Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Eleven Years later.

Loosening his tie, Locke was tempted to take it off and toss it away, but he knew that there was still more for them to do for Ms. Grable. Martha, as they had come to call her. She had passed away six days ago at the ripe old age of ninety-nine. His and that of his brothers' hearts were still broken.

"There have been people coming by all morning. I finally had Mrs. Bell start putting some of the food in the fridge while setting the rest of it out. Did you tell people to come by after the funeral?" He told his brother that he had, and they were following him. "Good. If they don't eat all this, I don't know what we're going to do with it all. There is enough food here for several large Thanksgiving dinners. And you know what? She would have hated every minute of this going on." The thought of what Martha would have said about the food and the people would have surely been funny. And true.

Following his brother into the dining room, he could see where the townspeople had gone way above the need for food. Every container had a piece of tape with their name on it. A few half dozen had cooking instructions on it as well. They put those things in the kitchen to be heated up. As he was coming out of the kitchen, he could see that a great many people had already shown up. There must have been twenty people standing on the front porch as well.

That was when he saw William, Martha's son. He would, of course, act like he was in charge of things. He did that every time he came to the house for some kind of event. Holidays mostly. When he saw him, William made a bee-line to him and Demitrius as he usually did. The smile on his face didn't bode well for the six of them, Locke didn't think.

"I hope you're all packed up and ready to go. I'm going to take possession as soon as the will is read. You guys won't be getting a damned thing from this place after I take over. You just watch and see." Locke ignored him, but Demi, what Martha had started calling his brother, wasn't going to let him have the last word. Not that it mattered. They'd had a wonderful life living there with Martha, and the house simply wouldn't be the same with her gone now.

They had moved in the night they'd broken down in her drive. Since then, he and his brothers had lived a wonderful life. Even if that only meant that they were well loved, hugged, and told what a great person they were. Each of them had gotten good jobs, thanks to Martha and she'd taught them how not only to save money but she taught them how to invest in stocks and other things in the eleven years they lived with her.

Locke made his way to the side porch and pulled out a bottle of water from his suit jacket as he sat down on the stairs. It had been a habit he'd not broken as yet to have a bottle of cold water on himself in the event that while they were out together, Martha would have cold water. He let the tears fall when he thought of how much he'd gotten from the elderly woman. More than they'd ever gotten from any other person in the world, including their father. When Dusty joined him, the two of them talked about Martha and all the fun they'd had over the years living with her and also taking care of her needs.

"Are you going to stick with being a nurse, Locke? I know that you only did it for her, getting your degree so that you could make sure that Martha was getting the best of care. I've heard some of the people talking, and they sure could use you at the hospital with how well you care for people." He asked his brother if he was going to go to a real job instead of living in the shadow of Martha. "I guess that makes sense. I believe the only reason that she lived as long as she did was because of you. You kept her healthy with all that you did for her."

"We all did. Each of us played a part in her longevity. She told me once that the only reason she'd not given up like she was ready to do was because we all kept her going. And we had fun, too." Dusty agreed, and the two of them talked about their lives with Martha.

"Mr. Erikson?" They both turned to see who was addressing one of them. "Mr. Locke Erikson?"

"That would be me. Is there something that I can help you with, sir?" He said that he was the attorney for Mrs. Grable. "Oh, good. Mr. Grable, her son, is in the kitchen. I believe he's having something to eat."

"He's bashing the six of you for making his mother last as long as she did. Oh, the stories that she would tell me when I'd talk to her. She loved every moment of her life these last few years. And like your brother here was telling you, you had a huge part in her life as her nurse and caregiver. She wouldn't have lived as long as she had if she'd been put in a nursing home. I believe it would have sucked her soul dry to live in one of those. Also, you made it so that she got to die at home, her fondest wish. I myself cannot thank you enough for giving her that. She never had a terrible word to say about any of you." Both he and Dusty thanked him. "And you certainly made this house shine. My goodness, you six made the house look like it had so many years ago. Martha was very proud of you boys, she called you."

"She opened her home and heart to us, and there was no turning back after that." Locke looked out over the expansive, well-maintained yard. "I hate that the city is going to get this place. It holds fond memories for us as well."

"Will you all be there for the reading of the will?" Locke turned and looked at the attorney and told him that they hadn't been mentioned. "Oh, but you were. All of you, including her son. She had a change of heart, Martha did when that incident happened with the school board. Never would I have thought that they'd come in here and demand that she move out so that the school could have a larger parking lot during football games. She was fit to be tied, I tell you. I've never seen her so worked up before."

