Page 41 of Not His Bride

The front door opens.

“There are my babies!” Tammy’s voice carries all the way into the kitchen.

Our middle daughter freezes on the couch, then her face lights up. “Grandma!” She runs so fast I have to lunge after her to make sure she doesn’t slip and fall.

Erik hears her and takes off right after. Even the baby recognizes Tammy’s voice. She twists around in the bouncer as both arms go up.

Tammy barely gets her purse off her shoulder before our daughter hits her first.

Tammy crouches and catches her against her chest. Our oldest joins them before she’s completely steady, forcing her to grab the doorframe with one hand while laughing.

“All right. All right.” She kisses the top of our daughter’s head, then reaches for our son. “I missed you, too.”

“You saw them four days ago,” Lilith says from behind me.

Tammy looks over the pile of grandchildren. “Four very long days.”

Lilith’s mouth moves into a small smile. “Morning, Mom.”

“Morning, sweetheart.”

Despite their pleasantries, Lilith and her mother aren’t suddenly the kind of women who call each other every morning to gossip. Lilith hasn’t forgotten the years when Debbie came first, and Tammy hasn’t become a different person because she has grandchildren. Tammy comes over. Lilith actually invites her sometimes. They’ll go to dinner without me. Then Lilith will come home irritated because her mother said something about her clothes or asked one too many questions about the children, and I get to hear about it while she removes her earrings for the night.

Apparently, that’s family. Messy. Occasionally annoying. Still worth keeping.

Tammy finally manages to untangle herself from the older two and heads for the baby.

The baby’s arms go up again.

Tammy lifts her from the bouncer and coos, “Oh, now you remember me.”

The baby grabs one of her pearl earrings.

Tammy catches her wrist before she can rip it free. “And there’s the greeting I was expecting.”

Lilith snorts.

Phillip comes through the door a few seconds later.

“Grandpa!” Erik screeches.

Phillip barely has time to brace himself before he runs into his legs.

He catches him around the shoulders. “Easy.”

“I made Mom a logo.”

“You did?”

Our son points toward the island so aggressively I half expect Phillip to be physically dragged there. The drawing is still propped beside Lilith’s laptop.

Phillip walks closer and studies it. “Needs work.”

Lilith turns her head slowly. Phillip catches the look.

“For five,” he adds, “it’s excellent.”

The Jovis being good people is still a work in progress. They try, and that counts for something. I still watch them closely where my kids are concerned. Some habits die hard.