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“Yes, we pulled that one, too.” Mom laughed hard. “Before you go, we want to give you our present.”
“Oh?” I thought their present was the wedding they held for us.
“Here.” Dad handed me some keys.
“Oh, my God, Dad, what on Earth?” I admired the leather keychain.
“You’re married now, and that means grandbabies might soon be on the way,” Mom said and patted me on the shoulder.
“You need a family vehicle for around town, and you have your truck for driving these mountain roads back and forth from Shadows,” Dad added. “Sue, you will need a car.”
Sue gasped. “Ed, no, that’s much too expensive.”
“It’s not, and you need it. Now,” he pointed to a 1974 Chrysler Town and Country Wagon with wood grained sides, “I’ve moved your luggage from your truck to the back of this one. I’ll drop your truck off tomorrow.”
“Dad, thank you.” I couldn’t believe it. “Thank you, Mom,” I hugged them both, and Sue did the same. We raced off toward the car, and I started the engine and listened to her purr.
Sue ran her hand along the dash, admiring the interior.
“Ready for the rest of our lives?” I shifted the gear in drive.
“Ready!” She grinned at me, and we waved out the window at my parents as we drove down the street toward our weeklong honeymoon.
Daniel
“Daniel?” I turned to find a familiar face smiling back at me. “Daniel Logan, is that you?”
“Trix?” I tucked my keys in my coat pocket and leaned in for a hug. “How are you?”
“I’ve been great, thanks to you.” Her smile wavered. “Seriously, what you did for my brother made all the difference for me. It certainly helped my marriage.”
“Ray is the best. He just needed a little help.”
“Yeah.” She nodded, then her gaze fell to my hand. “I heard you got married. How long’s it been?”
“Just over a year.”
“Wow,” she beamed, “does time ever fly. Doesn’t seem that long ago I remember Ray getting the call to ship out.”
“Seems like a lifetime ago.” I checked my watch and knew I needed to get home. “Sorry for cutting this short, Trix, but I really need to get home.”
“Of course. Give baby brother a hug for me.”
“I will.” I headed back to my truck and drove home. Home. I still loved the sound of that.
A few months ago, we were granted another wonderful addition to our lives. Sue found out she was pregnant. We soon made the decision to buy a home of our own, outside of Shadows. We wanted a chance to live like a normal family. With a baby on the way, a secondary home just made sense, as life at Shadows was far from the way we had both grown up.
“Honey, I’m home.” I chuckled as I closed the door to our new house and breathed in the smell of freshly baked cookies. I hooked my coat on the tree rack in the hall and kicked my boots off on the mat. We’d closed on our house three weeks before, and Sue had worked hard on making it homey ever since.
Mom called itnesting.It was something to do with her being pregnant. Whatever it was, I was glad it involved yummy cooking. My stomach grumbled as I went into the kitchen to find a stack of chocolate chip cookies on the counter. Two bites later, the cookie was gone, so I went in for a second. I knew I’d burned off enough calories that day that I could eat the entire stack. We’d run drills up and down the mountain until my legs ached.
“I thought I heard you.” Sue waddled into the kitchen with a heavy load of laundry.
“Whoa!” I quickly took the basket from her and sat her in a chair. “Sue, you can’t be carrying things this heavy.” I poured her a glass of water and took in her sweaty face. “Don’t make me send Mom here to supervise you.”
“I’m fine.” She waved me off, but I was legitimately concerned for her and wondered just what she had been up to during the day when I was gone.
“You’re six and a half months pregnant, re-doing a new house, and apparently doing an army load of laundry. You need to be resting.”