Chapter 4

The house was lovely. And for as much as it seemed to be old fashion, there was enough of the newer elements to it to make a very nice home to raise children. Even the kitchen, a place where she rarely roamed when she wasn’t working, was up to date and had a lot of gadgets sitting on the counter ready to be used.

“The table and chairs were found in the old barn out by the ranch house. I had no idea when we purchased the house that the barn had anything in it. Before I had it brought over here, I made sure that I wasn’t taking stuff that didn’t belong to us. The chairs were out there, too, but in the rafters of the barn instead of around it.” Edmond asked his brother, Devlin, if there was much more out there. “Not a great deal of it is useable. The realtor that I spoke to about it said that the house had been sitting empty for too long, and the rats and other creatures had been into things. “We didn’t have that trouble because of what we are, I guess.”

Then, there was the Apple estate that his brother had purchased. It was a great spread of land and a wonderfully old house that seemed to him to beg for someone to have the holidays in it. Edmond had decided that he was going to, if Mac didn’t mind to put as many of the older pieces in their home as they could find that Lica nor Brandy wanted.

He’d already had his bedroom set from the ranch house put in one of the rooms. Now, all he had to do was to find enough of the furniture to fill out six more bedrooms. After that, there was the office that he wanted, as well as a place for the pool he desperately wanted. Smiling to himself, he was surprised to find Mac in what would be the living room, smiling too.

He was glad to know that Mac liked the older furniture as well. And that she wanted to have a pool put in the backyard. And their backyard was massive, too. There were not too many trees around the area that they were thinking of putting a stone barbeque in. That place would be for having people over, mostly family and entertaining. They were going to work on that as they could afford it, he told Mac.

“I have a little bit of money that my grandparents left me. We could use that. It’s just been sitting in the bank, not doing anything since they passed away. Even my grandda Jacob left me a bit. Not like Brandy but it’s enough for us to get our house together and get a pool.” He told her that he worked for Brandy, but he didn’t have any idea how long that was going to last. Edmond thought that he would do a good job, but he didn’t know what he was going to do for her. “Then we’ll figure it out together. With the money that you got from them and the money I have, we can fix the things that we want in the house sooner rather than later. My parents did that. Waited too long to fix the house up when they could afford it. So, none of us got to enjoy the fruits of their labors. I’m not saying that we just blow it all on the house, but before we have kids, if you want any, I think we should have our ducks in a row first.”

“I love that idea.” Edmond asked her about the call she’d gotten. “I don’t want to intrude if it’s none of my business but I did wonder what happened with the call that you’d gotten earlier. If you don’t want to tell me, then it’s fine too.”

“I think you should know. And please just ask me when you want to know something. I might think, well, I might think that you aren’t that interested in my life. Just ask me. My brothers, of course, are out of jail. Grandma did it before she purchased a house. And she got one that has about six bedrooms in it. I think she believes that some of us, Mom and Dad or you and I, will be living there as well. That’s another reason for me to be happy that you have a house. I not only have grass under my feet when I want, but I don’t have to visit my family and have to be beholden to them to get a shower and a good night’s sleep. In saying that, I’m going to talk to my parents to see what they wish to do as well. I’m sure they’ll want to stay here in difference to my grannie.” He asked her if she thought that she’d be safe. “Safe? I don’t know why not. I mean, they’ve never harmed me before. Or do you mean now that grandma has been called out? I never thought of that. I don’t think she’s violent, but I don’t know her all that well. When Grandda Jacob was alive, my brothers never got along with him. Grandda died of a massive stroke when he was on a business trip. He was buried overseas because there was a great deal going on with the world then, and he wasn’t able to get anyone to agree with where he’d be buried. I don’t know how that was resolved. As I said, he was gone before I was born.”

“Do you believe that your grandmother had anything to do with his death?” Again, she said she didn’t know, but he, after only knowing her for a short while, thought that she was capable of about anything. “Would you mind if I asked your parents about it? I don’t want anyone to be harmed, and if she is guilty, it wouldn’t be too much for her to try again.”

