by E. N. Joy
“Hey, speak for yourselves,” Lionel interjected. “Those two heathens may not belong to a church, but I do.” He pointed his fork at his father and his brother. “I’ve been a member of Grandma’s church for four years now,” he said proudly. Looking at his father, he asked, “Who do you think taught that one there how to pray?” He pointed at his brother again.
“I didn’t learn prayer from you,” Deron said.
“Then where did you learn it?” Lionel asked.
“Anyone who has ever taken math and had to learn fractions has surely learned how to pray,” Deron said, as serious as could be. “How do you think I ever made it through the class?”
Everyone but Deron burst out laughing. He kept a straight face, one full of sincerity.
“I hear you, Deron,” Paige said. “Some things will have you on your knees, whether you want to be there or not.”
“Amen,” Deron agreed.
Paige couldn’t have been more impressed with these young boys with old souls.
“All right. Let’s all dig in now,” Ryan said, and he was the first to begin scooping up the food.
The food was passed around until everyone had a little bit of everything on their plate.
“How’s it taste?” Ryan asked once everyone had taken a bite.
“Delicious,” Paige said.
“As always,” Lionel said. He looked at Paige. “Miss Paige, you are going to have a hard act to follow in the kitchen when you and Dad get married.”
Paige just about choked on a green bean. She hurried and reached for the lemonade Ryan had poured her and used the beverage to clear her throat.
“You okay?” Ryan asked, concerned.
“Yes,” Paige said. She then cut her eye at Ryan and said, “Lionel just caught me off guard a little.” She raised an eyebrow at Ryan.
“About what?” he said.
Paige tightened her lips as she stared at Ryan. She gave him a look that said, “You know what.”
Ryan shrugged, his body language indicating that he was pleading with Paige to tell him what she had an issue with.
Lionel, watching their little game of charades, decided to help his dad out. “She’s talking about the fact that I mentioned her becoming your wife and all.”
Paige quickly turned her crooked frown at Ryan into a fake smile at Lionel.
“It’s okay, Miss Paige,” Lionel said. “Our dad is an open book. He’s talked to us about the birds and the bees. How my brother and I were made. How we need to wait until we find the woman we want to marry to . . . blah, blah, blah. You know.” He took a bite of his garlic bread and then continued with his mouth full. “He told us that he made mistakes with women in the past, but that we are not mistakes. He promised to be an example to his sons by never bringing a woman around us, unless she was going to be his wife. Well, since you’re the first woman we’ve ever met, that means you’re going to be our stepmother. Welcome to the family.” He then continued to eat his food, as if he’d just said another prayer.
Deron hadn’t even looked up from his meal at all. He had just eaten and nodded, concurring with his brother.
Paige looked at Ryan, who was grinning from ear to ear. “Told you,” he mouthed.
Paige quickly wiped a lone tear from her eye as she mouthed, “I love you.”
Ryan winked and then continued to eat his food.
The rest of the meal Paige dedicated to really getting to know the boys. She asked them all about themselves, and they were eager to answer every question. After their dessert of store-bought angel food cake, Paige sat around and talked with Ryan and the boys for a little while before she had to head out.
“We can’t wait to see you again, Miss Paige,” Deron said. “And to meet your girls. Dad showed us pictures of them.”
“And we’re sorry about their father,” Lionel said, chiming in.
“Oh, thank you,” Paige said. She looked at Ryan and gave him a soft smile. Clearly, he’d been speaking about her to his boys.
Ryan winked.
“I’ve really enjoyed my evening,” Paige told the boys, “and I can’t wait to share another one with you boys. I’m sure the girls are going to enjoy time spent with you all as well. Your hospitality is awesome. I’ve met grown men who don’t know how to treat a lady as special as you two do.”
“Thank you, Miss Paige,” the boys said in unison.
“All right,” Ryan said. “You guys can go and start cleaning up.”
They nodded and bid Paige farewell. She watched them walk out of the room to do as they were told.
“I’m so impressed,” Paige said to Ryan. “Your sons are quite the gentlemen.”
