9781950890996_TXT_eBook

by Barton, Kathi S.

  Roasted Brussels sprouts were on the menu, but she’d found a recipe that included bacon, Kelley’s favorite meat, as well as lots of spice, something that they both liked. As she was playing around with the things she had in the cabinet, she heard Kelley coming in the front door. The man could make an entrance, no matter how quiet you wished for him to be.

  When he didn’t say anything more and didn’t come into the kitchen, she knew he was with Abbie and Danny. Those kids loved that man, and Sara thought for sure that no one loved them as much as their grandpa did. They’d made the decision last night that no matter how many greats would be added to their grandchildren, they were always going to be just grandma and grandpa.

  She was just reading over the second recipe when Kelley joined her in the kitchen. Of course he had both babies in his arms, and was talking to them a mile a minute. He asked her if they could join them for dinner.

  “Yes, of course. They’re spending the night too.” Kelley yelled loud enough to wake the dead, and both of the babies smiled at him. “Will you be teaching them how they have an outside voice and an indoor one?”

  “Why on earth would I teach them that sort of poppycock? If you’re excited about something, you should durn well be able to let everyone know about it. It’s the way I roll.” Kelley laughed and put Danny on the floor between his feet while he buckled Abbie into her highchair. “I swear to you, baby girl, I’m going to invent one of these contraptions that will be easier for an old man like me to put a kid in. I don’t mean old like you’re a thinking. But one that you don’t need four hands to work this thing.”

  That brought laughter from all of them, and she looked at the carrots again. They were supposed to simmer in brown sugar and butter. For some reason, she didn’t think that would taste good. But this was a new thing for her, and she was going to do it. After turning down the burner to as far as it would go and still heat it up, she went to help with the highchairs.

  “I was thinking that I’d like to take a cooking class.” As they sat down to dinner, Sara feeding Danny and Kelley feeding Abbie, she broached the subject. “This was a lot of fun for me to do. Trying new dishes. I think I’d like to do more of it.”

  “I have to tell you, honey, those carrots taste a good deal better than I thought they might. I didn’t care all that much for the spouts. The bacon was tasty with the spices all over it, but I’m not a sprout sort of person.” She loved them, and knew that if she cooked them again, which she would, that Kelley would eat them. “You know, finding out other ways to cook something ain’t all that bad, now is it?”

  “No, this was fun for me.” He asked her what sort of things she might learn. “Well, they have several different cooking classes at the college that I can sign up for. One of them is how to use the right knife for the right cutting job.”

  “You say what? I thought that if it was sharp and in your hand, it was the right knife.” She knew that Kelley knew better than that, but she humored him and told him there were a lot of different ones. Just like his tools. “Now that’s a class you should take, honey. How to tell one tool from the other.”

  “Why would I need that when you’re so nice about telling me the differences?” His face heated up, no doubt remembering the other day when he’d asked her for a Philips screwdriver or something, and she’d handed him one that looked like a shovel to her. He’d gotten a little bit loud with her because he’d nipped his finger on the screw he’d been trying to replace.

  “Well, you go on now and take whatever you want. With us being around forever, Charlie said that you’d not want to be bored. I don’t think I ever will be so long as they pop us out a baby to play with at times.” He teased Abbie about having children of her own, and laughed at whatever she’d said to him about it. “Besides, I’m thinking that I might take me a couple of them there classes too. I heard that they have one on making things out of wood. Like birdhouses and the likes. Might be a fun thing to take so I can make a couple of them with the grandkids. You’ll notice that I said grandkids, and not grandsons. I think everyone should know how to tell one tool from the other, and know how to use it.”

  Sara didn’t know if she wanted to hug him for being so forward thinking, or to throw something at him for still making fun of her lack of knowledge about tools. She’d fix him, she thought. Sara decided to tell him that she’d not made any dessert. That would make him pouty.

  She knew that she’d have to tell him eventually. There was a pumpkin pie and a cherry one on the cooling racks. And Sara had thought of very little else than having a piece of that cherry pie all day. With ice cream.

  As they were sitting down and watching the television that night, both of them stuffed full of two pieces of pie each, she thought of her life up until now. She’d had a good one, and now that she had grandchildren around all the time, she couldn’t have asked for a better one. Then she thought of Mr. Cartwright.

  Arnold had been a wonderful man. Even before his passing, he’d made their life better. She knew that he’d made it so they had a car and truck to use when theirs had been wrecked. She’d never thought of him being the cause of the accident that day, but a blessing. The man had been in her thoughts more that day than any other, because he’d just only lost his wife a few days before.

  She’d only talked with his wife Mary a few times. She had been poorly for a long time before she’d passed on. Sara would bring her jams and bread when she had some. There was rarely anything extra raising six boys, but she managed to hold back a loaf or two on occasion.

  Smiling to herself, Sara thought of the way Arnold would give Mary the biggest slice after he’d cut it open, then smear enough jam on it to make a pie. But she’d eat it, every crumb of it, with Arnold watching over her.