“No, go ahead. It might be better if, like you said, we were able to find out now rather than later. I know that she’s been gone from the States for a very long time. Yesterday was the first time I’ve seen her since I graduated from high school. She didn’t even come to their funeral, now that I think about it.” They talked about things in the house as they all walked around together. Markus said that he’d like to help them in flushing out the house and Nancy said that she’d really like to give them what they had in their home that had been in storage all this time. “I think that I’d like some of the pieces that you might get rid of. Are you guys thinking of moving here or going back to Cleveland to live? Either way would be fine with me. Although I think you’ll have more fun here than there.”

“I believe you’re right, honey. I’ve already fallen in love with Edmond’s family. And that granny of theirs is a hoot. She sure doesn’t have any trouble saying what she thinks. I’m betting that the two of you hit it off well, Mac.” There were other families that were around here, too, that Edmond thought that the Pendletons would like as well. “Oh, and that nice woman realtor that the family has said that she could set your father and me up with homes to look at whenever we’re ready.”

Edmond asked them if they wanted to stay with them while house hunting. Markus agreed, but Nancy said it was too much for them. Markus said he didn’t know of a better way to get to know their son-in-law other than to stick close to him and his family.

“I know, but dear, we might be intruding on them getting to know one another, too.” Nancy’s face turned a nice shade of purple when she got embarrassed. Markus took a bit longer to get what his wife was saying, and he glared a moment at him before laughing. “You understand, don’t you, Mac?”

“No. If we want to have loud sex in the house, we’ll just tell you to go away. Or we’ll go away. But I don’t see that happening anytime too soon. Like you said, we’re getting to know one another right now.” She grinned at her mom before speaking again. “We might not do it right the first couple of times, so maybe we’ll be able to come to you for advice once in a while.”

Christ, he thought that her mother was going to blow a gasket. She sputtered around and seemed to have lost her ability to talk for a good five minutes before she just walked away. Telling Markus that she’d meet him in town was the last that he heard from her before laughing. Edmond didn’t think it was possible for Nancy to get any more embarrassed than she had until Mac asked her if she ever wanted grandchildren. Then they’d have to be doing it right.

When they were alone in the house, they decided to do another tour and, this time, take notes. She didn’t even tease him when he pulled out his list from before. But she used her phone and an app that allowed her to speak into it to take down whatever she said. She was making better progress than he was in making the notes, so he only wrote down the color of the walls in each bedroom and whether or not it had carpeting. That was going to be very helpful, too, she told him, as she hated carpets in the bedrooms more than he did.

They were having dinner that night at their home. The table and chairs were wonderful, but in order to watch much in the way of television, they had to sit in the same chairs. They were nice but not all that comfortable for watching television. Not to mention, they were using the same television he’d had at the ranch house that was only big enough for one of them to watch it at a time, he thought.

Markus called them a little after ten to tell them that after a long talk, they were going to stay at a bed and breakfast in town. But he said to him that he didn’t think that it would last all that long. He hated the wallpaper, and the woman was just too bright and cheery for her mother’s taste.

“You might want to expect us about any morning now. I like a nice hardy breakfast myself to start the day, but this woman is talking about rolls and croissants with jelly. That, to me, sounds like an appetizer, not a hardy breakfast. I bet you both eat well first thing in the morning.” Edmond told the man that he did eat well for that meal, and Mac pointed out how many eggs she’d cook up in the morning, so she didn’t care about eggs or bacon. But she did so love a nice bowl of oats when she could get them. “Yum, that does sound really good. With lots of toast and brown sugar. Now that’s all I can think about.”

After getting off the phone, Edmond showed the bedroom to Mac that the bedroom set was in. Leaving her to it, he made his way to the dining room again to sit there and make notes on things that Brandy had wanted him to look into. About one in the morning he was headed to the living room to pull out his air mattress and sleeping bag. He was just exhausted enough to fall right to sleep.

He woke up twice in the middle of the night. Once, he didn’t have any idea where he was, and the second time, he had to go to the bathroom. Edmond laughed at himself when he had to stop moving and think not only where he was but where there might be a bathroom that was close. When he got it figured out, he stubbed his toe on something and cursed all the way to the couch again.

