Lizzy left them in the living room to go and see if the new staff had heard from Clay. She didn’t want to have to deal with her mom and dad alone. Once she found out that he was going to be coming home today, she felt a great deal better about having to listen to her mom and dad. She walked in on having her dad ask mom if she wanted to be around when the grandchildren came around. Lizzy stood stock still when her mom said that she didn’t want to be anywhere around kids. It didn’t matter who they were.

  “You don’t want to be a grandma? I’m not saying that Clay and I are anywhere near that point in our getting to know one another, but you don’t want to be a grandma?” Mom huffed at her, something she was only just realizing that her mom did a great deal. “I don’t know what that is supposed to mean, so if you could clarify it, I’d appreciate it. Do you or do you not want to be a grandma? It’s a simple enough question, I think.”

  “I don’t. I want to be just a woman that has a daughter now that you’re grown. I didn’t hate having you as a child, but I have come to realize that I like it much better now that you’re an adult, and we can do things together like shopping. Not that you ever have time for that either, but those are things I’d rather do than to be around little babies. They’re too much work.” Lizzy watched her dad as he sat down on the couch and stared at her mom. “You were forever needing something, Lizzy. You don’t remember it, but you was so demanding as a baby. You wanted your diaper changed all the time. And living on the commune, we used cloth ones, so we had to wash them daily. Oh, Lizzy, then there was the nursing you. You were such a high-demand baby in that too.”

  “You mean you thought I was a high-demand baby? Dad, was I anything different than any other child born around you guys at that time?” She had to ask him twice as he was staring at mom like he’d only just seen she was there. “Dad?”

  “No. You were just a normal baby. Needing to eat to survive and diapers…I remember me washing all the diapers, Linda. Changing Lizzy most of the time too.” Mom told him that he should have been the one that fed her too. “I didn’t have the equipment to do it, or I might well have. I can’t believe that I’m only just hearing how much you hated being a mother now. Why didn’t you say anything before now?”

  “To what good, Alfred? We already had her, didn’t we?” Lizzy wasn’t sure what she could say to her mother right now. It sounded to her like her mother would have been just as happy to have not had her at all. Then she spoke again. “You have no idea how many times I tried to get rid of Lizzy, Alfred. But you were there, forever watching over me, that I didn’t get the chance. Why did you ever want her?” Mom looked at her. “I’m not saying that I hate you, Lizzy. Even then, I might have resented you, but I didn’t hate you. But I most certainly didn’t want you. But now that you’re older, you’re all right. But the moment you mention that you’re having children, I will leave again. I’ve no use for someone clinging all over me, calling me grannie or whatever.”

  “I’ll take you back to the commune, Linda.” Dad stood up then and kissed her on the cheek again. “I’ll take her back to where she wants to go. Then I’ll return. I don’t know how I’m going to do that, but I’m not…I don’t think I could live with her again after this. Will you find a place for me to live, honey?”

  “You’re not going to come back here, Alfred. I won’t allow it. I need you around. It’s not going to make any difference to her if you’re here or not, but it will to me. We’ll both go home and live out the rest of our lives and be as happy as we were before all this happened. All right?” Dad didn’t say anything but went to the door. Mom looked at her. “You can continue to pay for things for us, correct? I mean, your boyfriend seems to have a great deal of money. Just look at this house. Besides, I love being the only one with a phone and getting care packages from you once a month. The others there, they envy us for having such a dutiful daughter.”

  She didn’t say a word to her mom as she kissed her on the cheek, too and left the house. Lizzy followed them out to the camper, and she slipped her father a credit card into his shirt pocket when he hugged her goodbye. He thanked her quietly. Mom was still going on about how she wanted her to send her more food from now on since dad was complaining about being too old to do things around the camper.