"I don't think that Mr. Agine was reelected following that. Martha didn't get upset easily, but she was as pissed as I've seen her that day. Did anyone ever get why he thought it was a good idea to toss an eighty-something-year-old woman out of her home so that he could have it torn down?"

"No. Only a few months back, I heard that he was running again. Now that the rugrats were out of town. I have no idea who he was talking about, but there you have it. The reading will be first thing in the morning. Nine o'clock at my offices. I'd like to see you boys there when it's read to you all." Dusty said that they'd be there, and after thanking them for such a nice service and laying out of food, he was heading home. "You boys be careful now. There is no telling what William will do now that she's gone."

They both agreed with the elderly man and finished off their waters. Locke hadn't eaten anything since last night and he wasn't feeling all that hungry now. But Dusty pointed out that he had to eat or Martha would come back and haunt him, so he went into the kitchen to get him a plate of food.

Since he'd gone outside, the thought the amount of food had doubled since then. Smiling at the things that were in neighbors' containers, he had to laugh when he thought of some of the things that Martha would have said about the spread of food.

"You can bet your last penny that old Carole Lee didn't make that chicken there. She just emptied out a large container of that man's bucket of chicken and said it was her own. Do you really believe that she cut up that cold slaw in those tiny little pieces? She didn't. Then, after she would make a teasing remark, Martha would say ‘bless her little heart' to everyone. "Oh my goodness, did you taste that tea that Harley brought? Goodness, it's sweet enough to make your eyeballs pop, bless his little heart. And things like that. She was a good woman and a better friend than anyone could have been friends with.

The food really was good. It was country delicious, what Martha called it, and stuff that would stick to your ribs, too. Sitting in the living room after most of the people had left, he stared around the room and what, after all these years, they'd done to make the house just the way that Martha had wanted it.

There were no more frilly curtains but shades now in earth tones that made the room seem friendly and welcoming. The old-fashioned furniture, stuff that had more than likely been a part of the room when it was redecorating when Martha moved in all those years ago with her husband. Where it once had a library that was dank and dark, it was now brightened up with floor-to-ceiling windows that allowed fresh air and sunshine in. It was his favorite room in the house.

He remembered Martha sitting them all down after they'd been staying there for a month. She told them what she wanted done with the house and the money that she had stashed around so that William wouldn't find it. So far as he knew, he never did either. They were more than happy to help Martha out with whatever she needed.

The six of them learned a trade while working on her home. While he went to school to become a registered nurse to care for her when she was feeble, Martha made sure that he and his brothers learned how to trade stocks, invest in things, and to take their money to the next level. She was the only one that they'd ever told about the winning, and as far as he knew, she'd taken it to her grave, too. With her help, they not only doubled what they'd come here with, but they'd done the same to Martha's money. She had been sitting close to fifty million when she passed away.

There had been other lessons as well. How to escort a woman down the street and into a place of business. She told them how to treat a woman, how to pamper one, and to love one just by being themselves. Locke had even learned how to box, fight with a knife, and fire a gun, the same as his brothers. They were all well-educated, too, going to college and getting a degree in different areas of the financial world. There wasn't a stone left unturned when she was teaching them, and they couldn't have been happier about it.

The camera that he'd put in his father's home had long since been outdated. They watched him the first few months while he tore up things looking for them. After a while, they simply didn't care anymore and left him to himself. Four years ago, they heard that he'd been killed in an automobile accident where he'd been a drunk driver and ran into the lake by their home. The townspeople were thrilled, it seemed, and since his death, they had had a town picnic on the day that he died every year. He did wonder, on occasion, if anyone wondered about them. Then, he decided he didn't care about that either.

"Have you given any thought as to what we'll do now? I think that after talking to August, the two of us are going to live around here. We all have a nice house but for you. The doc said that Martha only lived as long as she did after that stroke is because you were there for her. I think it was her being angry at William, and him wanting to put her in a nursing home is what got her to sticking around, too." They all laughed at Zander when he spoke. "What are we going to do now that she's gone. That's all I can think about, too, that she's left us alone."

"Me too. She isn't going to be there when we go out on a date, reminding us to take a ‘rubber' with us. She just said it that way so that we'd laugh." Knox laughed as his eyes filled with tears. "I'm going to miss her laughter too. And her singing. Neither of which she did all that well. But she knew all the words, and she said that was all that mattered."

