“I’ve been here a lot longer than I thought I would have been, honey. I do miss my wife and Jill Ann.” She said she understood that. “I know you do. I surely do. Let me think on it a bit, and I’ll talk to you some other time. All right?”
“Of course.” Heath watched the two of them together. No one would ever think Grandda wasn’t related to the women in this room by blood. They all looked a good bit like him, but it was the women that seemed to be as much a part of him as they were. Even with her red hair and dark eyes, Rebel looked like she could be his grandchild. “When more babies start coming along, I’m sure you’ll be right there with them. Showing them the ropes like I’m sure you did for their fathers and uncles.”
“I could get them in trouble when I wanted some fun. My wife would fuss at me, but I’d see her there taking a few pictures of them.” He stood up and shook his head. “Dagnab it. I have some boxes of things I meant to bring up from the basement. They’re things your grannie made and put back for you all. There are some pretty little booties and baby things too. Not all of them blue. Like she knew there would be some little girls coming around. And I have a rocking chair for the lot of you too. I don’t know how it was that we ended up with seven of them, but I got one for each of your homes. They got names with them too, so I’d make sure they went to the right person. And a handful of pictures of you being rocked in them by your momma, me, and your grandma. I wish I’d have remembered.”
“We’ll get them after this, Grandda. It’ll be something I think all of us will want to talk to you about too.” Grandda told him he’d enjoy that as well. “Did you make the chairs?”
“I didn’t. I wanted to, but I was dealing with that stupid son of mine too much when you boys were little. But they’re good ones. Chester Windchaser made them. I think he might still be around too. He is a wolf—one of the founding fathers, I think.” Shep said he remembered them. They were very decorated with carvings. “That’ll be them. I think for each of you, there was a different animal carved into them, with other hints of what you might grow into. Now that I think on it, Rodney, you have a stethoscope on yours.”
Grandda told each of them what he thought was on their rocker. Heath had no doubt that Grandda knew exactly what was on them, and he’d bet he knew the date they’d been finished up too. Something that he’d learned about his grandfather in the last few months was that he was sharp as a tack and didn’t suffer fools easily. Also, his job at the grocery store was getting him out more. Active. Heath loved the old man with all his heart and was hoping that any children he had would get to know him as well as he had.
Lunch was just grazing food, Shep called it. Heath had never had a lot of the things that were there, but he did enjoy trying them. His favorite so far was the little frittatas. He thought they were also delicious with the fresh guacamole. But there were other things he loved too. The pizza rolls were great. There were also tiny meatball subs and meat ones. As he was filling his plate up for the third time, he glanced up and saw that there was dessert as well.
Heath knew his brothers well enough to know they’d start on the desserts first if they were out there. Picking up an entire cherry pie, he asked Molly to please put it back for him to take home. She winked at him and told him she had six more in the freezer and that he was welcome to take two home with him for later. Happy that he’d seen the dessert tray, Heath filled his plate to overflowing.
“Who the hell are you eating for? Twins?” He laughed with Rodney. Then he told him about the desserts. “I saw them when I first got here. Molly already set me three of the carrot cakes aside. She’s been baking all week, she told me.”
“I love carrot cake.” He said he did as well, and that was the reason he put it back. “You’ll share, right? I mean, I’d gladly give you a cherry pie for one of your cakes.”
The two of them were dealing about the cakes and pies when Grandda joined them. After telling him about the pies and cakes, Grandda went to the kitchen. He didn’t know what he was up to, but he’d bet his last chicken wing that he was going to make out better than he and Rodney did together.
They were still standing around the food when Grandda came out of the kitchen. Christ, he nearly swallowed his entire handful of French fries when Grandda came out with a large platter of not just pieces of every pie that was going to be served, but cakes and a gallon of ice cream too. And he also knew that he’d not share. Grandda was the champion of pie eating—or whatever desserts were at the table. Kissing the man on the forehead, Heath told him how much he admired him. He also told him
