Page 32 of Miles. Alton & The 9:04 (Modern Mail Order Brides #19)

Everyone at the table was engaged in what he was saying.

Thom continued to speak. “A neighbor realized she hadn't seen his pickup, and on Monday, she called for aid. The Friday night brawl that got my father sent to the brig for drunk and disorderly on Monday turned to involuntary manslaughter. My father was sent to Ft. Leavenworth, and we were sent into care with a woman we call Aunt Sue.”

He smiled at Mae, who leaned into him. “I grew up on a farm in Kansas, Rick, where we grew much of our food, canned, and lived a lot off the land, so meals like this are not uncommon to me,” he told them.

“There were seven of us kids to start, and Aunt Sue raised us as siblings, and we to this day refer to each other as brother and sister. It is not about blood, but family, and my family is everything to me, so Mrs. Weston, please allow me to tell you the kind of stock I come from.”

“My eldest brother Gael recently moved back to the farm to look out for Aunt Sue,” he said.

“He's a computer-aided drafter who was kind enough to draft the plans for Mae's barn to park her engine. As soon as we lay the tracks off the 9:04 lines, she will be able to drive her engine home and park it in her very own garage.”

“The 9:04 line?” Rae said, “They used to call it that because it was one of the only lines that the train came in on time, at exactly 9:04. Wow, it’s been a minute, but that line is closed. “

“It is, but I maintain the track from the railroad and I own the old Alton Train Depot, which I converted to a museum for my train collection,” Thom said.

“How many trains do you have?” Fae asked.

“Last count, about five hundred or so, but only three hundred actual sets,” he said.

“As I continue with my siblings, my brother Jeremy was the Mayor of Nebraska City, but got a wild hair to run for Governor of the State.

He married a woman smarter than him who ran his campaign, and he lost the race for Governor but he is now the U.S.

Senator for the State of Nebraska. He's a fancy librarian by trade and owns a construction company which in he made me a partner.”

“You're a partner in his construction company?” Jae asked.

“It helps with getting building permits and getting deals on concrete pours,” he said, winking at Mae, who blushed.

“I am also part owner of the Archery Club in Iowa, which is owned by Macalister, who was an Olympian, but had to make the choice of saving his biological father's life by giving up part of his liver or sacrificing his Olympic dream. He opted to save his father, but he is still one of the best bowmen in the country.”

“Wow,” Jae said. “And the other ones?”

“Mateo developed a love for music at an early age, and the band teacher at his high school during summer and spring breaks would have him play with his jazz quartet to make money,” he said.

“Mateo went on to Julliard where he finished grad school and taught music at the school before hooking up with Chambers Claypool and going on the road like two mad vagabonds.”

Ella perked up, “Oh wow, do you know the Toadstool song?” She began to sing it, and Thom joined in with her. Midway through the bridge, she realized Thom was the person who was singing the song, especially after he added in the croaking sound which came at the end of the record.

Rae Weston leaned forward. “Wait, a cotton-picking minute! I saw Mateo and Chambers about five years back in a little spot, and they had this scrawny white boy with them singing!”

“Mr. Weston, I am not, nor have I ever been scrawny. I am scrappy,” Thom told him.

“That was you! Well, you don’t say,” Rae Weston said, trying not sound impressed. “Man, you can sang ! You really have some singing chops on you!”

Mae took the opportunity to brag for a moment. “Daddy, Thom won a Grammy for Overdressed Toads.”

“You have a Grammy?” Rick inquired.

“Yep, and the royalties aren't too bad either, since I actually wrote the lyrics as well,” Thom said, continuing to move the dial forward.

“Our sister, Kimbrae, is the rock for us all.

From the moment we earned our fist paychecks, we brought them home and handed them over to her.

She gave us an allowance, put ten percent into the household account for meat and taxes and stuff, and the rest went into a bank account.

She's an accountant. Over the years, the savings accounts were turned into portfolios, which she manages for each of us with our businesses.”