“And you were expecting what?” Ryan wanted to know.
“My brother when he was their age.”
They shared a laugh.
Ryan took Paige’s hands in his as their laughter died down. “So we’ll do it again with the girls. This time at Magic Mountain or something. Chuck E. Cheese’s. What do kids like nowadays?”
“It’s the ladies’ turn to host,” Paige said. “We’ll do it at my house. You check your calendar and let me know when you guys are available.”
“I’m on it.” He leaned in and kissed Paige on the lips.
“Thanks again for a wonderful evening.”
“The pleasure was all mine. Now let me walk you to your car.”
Ryan escorted Paige to her car, gave her another kiss good night, and then watched her taillights fade until he couldn’t see them anymore. When Paige called him to let him know she’d gotten home okay, he gave her the next few dates when he would be available. They chose to meet the following Thursday. Paige couldn’t wait to tell the girls about the nice little tea party they were going to have. She figured if they knew they were throwing a real live tea party, they’d be more into getting together with Ryan and his boys.
Paige had to figure out how she was going to explain to the girls that Ryan wasn’t just the nice man who had taken their pictures, but that he was Mommy’s fiancé. Then she’d have to explain to them that she was going to marry him. But she felt she owed someone else an explanation first.
Chapter 17
“I’m so glad you could make it to Sunday dinner,” Miss Nettie said as she opened the door to let Paige and the girls in. “I’ve got some great news.”
“Miss Nettie,” Norma and Adele shouted in unison, each girl giving her a hug on each side of her. She hugged each of the girls and planted a kiss on top of their heads. They then ran off, calling for their grammy and gramps, as Miss Nettie continued talking to Paige with excitement.
“I called that attorney of yours, Mr. Fergunstein. I told him you referred me, and he acted like he would just about drop everything on his calendar to help me out. He’s really taken a liking to you.”
“Well, yeah, Rudy is more than an attorney. He’s a friend. He’s been there to help me through the roughest of times.”
Paige smiled just thinking about how Rudy, when he was only fresh out of law school, had helped her get a divorce from Blake. He’d been working for legal aid at the time. Now he was a partner in his own private practice. At one point he helped Paige fight Blake once again when he tried to take Adele from her. Even though Norman had signed Adele’s birth certificate, anyone with eyes could see that he wasn’t her biological father. Adele was chocolate brown like her mother and didn’t look like she had an ounce of white blood in her. Paige and Norman had decided that he would sign the birth certificate not so that they could hide Adele from Blake. They simply wanted Adele to be born with a father . . . her mother’s husband. They wanted everyone in the family to bear the same last name.
Although Paige and Norman had never decided exactly when and how they would tell Adele about her biological father, they knew eventually they would have to. Along with that would eventually come the full story of how Adele was a product of marital rape. Paige wanted to protect her oldest daughter from that for as long as she could.
When Blake
got wind of the fact that Adele existed, he and his attorney did the math and figured out that Adele had to have been conceived the last time Blake had sex with Paige, which was when he raped her. He demanded a paternity test and all kinds of mess. Paige was devastated, since the ball seemed to be in Blake’s court.
Rudy saved the day when he, a usually soft-spoken cat, turned into a roaring tiger right there in the conference room, during the negotiations. He basically told Blake’s attorney that Blake would get custody when hell froze over. Rudy let his claws out and played dirty when he made all kinds of threats that pushed Blake’s attorney into a corner. When all was said and done, Paige came out the victor. Upon his defeat, Blake practically crawled under a rock somewhere. Disappeared off the face of the earth, with not so much as visitation rights.
After seeing the real Rudy, Paige knew that no closed adoption could stop him. He was just the person Miss Nettie needed to help her find her son. If anybody could get to the bottom of things, Rudy could.
“I’m glad Rudy could be of help,” Paige said to Miss Nettie.
“I’ll let you eat dinner first and talk to the family, but before you leave, come to my room and—”
“Miss Nettie, I have to talk to the family today, but you’re family too, so I’d like you to be there when I say what I have to say.”