  “He’ll be just fine when we get back home. I know that I might have upset you, Lizzy, but you have to understand where I’m coming from, right? I mean, having children running around at my age will just make it so that I can’t do and be the things that I want to do. You understand that, don’t you?” Still, she didn’t answer her. “I’ll look forward to hearing from you soon. And you should think about getting us a better phone, honey. Please? I’d like to be able to send you pictures of the things that we’re doing from now on. But no kids, Lizzy. I forbid you to send me any kind of notification that you’re pregnant—god forbid—or the kids you might have. I want nothing to do with them. Come and visit us anytime you want but find a sitter for any kids you might ever have. I’m serious about this. Understand? Answer me, Lizzy. You understand, correct?”

  “Yes, I understand.” As soon as the camper pulled out of the driveway, she fell to the ground with her heart breaking. Never in all her life would she have expected anything like her mother had just said to her to spill from her mouth. And for her to think that it was all right.

  Chapter 4

  Lizzy wasn’t crying. At least she wasn’t now. Clay thought that she’d done a great deal of that before he’d been home. However, she was hurting. He could almost taste her pain while she lay on his chest after telling him what had happened before he’d gotten home. Linda had hurt her daughter in ways that Clay couldn’t understand. He wanted to find his parents and have them tell her how much they were looking forward to having a grandbaby around. And how much they loved her. Because as surely as he was in love with Lizzy, he knew that his parents and family loved her too.

  “Your mom came over about an hour after they left. She told me that we’re going to have dinner with them tonight. Even though it sounded like a question, I don’t believe she was going to take no for an answer. Anyway, I think she knew something was wrong, but she didn’t ask. I think I fell in love with her at that moment. I doubt very much she would have said anything like my mother did to me, even if she felt that way.” Clay said that he thought they were looking forward to having grandchildren. “Yes, I got that too. Your grandma. I almost forgot. The other reason that Lisa came over is to let me know to tell you that your grandma is coming for the wedding.”

  “Really? That’s wonderful. Grannie Manor is a wonderful person. I think she’s been visiting all the places that she and grandda did before he passed away. We all thought that she’d join him when he died so suddenly.” Lizzy told him that she hadn’t thought he had any grandparents. “I only have her. My mom’s parents died when I was young, so I didn’t know them all that well. But my grandparents on my father’s side would have us boys over all the time for sleepovers after they moved out of the manor that mom and dad are in. I’m assuming that someday Jenson will live in it. But that’s not important now. But Grannie and grandda were the best grandparents. But Grandda had a massive stroke when I was eighteen. I miss that old buzzard.”

  Clay told Lizzy of some of the things that they’d done for them as kids. Mostly, he thought it was to give his parents a few hours of quiet time by taking them on what they called adventures. But he loved them very much. Laughing, he told her about the candy store she’d taken them to when they were little.

  “We’d only been around candy in department stores, you see. Never had we seen a store devoted only to candy of every imaginable kind too. The man that ran the place must have been forewarned about us showing up because he had extra help around. That saying about a child in a candy store being the happiest is true. We were in seventh heaven that day.” She asked him what his favorite had been. “I’ve never been a big fan of chocolate. I mean, I can eat it, but I’d rather have gumdrops or even candied fruits. Jellied candies are my favorite of all time. My grandda’s as well. I think that’s why I loved my grannie’s orange slice cake so much. It was the perfect treat for me.”

  “There was never any occasion that we’d go into any town and be welcomed. Mom said they were jealous of our lifestyle. Dad would just hurry us along, getting supplies that were needed then we’d go home. Not that we spent all that long in town, but there was never a time when I was able to go to the movies or even to a candy store. Our group wasn’t welcome in any of those places. And, being a child, they were particularly cruel to me. Particularly their children would be.” He asked her if her parents had purchased or baked cookies or anything like that. “No. Mom didn’t bake. Now that I think about it, I don’t think she cooked all that much, either. Dad did most of everything. The camper that they’re using is in such good shape because he worked on it when it was needing it. But when I think back on things, the most fun we’d have, dad and I was eating out over a campfire. It wasn’t until years later that I figured out that we ate that way because the camper would get too hot in the summer months. Then we simply didn’t have the funds for propane to get the stove working. Mrs. Smith, I don’t believe that was her real name. She’d bake. But I was never allowed to have any of her brownies. For obvious reasons, I guess.”

