Page 12 of Colby (Tucker’s Pride #5)

Going by his condo, he took a long, hot shower and went to his bedroom.

There was very little of anything personal in the place; he’d been spending most of his time getting the boat ready for going out.

But he’d take care of that soon enough when he found himself a new home, one that he could grow into.

He thought about asking Emma to go with him to look, but he wasn’t going to bother her while she was out on the road.

Besides, he was still a little upset with her and didn’t want to seem like he was a sap just hanging onto her every word.

Getting up at noon, he was headed out the door at one in the afternoon.

His grandparents didn’t live all that far from where he was living, so instead of driving himself there, he instead walked.

It was a beautiful afternoon today, and he wanted to take advantage of it as much as he could.

As soon as he was in the house, he could tell that they’d missed him as much as he missed them.

Grannie even got a little teary-eyed when he told her that they were going to dinner tonight, as he had missed them a great deal.

The rest of the afternoon was spent with him helping around the house.

There was staff for them to use, but Grannie wanted to wash her own windows.

Or she wanted them washed, and he was going to do it for her.

Being up on the ladder for her, she told him how she’d been gardening a little and had too much food to put up without all the extra mouths to feed.

“I’ll gladly take some of it home with me.

I can cook a little, but I don’t usually.

It will be good for me to eat at home more.

” She asked him if he was enjoying himself.

“I truly am. There is an ocean all around me when we’re out, but it’s the little things that I get to see that make it worthwhile being out there.

A couple of days ago, while out, I saw an ocean liner out for a cruise.

The people aboard her waved at us like we were something else.

I’ve seen whale breaching. You can’t imagine how wonderful that sight is, Grannie. ”

They talked about his job and the things that the two of them were doing as he finished up with the windows.

Grannie and Grandda did not have to work; they were all sending them money to care for them every week, but they still did things around the neighborhood.

Grandda was plowing up gardens for people who wanted to start one, and Grannie was giving lessons on the piano.

Colby figured that was why they had lived so long, because they were so active all the time.

After he was able to fix the door that squeaked too much, they were getting ready for dinner.

Colby knew too that his family had called the house, checking in on the couple, but as far as he knew, no one knew that he was there helping them around the place.

It was like he’d had them all to himself and loved every second of it.

At dinner, Grandda told him how the yard was being mowed by this kid who didn’t do such a great job.

“I tried not paying him, but that brought his parents to the house. They were none too pleased that I wasn’t going to pay him for a shoddy job, you know.

When I told them how he’d missed large areas of the yard with the way he was rushing through it, the father told me just to pay him, or I’d be out of a person doing anything for me.

So you know what I did?” Grandda was laughing, so he knew it was going to be good.

“I showed him what an elderly lion looks like when they feel they’ve been taken advantage of by some humans.

He didn’t do a shoddy job anymore, nor did he complain about how my yard was too big for him to mow in one afternoon.

Never heard a peep out of the parents again, either. I showed them, didn’t I, Son?”

“You did at that.” Sometimes he forgot he was a lion too.

He’d been so busy that he’d forgotten to allow him to go on runs lately.

“I tell you what, Grandda. I’m off tomorrow.

I’ll trim your hedges. I noticed they were getting a little high, and then go running on your property if you don’t mind.

I’ve not had much of a chance to get out of late, and being in the middle of the ocean doesn’t leave much room to run around as one either. ”

“You do that. I might even go running with you for a bit. I’ve been sort of neglecting my old beast for some time, too.

Other than the boy and showing off to him, I’ve not had a chance to get out since we moved here.

And that’s been several months.” Colby asked Grannie if she wanted to go, too, and she turned them down.

But to run with his grandda would be a rare treat that he would treasure for a long time.

“We’ll have us an evening of it, then have some dinner at the big house again. That’ll be fun, won’t it?”

“It’ll be more than fun. It will be fantastic.

” The dinner was good and they enjoyed it a great deal.

It was more the company than anything, and he was excited to have thought about doing this more often.

His grandparents were special to him, and he wanted to spend as much time with them as he could.

“I’ll be over tomorrow, but I’ll be gone for the next five days after that.

Let’s make up a time when we can meet up again and have some fun. ”

They both agreed with him that they wanted to do this more often, and he was happy too that they wanted to spend time with him.

They even asked him if he wanted to spend the night in their home, and he readily agreed.

It was just like old times, him under the roof of his grandparents with the warm blankets on the bed that had been made by Grannie and the bed made by Grandda.

He had been making furniture since he was a child.

The next morning, he was up and working on the next project when Grannie called him to breakfast. Just like before, there was enough to feed them all, and he so loved her biscuits and gravy.

He wondered what kind of food people had that lived around them and decided that it couldn’t have been as good as what he was having.

He was going to take some of the homemade jelly home with him so that he could have a snack once in a while and think of home.

All he could think about all day was how much fun he was going to have with his grandda.

Once the projects that he’d been given were finished up, he and his grandda shifted and became their lions.

It really hit him hard how old his grandda was looking, and it made him sad that they had been taking care of them for so long and now they were getting too old to do much more than sit around the house.

But they kept busy, and that’s what made them the best that there was in the way of family.