” his partner asked, trying to goad him.
“No. I’m trying to figure out if you’re serious.” Jeff just stood there laughing and shaking his head. “I have to wonder what it is your wanting to gain from this crazy bet of yours.” Like I don’t know.
“We’re serious,” he nodded in answer, propping himself against the truck beside Jeff. “One of us will manage to beat you.”
“Don’t hold your breath. Without Tyler, you don’t even have a small chance,” he said, giving Zane a big grin. “I’m better than you realize.”
While they had been talking, Luke had come out of the house and now stood there with them. He just eyed Jeff, thinking this bet was a bad idea, but Zane was really determined to do it. When Zane looked over at him for support, and he just shook his head, still feeling the same way he had when they had discussed this before Jeff had even showed up.
“You could be wrong, Luke. You are every once in a while.” Zane was wondering now, if this wasn’t a bad idea, but he wasn’t ready to back down yet.
“Whatever, Zane. I said I’d go along with it,” Luke said, shrugging his shoulders.
“Okay, if we’re going to make this crazy bet, what’s the stakes?” Jeff asked, feeling like he had a pretty good idea what it had to do with. “Like I don’t already know.”
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