  He laughed with her, and when she sat up and looked around the room, he asked her if she was all right. After nodding and then shaking her head, Clay told her that he knew just how she felt. Neither of them was in the best of spirits as they got ready to go to his parent’s house for dinner.

  Mom met them at the door. “Lizzy, I want you to know that your father called here a few minutes ago. He wanted me to tell you that he’s coming back as soon as he gets your mother settled. However, I got the impression that he wasn’t going to tell her until he was here. I don’t know what that means for you, but I promised him that I’d tell you.” Mom kissed them both. “Your dad is out back trying to freeze his feet off by having slippers on in the winter. I don’t know what to do with that man at times. But we’re having steaks. And your grandma is on her way here. Wouldn’t hear of us going to pick her up at the airport. Oh no, that would have been just too easy. Clay, darling, please go and rescue your father from himself.”

  He met his father in the mud room. Hugging him, he told him what mom had said for him to do. Laughing, he told him that he’d been waiting in this room for twenty minutes just for him to come and take over. He was claiming that he wasn’t getting any younger.

  “Since I know Mom is going to get out of Lizzy what happened today, I’ll tell you.” And he did. Even telling him how mom had gotten a call from Alfred that he was going to come back to live here. Clay told his dad how her mother had hurt her so badly that she’d been lying on the couch when he’d gotten home. “I can, I suppose, understanding not wanting children around when you’re older. They can be noisy and messy. But if we have any, and I’m not saying that we’ve progressed that far in our relationship—not that I’d mind, but who would tell their own daughter they’d have to get a sitter for any children she had before visiting her? Not to mention telling her that she had tried to abort her by falling while she was carrying her? I don’t understand people, dad. I just don’t.”

  “Sometimes I don’t either, son. That woman needs to have her backside whipped, is what I think. My goodness. Do you have any idea how often your mother and I talk about having little ones around again? Not daily, but pretty close. Especially since Lizzy and Jade have come into the family.” Dad stood by while he laid the steaks on the grill to cook. “Tomorrow is going to be a big day, and I thought just having a normal dinner with the two of you would calm your mother’s nerves down. Your grandmother is on her way here. Your mom is worried that she’ll not help the situation if she gets it in her head that she’ll be in charge. I don’t know why your mom is worried about that. Mother has never been one to push herself into things where she’s not needed.”

  “Mom’s worried that she’s losing her little boys.” Dad put his hand over his when he started to turn the steaks. Then he asked if that was a guess or not. “No. She told Lizzy that today, I guess when she was over to the house. She said that when we were all living at home, she could fuss over us all she wanted. She didn’t think that any of the wives would allow her to do that once we all started getting married. I haven’t any idea why she’d think that. Mom has never been one to fuss about too much, even when we were sick. And Jade would more than likely be the one she—for that matter, dad, I think she’d be fussing over the women more than us. Especially if they were going to have a baby. My god, dad, there will be no end to the fussing then.”

  They were both still laughing when they entered the house. It was cold out, freezing, but tomorrow was supposed to be a little warmer, maybe in the thirties rather than the teens that it was today. Laughing again, he thought of the venue where his brother’s reception was going to be at and was so happy that there was going to be heat there.

  The building had been finished up just two days ago. The painting had been delayed for three of the days because the paint color had been purple rather than the off-white that it was supposed to be. It hadn’t worried Jade, but Mom and Jenson had been. But then, Jade rarely worried about too much, he thought.

  After dinner, they sat around the living room, just talking about little things. He was surprised that Lizzy hadn’t told his mom what had happened, and she was visibly upset when she finally did tell her what her mother had said to her. Lizzy looked at him.

