“I couldn’t believe the three of you didn’t twig on to the way the grandparents manipulated you,” Rebecca said.
“In hindsight, we did.” Pamela nodded. “As the years passed and we had to wend our way through life’s vagaries, we came to understand the way Grandmother Chelsea, the grandfathers, as well as Maria, Warren, and Douglas had ‘handled’ all three of us.”
Jeremy looked puzzled, and Pamela waited for him to ask what was on his mind. “So…your father, mother, and uncle were a ménage, and you didn’t know?”
“We lived on a dairy farm, remember, one that had been in my dad’s family for several generations. My dad inherited it, but Matthew stayed on. The story was to help with the farm, but the truth was more romantic than that.” Pamela knew her smile had gone soft. “Uncle Matthew died when I was about ten, and I remember how…how utterly destroyed both my parents were. While he was alive, I never had a hint of how intimate the three of them were. I do recall how he was there to help with homework, and one time in particular when I fell off my bike and gashed my leg. I never cried for mom or dad, as kids will do, because Uncle Matt scooped me up and took care of me. Looking back through the eyes of a woman who loves two men? I believe there were little tells, but nothing at all overt. And I never thought about it as a kid, because to me, having Uncle Matt live with us was normal. He was family.
“As Adam, James, and I began to build our life together here, I often would reflect on that and on those words my mother gave me. Sometimes I felt so sad about it I wanted to cry for them.”
“Too bad they hadn’t known about Lusty, then,” April said.
“I absolutely believe that they would have given up the farm and moved here, if they had.” Pamela had no doubt of that whatsoever.
“So, what happened to those two con men?” Marcus asked. “Did they end up changing their ways, or did they land in prison?”
Pamela laughed. “You have the same tone of doubt I remember Uncle Marty had, back in the day. Oh, and your fathers had that same mojo. I think I’ll let them answer you.”
Adam and James exchanged a look and a smile she had no trouble interpreting. Adam took her hand and brought it to his lips. “You’re still keeping us in line, wife. Thank you. One thing I would never want to do is backslide.”
“Don’t worry, my love. That will never happen.”
Adam nodded and turned toward their family. “Does the name The Janice Thomas Foundation mean anything to you?”
“That’s one of the largest foundations benefiting inner-city charities in the country!” David said. “When we were in Chicago, we saw some of their good work. Being an OB-GYN at that hospital meant I was no stranger to the prevalence of teen moms or at-risk children. That Foundation does amazing work.”
“Oh, my goodness,” April said. “Janice Thomas—as in Janice who married Fred Thomas?”
“Yes, indeed,” James said. “Both couples were in charge of running the non-profit. Once they got established and started doing good work, the Town Trust began to donate on a regular basis. Both couples wound up making families through adoption—both chose adolescents, not babies—and it’s those children, now grown, who are in charge of the foundation. All four of the founding members are still alive. Theirs is really an amazing story. A testament to true love and second chances.”
“I think yours is an amazing story,” Chloe said. She ran her hand over her baby bump. “What an amazing heritage we have to pass on to our own children.” Grant and Andrew both cocooned her, and the look of pleasure on Chloe’s face was a look Pamela had seen in the mirror on a regular basis since she’d come to live in Lusty.
“I love this town,” April said.
“We all do.” Jeremy reached for her hand and then Marcus’s. “And I think the same thing you did, Mom. This is a good place to set down roots and raise a family.”
“Whenever we travel,” Greg said, “we keep in mind the home we’re coming back to. Returning here nourishes us, when what we often have to face is so…so difficult, at times. It’s not money that makes this place special.”
“No, it’s not,” Chloe said. “There are wealthier places on this planet, if the wealth is measured only in dollars and cents.”
“What makes Lusty special is family,” Jillian said. “It’s knowing that someone has your back, that there’s always a hug, a smile, and a willing ear.”
“This is where I plan to settle when I leave the service,” Brandon Gillespie said. “Because of all those things you mentioned and one more. Here is where my mom came for her new beginning and second chance, and the woman she is now is strong and free and happy. I know my dads are mostly to thank for that, but it’s this entire town, too.”
Pamela had to blink through her tears, but she wasn’t the only one. To her knowledge, Brandon had never referred to her two oldest sons as dad before. Judging by the shock and the pleasure she saw on Robert and David’s faces, it was a gift they most definitely appreciated.
Rebecca, her so-wise artist of a daughter, picked up her glass of wine and raised it high. “To Lusty—to the home we have here and the home we can make here. And to family—the anchor and the center of it all.”
“To Lusty and family!”
Glasses clinked, babies chattered, and laughter abounded. It was, Pamela thought, another wonderful Thanksgiving in Lusty, Texas—and a very fulfilling life.
THE END
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