“Your businesses?” Rick asked.

“Yes, each of us has a business, and we invested in each other's companies and ventures, as well as the construction of homes, and in her case, an amazing office building she got dirt cheap,” he said. “She added cool features to it like a living wall, so if you want fresh basil in your smoothie kind of thing, it’s really cool.”

“She manages your portfolios?” Sherryl asked.

“Yes,” he replied. “My father, although he was serving his sentence, we got to see him twice per month, and he remained active in mine and LeBeau's life. My brother hated the farm and land for that matter which led him to buy 50,000 acres of a bayou in Louisiana. He owns an eco-tourism business where he gives tours in swamp boats through the bayou.”

“What? You are lying,” Rick said. “A swamp boat?”

“Yeah, it’s like a hovercraft with the big fan on the back,” Thom said, looking at Mae. “That's what the call was about yesterday; he was buying another boat for “ ou r” fleet. I say our because I am co-owner of that little bog of Hell that I hate to visit.”

“Uncle Thom, why do you hate to visit it,” Josephine asked.

“Nope,” he said. “You can call me Unc, or Thom, but never put the two together, please. I made an unwritten rule with all my brothers; the kids can either call me Unc or Thom.”

“Okay, Unc, why do you hate it?” Ella asked.

“It is, for the better word, my dear, icky,” Thom said, laughing.

“When he first bought it, we all went down to help him work on that house.

It was a shack, that's what it was, a shack filled with holes that allowed all types of slithering things inside and once we plugged all the holes and shored it up, we came outside to find an anaconda eating an alligator.”

Mae burst into laughter, “I can't see Aunt Sue and Kimbrae dealing with that!”

“Oh, baby, they left after day two,” he said, laughing.

“The first black snake with a white mouth Aunt Sue saw, she said nope and picked up her suitcase. Kimbrae was right behind her. After we saw the anaconda, Mac said the same thing. He was in the truck ready to leave us all. LeBeau says the swamp boat he bought is for me when I come down. He wanted me to have my own.”

“You now have your own swamp boat,” Mae said arching her brows.

“Yeah, yay for me,” Thom replied. “Every July, for LeBeau’s birthday, my parents go down for a visit and I tag along, wanting to be anywhere but there.

My brother has a master’s degree in comparative literature but spends his days in boots with no socks and overalls with no shirt like he was inbred with an alligator and Nutria. ”

“What's a Nutria?”

“A big swamp rat with orange teeth the color of Cheetos,” Thom said. “In the Winter, which is the off season for swamp boat tourism, Lebeau hunts them and sells the meat to the locals, which has become his side hustle.”

Bae Weston still didn't like the man. “And what about you?

You've told me about them, but I don't know nothing about you.

I sure as hell don't understand what it was about you that made my daughter leave everything she worked so hard to have to marry you and walk away from her life in Chicago,” Bae said in a huff.

Thom leaned forward. Mae was about to address her mother when Thom softly said, “I got me. I got you. I have us.”

He toyed with the wedding ring on his finger before folding his hands into each other. “My father taught my brother and I that our role as a man, as the head of our houses, husband and fathers, was to create a home for the woman who shared our life.”

He leaned forward, his green eyes boring into Bae Weston.

“Daddy told us that the home we build for our wives should have a large front porch so her friends can come to sit a spell for tea and conversation.

He said the back porch should overlook her garden where she can sit in the center of her peace, overlooking her valley of “not have to,” Thom explained.

“Not have to? What does that even mean?” Bae Weston asked her lips twisting in distaste.

“If my wife no longer wants to go into an office where she is the most qualified person at the table to be questioned by a man who was given his job by a relative whose name may be on the building, then she does not have to,” Thom said.

“When Mary wakes up in the morning and doesn't feel like making breakfast, then she does not have to,” he said.