Miss Nettie paused, realizing she’d been too consumed by her own news. “Oh. Good news, I hope.”
Paige wanted to burst. “It’s great news.”
“Good, ’cause life is too good right now for all of us. The last thing we need is bad news.”
“Amen to that,” Paige testified.
Miss Nettie thought for a moment. “If it’s such great news, though, why dinner and everyone needing to be sitting down, like you don’t want them to get knocked off their feet by the news? Usually, folks can’t hardly keep great news to themselves. They calling people up, texting, chirping, and that stupid Facenotes stuff.”
Paige laughed. “Miss Nettie, haven’t I taught you anything about social media vocabulary? It’s tweeting, not chirping. It’s Facebook, and those are status updates.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah.” She made a shooing motion with her hand. “Anyways, let me get in here and get ready to serve. I’m having dinner with Stuart in the kitchen.” She blushed. “Just make sure I don’t miss when you give this great news.” Miss Nettie raised her hands and made a big circle with them.
“I won’t. I won’t,” Paige said. “Where’s Naomi?”
“They’re all down in the den. Sam and what’s her name are here too.”
Paige raised an eyebrow at Miss Nettie. “Miss Nettie, you know exactly what her name is.” Clearly, Miss Nettie was still having a hard time dealing with Samantha’s same-sex marriage. Paige chuckled. “Remember, Miss Nettie, we all God’s children. We all God’s children.”
“Then we should all obey what our Father says to do and not to do.” And with that, Miss Nettie went on about her business.
“I’m stuffed,” Paige said, rubbing her belly as she sat in one of the dozen chairs that surrounded the long rectangle table.
“Well, let’s go in the parlor and let our dinner digest, because Nettie made her famous peach cobbler, which we still need to eat for dessert,” Mrs. Vanderdale said.
“I can’t even think about dessert right now, I’m so full,” Paige said. “I’ll definitely take some to go, though.” Paige looked at Adele and Norma. “Girls, why don’t you go ask Miss Nettie if she would set you up in the den and then ask her if she’d join us in the parlor?” Paige instructed her daughters.
“I’m big enough to turn on the lights and the TV in the den,” Adele said, offended. “I even know what channel the Disney Channel is.”
“I know you do, sweetheart, but can you just do what Mommy said so that I don’t have to beat you down in front of Grammy and them and get the people called on me?” Paige tried to read her daughter in as calm of a voice as she could.
“Huh?” Adele twisted her face up in confusion.
“Just go do what I told you to do,” Paige muttered through clenched teeth.
“All right,” Adele said, surrendering. She then looked at her little sister. “Come on, Norma.” The two girls exited the dining room.
“Shall we?” Mr. Vanderdale stood.
“Yes,” Samantha said, “but I don’t need my food to digest. I want my cobbler now.”
“Me too,” Katie said.
“You have to speak for yourself, sis,” Samantha said to Paige.
“Then why don’t we just hang out in here?” Mrs. Vanderdale suggested.
“Sounds good to me,” Paige agreed. “I don’t care where we sit. I just need to let all this food settle.”
“Well, I think I’m going to head on into the parlor and read the paper,” Mr. Vanderdale said. He turned to walk out of the room.
“Actually, Mr. Vanderdale, I kind of wanted to talk to everyone about something,” Paige said. “Do you mind staying?”
Mr. Vanderdale paused momentarily, a little caught off guard by Paige’s insistent tone. He felt as if he had to stay and couldn’t go read his paper. “Well, uh, no, not at all,” he said and then almost reluctantly sat back down in his seat, feeling a little indifferent about what was about to come out of Paige’s mouth.
Miss Nettie entered the dining room. She looked a little surprised to see everyone sitting there. “Oh. The girls told me you all wanted me in the parlor. I was heading in there.”
“Change of plans, Nettie,” Mrs. Vanderdale said. “Do you mind bringing dessert out? We’ll serve ourselves. Not everyone is ready to eat just yet.”
“Why, of course.” Miss Nettie eyed Paige.