Getting up when his phone rang, he was surprised to see that it was just after nine in the morning. He couldn’t remember the last time that he’d slept this late and was almost afraid to check his messages. Surely, his brothers would have wondered where he was by now. When he checked, he was both glad and disappointed that no one had bothered him.

“I was supposed to wake you at nine, but I got wrapped up in stuff. Mac said that we were to let you sleep until then, or she’d castrate us. Why is it that women go for the balls when they’re making a point?” Edmond pointed out that it was the most sensitive part of a man’s body. “Yeah, I guess I can see that. Anyway. We’ve hired a dozen more people for the cattle that have arrived. Also, this is so cool. The ground was broke for the slaughterhouse. As you can well imagine, it’s a ways from the town but Lica said it would be able to hire as many as a hundred people for it. I’m excited. Not just for the jobs but it makes me feel like we’re doing something positive for the area.”

The two of them spoke for nearly an hour. After heading to the kitchen, he was able to eat the long-wanted bowl of oats and drink a nice dark tea. He was going to have to replenish her stash soon as it looked to him like it was running low.

“Mr. Edmond?” He had answered the back door and was now talking to a nice woman who said that Brandy had sent her. “I’m in need of a job. That’s why she sent me here. I’ve got me no end of children depending on me to feed and clothe them. Some of them is mine, others, most of them are my grandbabies. But I’m needing money as their parents haven’t sent me one thin dime for taking their kids on. Your brother, that one that’s an attorney, Devlin, he said he was going to fight them for me. This family, they sure do help the underdog don’t they?”

“We’ve been the underdog a lot as well growing up.” He smiled at her. “I remember you now, Mrs. Orchard. You told me once that you’d made a mistake in ordering so much food, and you fed my brothers and me when we were about to starve. If he doesn’t help you enough, you let me know, and I’ll do what I can as well. You’re a very good woman, and you helped the six of out when no one else would. I still remember those fried apple pies you used to make us. You told us to hide them in our shirt pockets, and they’d keep us warmer. We surely did enjoy them.”

Mrs. Orchard laughed, telling him that she’d nearly forgotten about that. She asked him if he ever went out to the prison to visit his momma and he told her no, that they weren’t going to either.

“Good for you boys. I wish that that father of yours had been able to be alive. I would have been glad to have seen him in that prison, too. To think that they had all you fine men in their family, and they treated you like you weren’t nothing but stuff they picked up out of the yard on their boots.” She smiled again, wiping at the tears. “I’m also remembering when my husband passed on. I was fretting about how I was going to be able to heat my house up and imagine my surprise when I woke up one morning to a whole cord of wood there for me to use. You six, you made it so that we didn’t have to buy any wood for several winters. I won’t forget that again. And for tonight, I’m going to make you and the missus of yours a hardy home-cooked meal with some fried pies afterwards. Yes, sir. I surely am.” He kissed her on the cheek. “Go on now, before you have me bawling like a little baby that’s had its sucker taken away. Go on with you so I can get some work done.”

He heard her blowing her nose when he left the kitchen to head out the back door. He himself was a little touched by the story that she’d told him. The six of them had worked hard for the community and he was sure that a lot of them never knew where the wood for their home came from. Where there was an extra couple of dollars in their mailbox either. He did remember Ms. Orchard. She’d been one of the very few who had known about their work during the nighttime hours, and she’d left them out sammiches—peanut butter ones with thick slices of bread, too—with what he was sure was homemade apple jelly.

Back then, he thought it was the greatest thing on earth. And to this day, every time he eats anything that has apple jelly or even peanut butter on it, he’s taken back to the memory of the six of them, sitting around their little fire so that their parent can’t find them, stuffing their faces with the first food they’d more than likely had in a week that didn’t come from a dumpster. Christ, he wanted to make sure that no kid went to bed hungry. No one had to go to school without something on their bellies.

Edmond changed his direction and went to find Brandy. She could make it happen with the kind of money that she had. He’d pay her back, too. Every single penny that she spent would be well worth it, but he would pay it back to her.

He found her and his brother standing in the yard of their beautiful home. They were kissing, loving each other right here in the open. Clearing his throat so as not to startle them, Lica said he had work to do, and he left them. As soon as Brandy looked at him, he knew something else as well. She knew the pangs of missing something as well. Whatever it was, he wished her all the luck in the world in making sure that others didn’t have to do without.