"Remember that one Christmas? We all were snowed in, and she had us dressed up in her late husband's coats to walk to the store and help Mr. Tanger out? Not only did we get his furnace up and running, but when the truck showed up, we helped load up his store with all the things that he'd ordered." There were other stories like that one. Where they helped out one or more of their neighbors when they needed it. Pretty much the entire town had been helped by them at some point or another.

There had been a tree falling down on the back half of Mr. Granger's house. The six of them out there with borrowed chain saws cutting all the wood up into burnable pieces. Or the time that Mrs. Bay had lost her husband and needed help with their children. Locke had bandaged more knees in the summer than he did anything. Making sure that kids got their shots, too, before school began. They, he and his brothers, had been all over the town at one point or another, helping not just the townspeople but also making sure that buildings were safe to be living in, too.

Locke didn't have a home to call his own. He had fallen in love with the Grable home from the moment that he'd walked into it. His brothers, all of them, had not only a home, but they had been making great headway into making it their own, too. Furniture that they picked out themselves. Staff too who took care of not only them but the house as well.

Going to his bedroom, what he surmised was going to be the last time he was able to set foot in the house, he finished packing up his things except for the suit that he'd be wearing to the reading of the will. He couldn't for the life of him think what she could have been leaving them all. She knew that they were wealthy and that they didn't need anything from her other than the love that she'd freely given them.

Instead of going to bed, he made his way to the kitchen. While he wasn't hungry, he did need something to tie him over until tomorrow. Pulling out the box of cereal that both he and Martha shared a love for, he was just pouring some into a bowl when there was a knock at the front door. Glancing at the clock, he wondered who could be knocking at this time of morning.

Locke hadn't realized that it had been raining until he opened the door. The person standing there was soaking wet and looked as if she'd fallen into a few muddy puddles when she'd been walking. He asked her what she wanted, and he was surprised when she looked up at him and smiled.

"Locke, I presume." He nodded before he thought better of it, and she smiled even wider. "My grannie sent word to me that she had died—That sounds weird when I say it out loud. Anyway, I came as soon as I could. I guess I was too late. I saw the obit in the paper."

"She died five days ago in her sleep. Here at home the way that she wanted." The woman asked if she could come in, and he stepped back so that she could enter. "You seem to know me, but I don't know you. You called Martha your grannie, correct?"

"She was my grannie, yes. I'm her son's oldest. He had four children, but the other three are gone. Dad, a terrible name for the man, hadn't ever acknowledged me, but it mattered little. Grannie took care that I'm legally known as his child through DNA testing. But she told me to wait until she called for me to come around. Something about her will changes." He asked her how long ago did she contact her. "We spoke weekly. Never spoke much of my father other than the six of you taking such good care of her, and he hated you. She also told me that you had given her more years than she deserved by taking care of her as her live-in nurse."

"It was my pleasure to care for her. She is…was a wonderful person. I loved her like my own." She told him that she'd loved him as well. All of his brothers. "What's your name? I'm sorry, but this is the first I've heard about William having any children. I didn't even know that he was married."

"He wasn't. I'm his through odd circumstances. My mother had an affair to make up for the fact that the man she was married to at the time was having numerous affairs when they were together. It was a one-night stand that resulted in me. I'm sorry, my name is Alexandra Grable. Mom put his name on the birth certificate and also had a DNA test performed so that there was never any question of me being his. Turns out, he had a couple of other kids, but they were put up for adoption soon after birth. I've been looking for them but without much luck. Can I have a glass of water? And whatever is cooking in the kitchen? I'm starved."

He was as well, he told her. Taking her into the kitchen, he was surprised to see Ms. Bee, the cook, in the kitchen cooking them both up a plate of leftovers. As soon as her plate was sat in front of her, she began eating. Locke watched her as she smiled at him after looking at him with a mouthful of food.

"I've been too nervous to eat much the last few days. I had to make sure that you were just the man that Grannie said that you were. And you're more than that. She said that there were few really good men in the world, and she thought that you and your brothers were the only good men left in the world." He thanked her. "No problem."

They ate in silence after that until they both cleaned up their plates. When he was given a cup of hot tea, she sipped his cup and then asked if she could have one too. It was the strangest thing, sharing a meal and tea with a near stranger. He told her that.

