Let It Be (Butler, Vermont #6) - Marie Force Page 0,51
she said, giving him a wary look. “What’re you doing here so early?”
“Couldn’t sleep, so I came in to get something done before we leave.” Since it was just the two of them, he sat at the counter.
She poured him a cup of coffee and pushed the cream his way. “How’re you doing?”
“Remarkably well, all things considered. Molly and the kids have been propping me up.”
“I hope you know… I’m pretty sure I speak for everyone when I say we think it’s just outrageous that it happened in the first place.”
“Thank you, honey. I appreciate that, but it was a long time ago. It has no bearing on my wonderful life or family.”
“What do you feel like eating?”
“Is Butch here yet?” Linc asked, peering around her to see if the cook was in.
“He’s due any minute.”
“I’ll wait for him. I don’t want you cooking for me.”
She rested her hand on top of his. “It would be my pleasure to make your usual for you, Linc.”
He realized she wanted to do something for him. He turned his hand up to squeeze hers. “Then I gratefully accept. Thank you.”
“Coming right up.”
She turned the TV on to CNBC, handed him the morning’s Wall Street Journal and refilled his coffee cup before heading to the kitchen to make his breakfast. How blessed he was, he thought, to be surrounded by so many people who loved him every day, but especially today when he was feeling so raw.
Linc flipped through the financial news in the paper, gave the market ticker on the TV a cursory glance and tried to keep his mind on all the things that usually framed his days—Molly, their family, friends, the various businesses the family ran, their community, the upcoming holiday—so he wouldn’t be dragged into a rabbit hole of emotions.
If he tried to tell himself it was just another day, then he’d be okay. The silver lining, if there was such a thing to be found in this situation, was a night away with Molly and all their kids. Other than the trip to Boston earlier in the year for Wade’s wedding, it’d been a while since they’d traveled anywhere together as a group. They’d done a lot of camping when their family was young, mostly because that was the only thing they could afford for their family of twelve, not to mention the various pets who’d tagged along on their adventures.
In recent years, they’d added a number of daughters- and sons-in-law, as well as significant others, fiancés and grandchildren that had taken the original twelve to…
Taking the pen Megan had left on the counter, he made a list on a napkin:
Hunter, Megan
Hannah, Nolan, Callie
Will, Cameron, Chase
Ella, Gavin
Charley, Tyler
Wade, Mia
Colton, Lucy
Lucas, Dani, Savannah
Landon, Amanda, Stella
Max, Caden
A total of twenty-seven, counting him, Molly and Elmer, with four more on the way. He was glad he’d done that math. It was a number he looked forward to sharing with his father after he introduced him to the ten grandchildren he’d never know thanks to the ultimatum that had come between the two of them.
Having been a grandfather for a year now, he actually pitied his father for what his stubborn rigidness had caused him to miss with Linc’s kids. The whole thing was unbearably sad. One of the questions he’d frequently pondered over the years was how things might’ve been different for him—for all of them—if his brother Hunter hadn’t died. That’d been the start of their downward spiral as a family with the scene in his father’s study their rock bottom.
The bells on the door jingled, jarring Linc from his thoughts about the past. He glanced over his shoulder to see his father-in-law come in, shivering from the cold.
“You’re up early,” Linc said.
Elmer slid onto the stool next to Linc. “Could say the same to you.”
“I’m not sure I actually slept more than an hour or two last night.”
“Got a lot on your mind, son.”
“Indeed.”
“I was thinking last night about that day when the two of you came home from Philly, shell-shocked.”
“And Molly… She just took care of it, didn’t she?”
Elmer smiled. “She sure did.”
“Tell me the truth. Did you want to say no when she asked you to marry us that night?” They’d never talked about it again, and only the four of them had ever known it had happened.
Elmer got up, went behind the counter and poured himself a cup of coffee and then topped off Linc’s mug. “Truth?”
“Nothing but.”
“It never occurred to me to say no to her.