“I’d like your help with a project that I’ve been thinking about. It involves children and their need for a decent meal.” She asked him to come into their living room. “Good idea. This might take me a bit to tell you what I’m thinking.”

“I have no doubt, Edmond, that you have whatever it is worked out to the smallest detail and that it will work.” Someone having confidence in him and unwavering help, he knew, too, that it would work. It was something that he was looking forward to more than he thought possible.

And to fulfill a life with Mac, if she would allow him to. Grinning, he thought that he was breaking her down for their bet. Several times already, he’d seen her ready to talk. But he could wait. At least, he hoped so. He’d fallen in love with her hard.

~*~

Caroline wasn’t at all happy with the way things were turning out for her. Not that she was going to blame anyone, no, that wasn’t her style, but Mac could have been a good deal nicer to her after she came all this way. And there was no point in her daughter taking sides against her either. But she wasn’t one to fuss or be upset, so she decided to take it up with them when she saw them next. Who knew when that would be with the way things were going right now.

“Hey, Grannie. When do you think that we can get some food around here? That jail stuff wasn’t fit to eat, as Grandda would say all the time. I’m hungry for a thick steak as well as a baker with bacon on it. Lots of sour cream, too.” She said that she was working on that and not to call her grannie again. “Ah, why not? It’s our special name for you. Grannie panni.”

Alan had always been the one that she was closest to. But since she’d had them move into her hotel with her, they’d been positively horrid. She’d not wanted them to invade her space, but every five minutes, one of them would barge into her room, and she’d have to run them off with threats of no dinner. That worked when they were a child but not now. She did wonder, not for the first time if she’d made a mistake by indulging their every whim when they’d been just boys.

Cole, being the youngest of the four of them, she thought that he was a little off of his noodle. Sometimes, for no reason whatsoever, he’d just sit and stare at the television. On or off, he’d just look at it like he was seeing something no one else could. She had told his mom, and then he’d been tested. But Caroline had never heard the results of the tests. For all she knew, her lazy daughter hadn’t done a thing for her poor baby boy. She amended that, trying to be positive.

The other two were her best boys. Peter and David could be counted on to get a project going for her. Then Alan would be the one who would make sure that it made sense and that none of them would be caught when it was executed. They’d saved her a great deal of money over the years. Just having them around would make other people listen to what she had to say and to it. They never killed anyone, hopefully, but it got her what she wanted most times. Even her own husband hadn’t been a match against her four boys.

“My hand is hurting, Grannie.” She kissed the boo-boo, wondering if she could sue the young man for doing that to one of her babies. She asked what had provoked the man to hurt him. “Nothing. Just talking to him about Mac and how he should stay away from her. She’s our baby sister, and we have to take care of her, don’t we, Grannie? Anyway, it might not have hurt so bad, but he pulled my hand off the fork handle before he jerked it out of the table. The police said that it went through the table and out the other side. I tell you, Mac should have done something for me.”

“Mac has taken up with that same man, Alan. I don’t have any idea why, but your parents think that he’s the best thing since sliced bread.” She did wonder what would happen if she played her cards right. No, no, she told herself. There were things that she needed to work for her, and being mean all the time wasn’t going to make that happen. Then she thought, what the hell. “Why he even said to me that she much preferred that other man over the four of you. That’s why I can’t find them. They’ve been whisked away by that person, and now I can’t even get in touch with my own daughter.”

“You don’t need a daughter, Grannie. You have us.” She started to explain to them why she needed a daughter and decided that she’d done that enough and they just didn’t get it. That her daughter was the very reason they were around. So she patted him on the head and told him that he was right. “But my hand, it still hurts a great deal. Those people at the hospital said that I had to be careful with bumping it, and that seems like all I want to do. They didn’t give me any pain shit for it either. Just told me to take an anti-his-to-many or something.”

“It’s an antihistamine, dear boy.” She told him that she had some in her purse and that if he’d bring it to her, she’d find him some. Caroline knew her mistake the moment she said for him to hand her purse over. “Don’t dig through my things, Alan. Please?”