"To be honest, I don't think of you as a stranger. More of a long-distance relative. I know so much about the six of you that I believe that I could name them all without introductions. There were times when Grannie was talking about you guys that I was jealous of not being a part of your lives too. She told me that the fact that you guys broke down in front of her house was something of a miracle. I know that she lived a good deal longer because of you guys." He said that he'd become a nurse so that he could care for her. "Nah, that's not what she meant. Being her nurse certainly helped, but she said that you guys were her knights in shining armor. She loved you like her own."

"As did we her. She was a wonderful person, someone that I'm going to miss for the rest of my life." She put her hand over his, and he turned his hand over to hold hers. "I'm sure that you didn't come here to hear me waxing poetry about your grandmother. Are you staying anywhere close?"

"I was hoping to be able to stay here. If you don't mind. And yes, I was notified that the reading is in the morning. Grannie told me to come here, but I hadn't any idea if you'd be up for company. So, can I?" Locke said that there was plenty of room, and then she winked at him. "Thank you so much."

When she stretched and yawned, he yawned as well. Exhaustion took him to going to his room after showing Alexandra where she could sleep. It was strange for him to have someone other than family in the house. He only wished that he'd been more proactive about finding himself a home like his brothers had. Rolling to his side, he closed his eyes after setting his alarm. It was going to be a long day tomorrow, and he hoped that he would be up for it.

~*~

Alexandra took a long, much-needed shower. It was nice to have one after all that she'd been through in the last few days. She'd not said anything to anyone because she was terrified as to what people would say, but she was about as broke as she'd ever been in her life. It depressed her so much that she leaned her head on the tile wall and cried.

She hoped that her grannie would leave her a little money. Just enough that she could pay for an apartment. It would have to be furnished, of course, but even if it wasn't, she had her air mattress that she could sleep on. Getting food hadn't been an issue as she'd become a pro at finding stuff in the dumpster. As much as she hated to admit it, she was wondering if she should just end her life. It wasn't as if there was anyone left who would mourn her passing. But what kept her from doing it was the fact that there wasn't anyone that would find her decaying body in the place that she'd been living in. Getting out of the shower, she wrapped herself in the same clothing that she'd had on yesterday. And the day before that as well. Washing out her panties and bra, it was nice to have something clean next to her skin. Going to the kitchen, Alexandra found that Locke was already up and dressed in a suit and tie. She felt wholly underdressed in her jeans that had seen better days and a shirt that she'd gotten from one of the million and one places where she'd worked.

"I don't mean to be presumptuous on this, but there is a closet full of your grannie's clothing if you want to find something there to wear. I can show her room and you can pick from there." She told him that this was all she had, wondering not for the first time how much this man made her feel welcomed. "You look to be about her size. If you'd like to go and see if anything fits you." She shed some tears then, and her temper flared up.

"Are you saying that I'm not dressed well enough to be out in public with the great Locke Erikson?" He laughed, and that confused her more than her losing her temper with him. "What the hell is so funny?"

"Do you often fly off the handle when someone is trying to help you? I was only giving you the option. I in no way was implying that you were not worthy of being with me." Her face heated up, and she turned her face away from him to cry. "It's all right, Alex. I swear to you, no one will care what you have on. I think that you're beautiful no matter how you're dressed."

Of course, that got her to crying again, and she didn't know what to do. Suddenly, she was stood from the table, and Locke hugged her. It was the first time that she'd had contact with anyone other than her mother that made her feel worthy of something. Crying harder, she clung to him while spilling out everything that had happened to her since she left home a few years ago in pursuit of finding herself a good job as well as a nicer place to live.

"I've been squatting for several years now. Just any place that would keep a roof over my head. Then, there was the police coming around, making me leave. I even tried to get myself arrested so that I'd have a hot meal and a place to be safe." She went on and on about how she'd been trying so hard but just couldn't seem to get a break. It was then that she realized that she was unloading on a man that she barely knew. Looking up at him, she told him how sorry she was.

"Its fine. Really. You needed to let it all out, and I'm thrilled that I was able to be there for you." She nodded and stepped away from him, hating that she was forever crying of late. "Come on, we'll be early, but we'll go onto the—"

"I'd like to take you up on your offer to wear something from Grannie's closet. I feel grungy and would love something fresh to wear. Thank you for that." After showing her the closet, he left her to it. He'd been right; she and her grannie were the same size, and she was excited to be able to wear something that smelled like her, too.

After deciding on the black dress that had been recently dry-cleaned, she stripped down and pulled it on. She couldn't reach the zipper up the back, but it still looked really good on her. Figuring that she'd get Ms. Bee or even Locke to finish up for her, she put on a little perfume and headed down the stairs. It sounded like there was a heated argument going on when she entered the living room, where it was the loudest.

