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Another minute of chuckling and teasing about child rearing versus grandparenting and the door bumped open again. This time Declan and his family came in the door. The youngest of the Farraday grands, Declan’s son Thomas wiggled right out of his mother’s arms and toddled like only a fourteen-month-old could across the room, repeating PawPaw until his grandfather scooped him up and sliding him onto his shoulders, carried the gleeful child outside with the others.
“I do miss that age.” Sandra’s gaze lingered momentarily on the door that slammed shut behind Uncle Sean, so long that Paxton’s mind was spinning.
“Since the kids are all outside, I thought y’all might like the latest news on Mr. Edward Morton.”
“Good or bad?” Sandra asked so softly, that without thinking, Paxton curled her into his side and kissed her temple.
“Depends.” Declan shrugged.
“On?” Paxton wished the man would just get to the point.
“Whose boots you’re wearing. I’d say for us, it’s a sweet catch. For Ed, not so much.”
“All right.” Paxton sighed. “Just spit it out.”
“You know that sleek little sports job?”
Both he and Sandra nodded.
“Stolen.”
Sandra’s mouth dropped slightly open.
“We already knew that he’d be up on federal parental kidnapping charges the minute he crossed the state line which, based on the circumstances, should see him getting somewhere close to eight years on the low side. Long enough for David to grow up without a mean drunk standing over his shoulders.”
Those words had Sandra Lynn stiffening. Squeezing her a moment, he kissed her temple again, pleased when she relaxed against him.
“But the piece de resistance that, my friends, I just learned about a few hours ago… The idiot has upgraded his drug of choice from booze to heroin, which he had in his possession. David is not going to have to deal with that man for a very, very long time.”
Sandra sighed. “I don’t know if I should feel sorry for Ed or kick my heels up and give a cheer.”
“Today, I vote for cheer,” Aunt Eileen called from the kitchen. “Tomorrow we can feel bad for the jerk.”
His aunt’s perfect delivery had Sandra giggling. Bless that woman.
From where Sandra Lynn stood, the day could not have gone any better. There were so many Farraday grandkids running around similar to David’s age. Adam’s daughter Fiona, Connor’s son Shane, Jamison’s son Brandon, and Declan’s daughter Caitlin were all within a few months of each other. Then, of course, Declan and Becky had the cutest little boy, Finn and his wife had a little girl similar in age to little Tommy, and Grace and her husband had a little girl a smidge younger than Tommy. How much fun for all those kids to have so many first cousins.
Not only were there plenty of kids David’s age, but Connor’s older daughter Stacy, and Brooks’s daughter Helen, along with Ethan’s daughter Brittany, were the coordinators of the kids’ game. Splitting their friends with the younger brood, the games were pretty evenly matched and even the younger ones who, like David, had never had a lot of training or practice, did really well. It didn’t hurt any that the older kids were cheering everyone on. This really was a crazy nice family.
Once the baseball game was over, as Connor had mentioned earlier, the kids still had plenty of energy, so they all moved to the side field where Connor had set things up for them to play mutton tag and grab the bandana off the lambs necks. Then there was the stuffed steer roping, and a slew of other games including the three-legged races. The kids were laughing so hard, but the best part was that David was running and playing and laughing with all the others. The quiet little boy of the last week after the ordeal with his father was gone and her happy boy was back.
“You’re smiling.” Paxton handed her a plastic cup with his aunt’s fresh squeezed strawberry lemonade. “Care to share?”
“My son is happy.”
Paxton slung an arm around her shoulder and followed her gaze to where David and the other children were playing some game akin to blind man’s bluff. Grey and the other family dogs were also running about barking and bouncing and having as much fun as the kids. “He is.”
“I owe it to you.”
“I had little to do with it.”
“You keep saying that, but without you, no one else would have gotten so involved.”
“Of course they would have. Declan would have done the same regardless of me. After all, you were raised here too.”
“All right.” She sighed. “I’ll give you that Declan is good and might have been able to anticipate Ed’s intentions, but I have no doubts that they went the extra mile because you cared.”
It took Paxton a long moment before he bobbed his head. “Let’s settle at everyone cares.”