Paige nodded, signaling she was about to have the talk. Miss Nettie hurried off to get the dessert so that she wouldn’t miss anything.
“So how are my nieces?” Samantha asked. “We haven’t had any more incidents, you know, regarding the whole skin thing, have we?”
“Oh, no. That’s water under the bridge,” Paige said.
“Good. I felt so awful,” Samantha said.
“No worries. Everything is good,” Paige assured her.
Miss Nettie returned with a tray that held a round peach cobbler, some dessert plates, forks, and a bowl of whipped cream. She laid everything out on the table.
“Miss Nettie, do you mind having a seat for a minute?” Paige asked. “What I want to talk to everyone about, I’d like you to hear as well. That way I have to say it only once, and if anybody has any questions, I can answer them now.”
“Well, what is it, Paige?” Mrs. Vanderdale had that worried look on her face.
“Please, Naomi. Let me finish. I don’t want anyone jumping to any kind of conclusions, so I’ll just come right out and say it.” Paige cleared her throat. “I met someone. I met him years ago. We’ve kind of had this on-again, off-again thing. But in our hearts and souls, we’ve always stayed connected. Well, we’ve reconnected again. We have been talking every day and have gone out several times. Long story short, we’re tired of letting time pass without doing what we know we each desire to do, which is to be together. So he’s asked me to marry him, and I’ve accepted. The girls don’t know. I’m going to tell them soon, but I wanted to tell you guys first, before they said anything to you, because you know how kids can be. They repeat everything they hear, and sometimes it’s not translated properly.”
“Didn’t we learn that the hard way?” Samantha said under her breath.
Paige continued. “He’s a wonderful, kind man. Because you all are the girls’ family, I feel you have the right to know. A man will be entering not only my life, but also their life, so any questions you have, you are entitled to ask. I’ll answer the first question everyone wants to know the answer to by telling you that his name is—”
“Robert! It’s that Robert dude who took the pictures of the horses that day, isn’t it?” Samantha yelled out.
Paige was surprised Samantha remembered who her
love interest was, even though she’d gotten the name wrong. “It’s Ryan,” she said, correcting her.
“Yeah, Ryan. That’s it!” Samantha exclaimed. “The way you two were acting like two fools in love . . . and you trying to ask him to ask you out to dinner. It was crazy.” Samantha looked at Mrs. Vanderdale. “I told you, Ma. You owe me twenty bucks.” Samantha put her hand out.
“What? Who? Wait a minute,” Paige said, totally caught off guard by Samantha’s comments. “You bet money that I was going to marry him? But how could you know? We reconnected only a little over a month ago.”
“Oh, we made this bet a long time ago,” Samantha said. “The day of the photo shoot, actually. I bet Mom twenty bucks that you two were going to end up together. It was love at first sight . . . or second sight. Or however many times it was that you two had seen each other. But you looked at him the way—” Samantha’s words halted.
Everyone could pretty much guess what Samantha was about to say. That Paige looked at Ryan the same way she had looked at Norman.
Mrs. Vanderdale stood. She didn’t speak. She simply exited the room.
Sadness was written all over Paige’s face. She was announcing her engagement. This should be a happy time. But she had known there was a chance that not everyone would take the news well, namely, her former mother-in-law.
Paige felt a hand cover hers. It was Mr. Vanderdale’s. He looked into Paige’s eyes and smiled. “Congratulations, daughter. We can’t wait to welcome Ryan into the family.”
Paige smiled at Mr. Vanderdale’s comforting words. But it was Mrs. Vanderdale she would have to go face.
The first place Paige went to look for Mrs. Vanderdale was the parlor. She wasn’t there. She peeked in the den and saw only the girls in there. Next, Paige headed up the steps and went to the bedroom that Mr. And Mrs. Vanderdale shared. The door was open just a crack. She could see Mrs. Vanderdale sitting on the couch, which had a chair on each side and a coffee table in front.
Paige knocked softly on the door. “Naomi, can I come in?” she asked, pushing the door open a little more.