“I am self-sufficient. I can cook. I can clean. I can do my own laundry. Anything she does in that home is because she wants to, she does not have to. If, and please let me be clear, my wife chooses to spend the next year decorating the house I built for her to be my Queen as she prepares the home for the arrival of our first child, then that is what she is entitled to do. I have worked hard to give my wife those options.”

“Yeah, but with all your businesses, does she see you?” Bae asked.

“I am home every day at 6:15,” he said. “I'm home every weekend, all weekend, working on all the shit that she has given me to do, like the garden which was supposed to be 6 x 6 but is now 18 x 18.”

Sherryl was twirling her hair as she looked at Thom. “Mae, you have a garden?”

“Yes, and the dining room set I secured last year, I painted the dining room walls to match the peach and blue in the seats,” she said. “It is a lovely home.”

Rae asked, “Well, when can we see this home?”

“Couple of weeks,” Thom said, looking at his watch. “You guys get together and decided on a weekend to come down. Come all together. I don't want you spread out over three or four weekends. Everybody needs to come at the same time.”

“You got room for all of us?” Jae asked.

“I plan to build room for all of you to stay in because you're not going to be in my house,” Thom said, chuckling. “Baby, we need to get rolling.”

Rae still had more questions. “So, we just drive down?”

“Or take the Lincoln Line into Alton,” he said. “I'm the station manager. I'll meet you there and drive you guys over to the house.”

“You're the station manager at Alton?” Fae asked.

“Yeah, I have officially worked for BNSFE since I was sixteen. I have done every job, from driving engines to repairing them to being a communications manager and more. I even spent one summer on The Coastal Starlight as a conductor,” he said. “I never want to do that again.”

“You're an interesting dude,” Rae said.

“Mr. Weston, I don't know what made you think Mary Weston married some slag,” Thom replied. “Ms. Weston, do you need any help to clear the table? No? Then Mary and I need to get moving. I have to get up in the morning and go make her money.”

“Wait,” Rick said. “You said you own a train depot?”

“Yeah, it's my museum for my train collection,” he said. “It overlooks my twenty-five thousand acres.”

“Unc, are you rich?” Ella asked to her Mom's shock and she tapped her arm in rebuttal.

“No, I have to go to work every day,” he said.

“In July, in the middle of peak swamp boat season, I have to spend three days driving a swamp boat. I realize I might be a bit on the scrawny side when having to move hay bales for people to shoot arrows into each Spring in Iowa, but I have to work for every dime I earn in one way or another.”

Bae wasn't done with him. “You said your parents come to your brother's place. They got back together and do they come to your home as well?”

“My parents never divorced,” he said. “When my father completed his time, he located my mother, and they now live in Colorado. Each November, for my birthday, they spend time with me and sometimes will stay through Thanksgiving. They have their own lives and are looking forward to the grandkids.”

“Can I get you a to-go plate?” Bae asked, looking at her daughter.

“We're good, Mama,” Mae said, rising, pleased with how her husband had dealt with her family. He didn't come across as arrogant or talk down to anyone, but Thom Brown showed them exactly who he was, and in doing so, she learned a few things about him as well.

On the drive home, deep in her own thoughts, she eyed his profile. Her mother was a pain in the ass. She began to worry about whether his mother would like her.

“Thom, do you think your mom will like me?” she asked.

He glanced at her and offered a gentle smile. “She likes you. She taught you how to make my favorite dessert, didn't she?”

Mae felt a moment of confusion, thinking he mixed up what she was asking. Mae wasn't talking about Aunt Sue, but his birth mother, the woman coming to their house in November and possibly staying for Thanksgiving.

“Ann Marie gave birth to me, but we never bonded, still have not. We make a cordial effort, acknowledging the roles, with neither of us closing the gap. My ear is a reminder of her failure,” he said.

“My life is a reminder of my success. You are a reminder that in my heart, there is love. I got me. I got you. I got us.”

“You got us, Thom,” she said, feeling better by the moment. “So, July and the swamp, huh?”