  There was a special kind of love between the two of them, and she was happy that she’d been able to witness it. Happier still that she’d gotten to be friends with Arnold, and make his life a little easier before he moved on to be with Mary.

  When time for them to go to bed came around, Kelley rolled the bed for the babies into the room with them. They slept all night, Sara knew, but they both loved having them close, just in case they might need them.

  As the lights were put out, she said her thanks for everything that they’d been given in their lives, and what they might receive in the days to come. Sara had never felt so happy and so blessed that she had all her sons, their lovely and determined wives, as well as children of their own.

  Hugging Kelley, she told him that she loved him so much and he, the same reply that he was forever giving her, told her that he loved her to the moon and back.

  End of Story

  Just over one hundred years later

  Dominic looked around at his family. There were so many of them now that they had had to hire a photographer who could splice different photos together to take their yearly picture to make it work. Thinking about the grandchildren, great grand, and so many more, he had to smile. Who would have ever thought that things would have come to this? A city park to hold them all for a picnic.

  “Whatcha doing, Dad?” He looked over at Abbie when she spoke to him. “You’re being old again, aren’t you? Why don’t you just enjoy the day instead of thinking about the past? Things are so much better now.”

  “They are. But I wasn’t thinking of the past. Not wholly. I was thinking about my family. How we’ve gone from just six sons of my parents to what you see here today. The last time I counted kids, I think that there were fifty under the age of ten.” Abbie looked too, and smiled when she turned back to him. “You’ve certainly added to the count. Between just you and your brother, I’m a grandfather seventeen times. All together? I think Charlie and I have thirty-three grand, great grand, and a few on the way to make me a great-great grandda.”

  “Dad, I love you.” He told her that he loved her as well. “No.I mean, I love you, but I wanted to thank you for never
once treating Danny or I any differently than you did your own children. You’ve always been fair minded, encouraging, as well as loving. I never realize how wonderful I’ve had it until I started working with displaced families and other children that have been orphaned or worse.”

  “Abbie, you two might not have been of our bodies, but you are and always will be our first children. As far as we’ve ever been concerned, you are ours no matter the circumstances of how you came to us.” She kissed him on his cheek, and moved off to see to one of her own grandkids.

  The hearts that they shared, the four of them hadn’t shown up on the other children. It was a special bond for them. Not only could they communicate as if they were in the same room, but they could share visions, smells, tastes, and anything else that they wanted. There were other perks as well with the hearts. Most of it was magical and what made them what they were. Beings not to be messed with. The family had it as well, but not nearly as strong as it was in the four of them.

  With Caleb, he had to wonder if his brother or Olivia had ever thought that they’d be as big in their perspective jobs. Caleb had advertising agencies all over the world—forty-five of them the last that he’d heard. Olivia’s dog and cat food adventures were everywhere, with six more shops opening up in the next year. Dominic was proud of them both so very much.

  They had many children as well, biological as well as adopted. They’d become foster parents right after Harley had passed away. His death, even after so long, still brought a sudden pain to his heart. Caleb had taken it extremely hard.

  He’d been with his teacher that day, walking the inside path of the mall to burn off some energy, as he did every day in the winter months. Harley had been excited about going that morning, and Dominic had been there when he’d been picked up. But almost as soon as he’d arrived at the mall, he and a dozen other walkers had been killed when a man, discovering that his wife had left him for a mall walker, had killed them, as well as himself. To this day, he didn’t think a single member of his family had been back to the mall.

  The immortality for Harley and Conrad was different than it was for the rest of them. They would live for as long as they wished but they couldn’t survive things like mortal wounds to the head or heart. He’d been told later that it was because of their brain functions being so different than the others. Not only had Harley been shot in the heart, the blood loss had caused him to be too critical to save by their combined magic.

  Gabe was still a family doctor. He mostly looked to help shut-ins and people who couldn’t get in and out of a vehicle easily. Gabe worked with the police a great deal as well. With his ability to see the dead, he, along with Rayne, had been able to solve nearly all the cases that he worked on. Sometimes they had to let one or two go simply because there hadn’t been a way for them to tell anyone how they’d been solved, which never bothered him all that much. Someone would be there to make the guilty pay for what they’d done. Somehow or another, justice would be served. Rayne, as the Death Watcher with his brother, didn’t let a crime go without someone paying for it.

  Their children were now helping others as well. Not just with the dead, but with all kinds of problems that they ran into that they could use their special talents for. He’d been amazed at just how many things there were that the living and the dead could get into together.

  Their first child, Sara Jane, had been serving on school boards since she’d graduated from college. Her biggest priority had been bullying. It wasn’t as bad, not nearly so in her districts. It was wonderful to see someone making a difference.

  Owen had become quite the collector of things old. Dominic laughed when he remembered a couple of times at the beginning of his career as a collector when he’d been taken. Owen didn’t get upset with the people that had shafted him, but with himself. Mostly because he’d allowed it to happen. But later in his career, he’d become an auctioneer. He said it was to save him the commission money. Dominic thought it was because he liked to be with people all the time.