Not only did he pick up her purse, but he dumped out all over the floor. It would take her an age to find all her things again. Some of it even rolled under his foot, where he crushed her compact. When he found her wallet, it not having all that much money in it, he took the cash as well as the two credit cards that she’d stashed in there.

“Do these have much on them, Grannie?” Telling him there was very little on it, she knew another mistake when whooped around the room while gathering up his brothers. “We’ll go out and have us a nice steak tonight, guys. Grannie is going to treat us.”

After they left, she enjoyed the quiet for a few minutes. Thinking of all the mistakes that she’d made with her grandsons. She knew that it wasn’t completely her fault. Their parents should have stepped in when she was giving them everything. They should have told her to back off. There wasn’t any reason that she should be held responsible for the misdeeds of them. That brought her thinking about Mac.

“What a ridiculous name. I enjoyed it some when she was a baby, but now? Not really. Mac.”

She didn’t have a relationship with her granddaughter. Caroline wasn’t sure if she was happy for that or not. There were times when she’d forget completely about it, and then others, she would mourn the loss of having her around to take care of her. Mac had been born when the boys were just beginning to be fun to have around. There were no diapers or bottles to give them. Throw a pizza in front of them, and it wouldn’t be noisy for a few hours. Until they wanted something else. But she’d had the money then to indulge, and not having to be stuck watching over Mac had made her days much easier to cope with.

Getting up, she decided to take a shower. But only stepping one foot into her bathroom in her room had her turning away in disgust. They had showered, at her insistence before they went to have breakfast and had made a horrid mess in her only small space that she could go. It was somewhat her fault. She’d made them take a shower in her bathroom so that she knew they were taking one. Calling the front desk, she asked for more towels and a once-over of the room. Christ, they had never become less of a snob than they’d been as children.

After taking a nice soak in the clean tub, she got herself ready to go out. She was going to find her daughter and insist that she put down her foot with her sons. Not to mention, she was going to have her pay for the hotel rooms too. She was headed out of her room when the desk phone began to beep. Christ, there was nothing she hated more than to be interrupted by a phone.

“Ms. Kensington?” She asked the man who was chasing her what he wanted. “There is a small matter of the other rooms that you have on your credit card. It’s well over its balance, we were told and there isn’t any way for you to be paying for your room. Not to mention the damage done in the other rooms that you have requested.”

“What do you mean, damage? I only asked that the room be cleaned up. I saw no damage in there.” He handed her a small tablet, and she could see what the man was talking about. “That is my grandsons’ room. How do I know that it wasn’t like that before they got there?”

“The pawn shop where they took the furnishings as well as the television to pawn off for cash. There is nothing in that room now other than a mess. I would hope that you’d be willing to compensate us for all the time and effort we went about to get your grandsons’ a room at such short notice.” Rolling her eyes at the man, she started for the door when several cruisers pulled up in front of the hotel. “I’m sorry, Ms. Kensington, I’m not going to allow you to leave without paying your bill. If you can’t then I’m afraid I’m going to have to have you arrested.”

“For what? Never mind. I don’t care. Call my daughter. Or my granddaughter. She’s into money right now. Did you know that I’m related to the Conner family? She’s my granddaughter’s sister-in-law.” She wasn’t sure how they were related right then and knew she was messing it up. “Look, you’ve established that I don’t have that kind of money. Just call Mac…what was her last name now that she’s married? Just call Mac. There can’t be that many of them in the phone book. I think she’s working at that diner someplace near here. Just do that.”

“Unless you have it written down that she’ll pay the bill here, then I’m going to have you arrested.” The cops were suddenly around her, and she was handcuffed. “I don’t have any idea why you thought that this would work for you, but I’m a tad bit smarter than you think you are.”

She didn’t have a comeback as she wasn’t entirely sure what he was saying. Ignoring him for what the police were telling her, she was put in the back of the cruiser and taken away. Mother fuck, she wasn’t going to be able to make herself out to be a better person if they kept this up with her. Sitting back, she thought that she was going to have to work harder if she was going to be any part of Mac’s money. Or life. Whatever.