  “I gave my dad one of the credit cards that you gave me this morning. I had it on me, and I thought it might help him with money on the way here. I hope you don’t mind.” Clay assured her that he didn’t mind at all. “I don’t know what he’ll do to get here, but I thought if he had something like that, he’d be safer getting here than having to walk all the way here. I’m hoping that he’ll take a plane back, but then I’m not sure how that would work with him not having a valid driver’s license.”

  “Let me make a couple of calls on his behalf, Lizzy. I don’t mind at all, and it would make me feel better to know that he’s not going to have any trouble so that he has to turn around and go back home. We should have thought of a cell phone for him.” Dad said he’d be back. Mom looked at Lizzy when dad left the room.

  “I want you to know that should you and Clay become parents, I would be the best grandma there has ever been. Of course, I might have to steal the baby from Mildred when it gets here. She’s always been a hog when it came to cuddling with the babies. I’ve never seen a woman so wonderfully affectionate toward babies and fail so badly…that’s not true either. I was going to paint her in a bad light, but she’s coming, and you’ll see that for a lie when she walks in the door. She just loves everyone. However, once you make an enemy of her, it’s for life.” Lizzy asked how she stayed off her bad side. “I don’t know. I’ve always worked very hard to have her on my good side, so I never tested the waters for her evil side. But I’ve seen her snub a person so quickly that a knife couldn’t have done a sharper job at the person. My goodness.”

  Almost as if they’d summoned her, Grandma was coming in the front door. She always spoke to you as if she’d seen you not ten minutes ago and started talking to him like that as soon as he opened the door for her.

  “I have a nice wedding gift for your brother, but the more I think of it, I think I might well have made a mistake about it.” He asked her why quite used to the way she was. “Well, they’re going to be living in their own home, and I thought perhaps I’d get them a beautiful dining set. Then I remembered that I had those that I’d gotten as a wedding present when I married your—no, you know what? I’m going to save those for when you get married. Your mother said that you’ve met a lovely young woman.”

  “I have. Lizzy Sharple. I have fallen in love with her.” When Lizzy came up behind him, he pulled her around so that she could meet his grandma. “I was going to propose to her tonight, but then you were coming around, so I thought I’d wait until you got here.”

  He went down on one knee just as his dad came back into the room. Grannie called for his mom, and they were all standing around watching the two of them. Lizzy told him that he was making a mistake.

  “I have made plenty of them in my lifetime but not with this. I was going to do this when we celebrated my having a job, but I think this is so much better this way. With the most important people in my life right here.” Dad poked him in the back. He pulled out the ring and held it out to her. “Right. Elizabeth Lynne Sharple, will you consent to be my wife? Allow me to pamper you as much as you’ll let me? Love me despite my faults? I’m sure that as the years go on, till forever, you’ll be able to add to those faults. Would you have lots and lots of babies with me? That would be entirely up to you, my love. Grow old…I’m running out of things to say to you, Lizzy. I believe this is where you’re supposed to tell me, yes, I’ll marry you, Clay.”

  Lizzy looked at his grannie. “Oh honey, I’ve only known you for the last ten or so seconds, and I can see that you love him to pieces. He’s a good boy. All of them are, but this one here, he’s the most romantic. I bet if you were to ask him, he’d tell you that he’d been taking lessons from my late husband. That would be wrong. My husband learned from my boy there. And there isn’t a better man or father than he is. Until these boys of his start having them on their own. It’ll be a toss-up, then. What I’m trying to say is you couldn’t do any better than marrying a Strong man. And there aren’t that many of them that I find up to snuff like this one when it comes to romancing.”

  “I have fallen in love with him, but there are complications.” Grannie told her that there would forever be complications, but that didn’t stop them from falling in love, now did it. “No, ma’am, it didn’t.” Finally, Lizzy looked at him. “Yes, Clay, I’ll be your wife so long as we don’t tell anyone until after the wedding. I don’t want to ruin their day.”