  Clare, Owen’s wife, was famous. Not just with her work as a painter, but she’d learned how to do glass blowing as well. The way she could work the two into the same work of art had people clamoring for her work well before it ever got to the gallery.

  Conrad had been becoming quite the artist too. His work didn’t just grace the walls of a lot of homes, but businesses as well. He’d become the person to go to when there was a fundraiser for a special cause. Conrad had, like the rest of them, taken the death of Harley badly. They’d been best friends from the very start of meeting each other.

  Xander’s books started out on the best seller list every time he released one. The first couple he’d written had been made into full length movies. Dominic thought that he was still getting royalties from them when they’d finally gone to other means of watching them. If any of the others had followed the same path, Dominic wasn’t sure. Rarely did his brother brag on himself, nor did he toot his own horn even when someone asked. Xander had always been very backward in that regard.

  Addie had retired for the most part in what she’d done for a living. Now she was the model mother and wife, on the council for the schools that her kids had attended. Even after they’d all moved on to college or just married, she still kept an eye on what was happening around her area. No one would mess with her kids, as she’d called them.

  Also, she could be found at the White House, standing toe to toe with someone that she felt wasn’t doing their job. Or, worse yet, doing a subpar job of it. That, Dominic thought, pissed her off more than not doing the job at all. People knew that if she was coming after you, then you’d better straighten your ass up or pay the price. He was sure that it had only taken her the one time of coming to a meeting with the intention of straightening up someone before they understood her enough to know that she meant business.

  Tyler and Jazzie weren’t home much. When they were home it was family time for them all, getting together with the rest of them until they had to leave again. The great part was, they always came home eventually, and that was what made it all right with the rest of them.

  When Tyler had inherited the homes from Mr. Cartwright all those years ago, Tyler had continued on the trend of buying up more. He’d taken to heart the adage that Mr. Cartwright said all the time, the one where there wasn’t any more dirt being made. He and Jazzie had made it their business to make sure that they had enough of it to do whatever they wanted. And they pretty much did. Several times, thankfully, his brother had bought up land that was now home to a retreat or two.

  They used to travel as a family, and he supposed they still did in a way. Now it was for the most part just the two of them, but they seemed to have fun. The kids had learned new cultures and languages, which helped them in their everyday life. Most of them were into corporate work. The rest worked with and for their parents. Jazzie and Tyler were the only ones in the family that had children younger than their own grandchildren.

  Jazzie hadn’t been able to make it work with her family over the years. After Tyler had had to fire her mom for taking advantage of him during the trips that Laveen had been doing for some money, she’d blamed it on Jazzie. After that, Laveen had started stealing things. Not just from their homes, but also merchants that he’d done business with. It had been a nasty ending, but final. The last Dominic had heard the two of them had been living paycheck to paycheck until they’d died some time ago. Neither of them had been an immortal. No one had noticed it apparently. Not that Dominic thought anyone would have cared. The two women had made life hell for Jazzie for a long time.

  “I just had a long talk with O’Reilly again. You’d think that when I tell him I’ve got it, I have it. But he’s complaining about the fact that we’ve moved out of the castle.” Charlie kissed him on the mouth when she sat beside him on the swing. “I told him that Abbie and Danny are moving in with their families, but he is under the impression that we should b
e there as well. Telling him to fuck off is like telling the grass not to grow. What have you been doing?”

  “Thinking about my family. Mostly how things have changed for us over the decades. I was thinking about all of us, I guess.” She looked out over the massive amount of people lingering around the tables and talking. “I wonder what Mr. Cartwright would have thought of all this. All this only happened because my brother Caleb nearly killed him when the elderly man thought he could no longer live without his wife. I would like to believe that he’d be right in the middle of things. Laughing his ass off at some of the ways things turned out.”

  “Do you really think any of us wouldn’t have met if it hadn’t been for him? I’d like to think that we were destined to be together. That even if you’d not been in the place you’d been when Sham approached you, he would have brought us together. I’m happy for that every day of my life.” Dominic told her that he was as well. Happier daily because she’d pulled him through his refrigerator. “Yes, well, you’re very lucky that that was the only thing I pulled on. Even then you were a bit of an arrogant ass.”

  “Christ, I love you, Charlie. How the hell did I make it to my thirties without you there to guide and love me?” She told him that he’d been a fuck up. “I guess I was. Did you hear that we have a new manager to the retreat in Las Vegas? The place has a list of potential workers that is impressive as well. I guess word had gotten out that not only do we pay well, but we’re a good place to work for.”

  “Addie has been weeding through the applicants as quickly as she can. I bet she hires a crew to work for her after this. I have ten people lined up that she could start right now.” Dominic asked about the men and women wanting to stay at the retreats. “Those, as you know are a little trickier. Not only does she need to do background checks on the people and their families, but the doctors too. I guess she’s still mad at herself that she didn’t catch the man that wasn’t a doctor at all, but just a bastard that would sign off on anything.”