Putting her fingers in her mouth, she let go of one of her infamous whistles. That got their attention all right, but they nearly killed themselves standing up when they looked at her.

"Locke?" She looked at who she thought was Dusty when he spoke. "Aren't you going to introduce this vision to us?"

"Not if you're going to be stupid. No. She thinks that she knows us from what Martha had told her about us. She got me on one. Let's see how well she'll do. And behave yourself. She kind of tender right now." She wanted to tell him she wasn't tender, but she looked at him, and he winked. "Everyone, this is Alexandra Grable, daughter to William Grable and granddaughter of Martha's. She's been making her way here since she passed away."

Not only did she get them all right on the first try, but she also knew what they did for a living. Smiling, she turned her back to them and asked if one of them could zip her zipper. When she heard something break, she turned back to them to see what had happened. Three of them were on the floor nursing cuts, and the other two were still fighting.

"Don't make me have to smack you around. Locke, could you please zip me up?" He stood up, the only one that hadn't been fighting, and Alexandra presented her back to him. He told her how Grannie had a zipper puller. He had no idea what it was called that she used. "I didn't want to go through her things. I'm sure that it would have been right there as most of her dresses had a back zipper on them."

Once she was dressed, the seven of them headed toward the front door. She could get used to this sort of gentlemanly helpfulness for about five seconds. She finally walked through the door and got into the limo that hadn't been there the previous night, without assistance from the male hormones that were still arguing about who was going to sit next to her.

Getting out, Alexandra went to the front of the limo and got in the seat next to the driver. After telling her who she was, they waited for the idiots to realize that she was already out of the house and ready to get going.

"You'd think that they'd never seen a woman before." The limo driver, her name was Anna, said that they probably hadn't seen one as beautiful as she was. "I'm just plain, but thanks so much for that. My confidence needed a bump."

Locke came out of the house just as the others were coming to the conclusion that she wasn't with them. Laughing, he told her that they were being idiots, the same thing that Anna had said about her being beautiful. If they kept this up, she was going to be sobbing again. And it wouldn't do well. She had a feeling that as soon as a tear was shed, they'd be all over that. Instead, she listened to the men behind her as they talked about the city mayor. Turning in her seat, she looked at them and asked what they were talking about.

"He hired a group to come in and survey the land...how long ago, Locke? I'm thinking not that long ago. When asked, they told us that as soon as the funeral was over for Martha, the house and the barn needed to come down. I don't know what he figured was going to happen with that, as Martha told us that if they did that, the land would be forfeited. I guess he thinks he can get away with it now that she's gone." Alexandra asked if they were afraid of the house being destroyed while they were sleeping. "No. This was a couple of years before Martha got sick, and she ordered them off her land. Once they were gone, she had us take her to the Mayor's office—she called him a fat ass, and she rimmed him a new ass. I doubt he can sit without remembering her."

"So the land and house are the cities if they play by her rules. I knew that I loved her." She turned back around and asked the driver if they could stop at a convenience store. As soon as the car stopped, she got out and made her way into the store. Realizing that she didn't have any money on her, not even for the pop that she had to purchase something to use the bathroom, she turned to leave and bumped into Locke. She started to tell him what she wanted when he winked at her.

"You forgot your purse, didn't you?" She nodded, almost telling him that it didn't matter as she didn't have enough change for the soft drink anyway. He hugged her tightly and then handed her a twenty. "If you'd not mind, the rest of us need a bottle of water. Do you want my help with that?"

"Yes, of course. Thank you." He seemed to understand that she was broke. It had her being embarrassed but it was so easy to cool her temper with Locke. Like he had some potion that would have her smiling instead of lashing out like she normally would have done.

He greeted the cashier by name and told him that they were going to the reading of the well. Alexandra grabbed her pop of choice and headed to the counter. The brothers, all of them, came in to get their drink, and she was glad to see them drinking with her. While Locke and Charlie, the elderly man running the register, talked about the man's grandchildren, she made her way to the limo. When the men got in, she was handed a large bag of pork rinds to ‘stave off hunger' while they were in the office.

These men were going to make it so that she fell in love with them in a short period of time. And she was going to miss them when she had to move on. Especially if the mayor was gunning for them after the house was given to the city. It sucked, she thought that the one time she found a friendly—or in this case, several friendly faces and she needed to move on.