have to,” Cliff said. “I don’t believe in hitting elders.”
“Oh, boy,” Ma said.
Thomas tried some kind of stutter step move to get around Tyler.
There was no getting around him.
Cliff laughed as Silas blocked his view of Thomas.
That’s when Zeke decided to enter the picture.
“This family is insane,” I said.
“You think?” Ma asked. “Your father did the same many times.”
“What?” I asked.
Zeke grabbed Thomas and pulled him away.
Crosby led Edith and the horse back to everyone.
Ma smiled at me. “One night when we were out. There was this guy who thought he could send me a drink. I guess he figured I was going to leave your father for him. How silly. This was after I had all you kids too. I told your father, if I wanted to chase him away I could just go over and let him know if he wants me, he’s got to take on three kids and a mortgage. We laughed. But I knew your father was irritated. I knew what was going to happen.”
“Which was?”
“He went over and hit the guy so hard, his body lifted off the barstool. He hit the floor with a hard thud.”
“Tell me Dad got arrested?”
“No. Your father picked the guy up, got him back on the barstool, and bought him a beer. He just wanted to make it very clear that I was taken. Happily taken. And that he didn’t play those kinds of games.”
I smiled. “Oh, Dad…”
“Yeah,” Ma said.
“Justa blood,” she said.
I looked forward and Edith was climbing off the horse.
Thomas ran to her and hugged her like they hadn’t seen each other in a year.
Cliff wandered off toward the house.
Everything started to calm again.
I spotted Olivia as she waddled toward me, wiggling her fingers.
“I need some baby cuddles,” she said.
“He’s all yours,” I said.
She took baby Hank from me and her eyes filled with tears.
“Again?” I whispered.
“Shut up, Mila,” she said. “I can’t help it. Look at him. He’s perfect.”
“Yes, he is.”
“I just love the cuddles,” Olivia said. “Because we all know I’m going to be pregnant for the next eight years.”
“Stop,” I said. “It’ll happen when it’s time.”
“Says who? I’m about ready to find a new doctor. Will someone just please induce me?”
“You know it’s not that simple.”
“I know,” Olivia said. “Can you just let me complain?”
“No complaining near my son,” I said.
I stuck my tongue out.
Olivia stuck her tongue out at me.
“Ma, Olivia stuck her tongue out at me,” I said.
“She started it,” Olivia said.
“You two…,” Ma shook her head.
“I got you into trouble,” I teased Olivia.
“Yeah, well, I…”
Olivia paused and tilted her head.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“Interesting,” Olivia said. “Here, take your baby back.”
“Okay,” I said. I took baby Hank back. “You’re not really pissed at me right now, are you?”
Olivia bit her bottom lip. “I think my water just broke.”
Chapter Forty-Eight
SILAS
I collected all the fresh coffees and stood there for a second, smiling.
It was amazing how time and life moved the way it did. To be very cliché, it was like a painter working on a canvas. A few lines here and there, plus some time, suddenly became a portrait or a landscape that looked too real to be a painting.
From the corner of my eye, I saw Crosby.
Pacing with his phone to his ear.
Then a second later, the call was over and the texting began.
I let out a whistle and he looked at me.
Then he tucked away his cellphone as he ran my way.
“Hey, Silas,” he said. “You’re on coffee duty, huh?”
“Seems that way,” I said. “Do you remember the first time I got coffee?”
“What?”
I shook my head. “When I came home with Mila. Edith was in the hospital.”
“Oh, yeah,” Crosby said. “That feels like a lifetime ago.”
“You and Tyler wanted to knock me around a little.”
“Nah,” Crosby said.
“Oh, come on, Crosby,” I said.
“Okay. Fine. Just a little though. We had good reason.”
“What reason was that?”
Crosby grinned. “Look at you. You’re a dirty looking rock star. You look like the kind of guy that would sleep with a woman and then go through her purse to find cash and pills.”
“Wow,” I said. “Honesty.”
“You asked.”
“You look like the kind of guy who would try to convince some ditzy woman that you invented air,” I said.
“And you know what?” Crosby asked. “It never fails me.”
“And you know what?” I asked. “I love when women carry cash on them.”
Crosby laughed. “We’re terrible men, aren’t we?”
“Me? I’m not terrible. Not at all. I’ve never stolen a thing from anyone. But you… sneaking around on your phone…