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“Oh, of course. I never turn someone away when there are extras around. When you leave here, I’ll send a few things home with you. After dinner, of course.” Merce asked if she was staying for dinner. “You are. I’ve spoken to Del, and he said he wanted to speak to you about a couple of things. And the others are coming too. I’ll be in heaven.”
“Are James and Mary coming as well?” The knife that Katie was using dropped into the sink, and blood dripped from her hand. “You’re bleeding. I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you, or whatever I did. Here, let me have a look at it.”
Katie allowed her to look at the cut. For whatever reason, she was sure this wasn’t her normal way of dealing with a cut. Having her sit down in a chair, Merce held pressure on the wound while Katie spoke. Merce watched the painful emotions as she told her what had happened.
“Several years ago, as if I didn’t have the date burned into my heart, I went out to see James. He and Mary were living in Texas then, and I had gone to visit them. James’s wife had just given birth, and I wanted to see their little baby. I was technically his grandma.” Merce didn’t need to encourage Katie to continue when she paused in her telling. However, it was on her mind that Katie wasn’t talking to her so much as she was just letting off a little pain. “James and Mary were my sister’s children. The obituary you were reading, that was her. I took them when their father, who had killed the three of them, was taken to prison. They’re older than my kids. In fact, I hadn’t been married yet, and we had no children. When Del and I had our first boy, the two of them seemed to start growing distant from me. But after a time, they seemed to get over it. Then the others came along. When Del was born, and my husband died, they were nearly out of school. James was living here going to college. Mary was going to a tech school to be a nurse.”
“They hurt you, didn’t they?” Katie told her it was far worse than that. “I’m so sorry. I’ve only known you for a few minutes, but I feel like you’re the best person to have in someone’s corner.”
“Thank you, my dear. That was very needed and extremely nice of you. When James had his son, as I said, I went out to see him. I was so excited. My Del, the youngest, had already started college. He was very smart and was taking night classes while finishing high school.” She smiled at her. “I’m putting off telling you. I need to, but I don’t want to as well. I was there for a day and a half when James told me that he wished to speak to me. Mary came over, and he sent his wife out to do some shopping. I didn’t understand. She took the little boy with her when I said I’d watch over him. James told me he didn’t want me to have anything to do with him or his family from now on.”
“I’m going to hunt him down and tear his dick out, just so you know.” Katie laughed, but Merce wasn’t kidding. “What was his reason for saying such a thing to you? He’d better have had a damned good one for it.”
“He said that when I took them in, it was all right with them to have lived here at first. Since I had no one but them to care for, Mary even agreed that they enjoyed being around me. After I married my Del, James told me it was all right because he had made it so I could devote all my time to them when he was away. Del traveled a great deal as a trucker, and I no longer had to work full time. Neither of us did, in actuality. We only did it because we got to know people around town. Not to mention, it was a nice way to find out what was needed to help out.” Katie got up and put a kettle with water in it on the stove as she continued. “Mary said I was selfish to have had other children, that I didn’t need them when I had her and her brother. That me not just being their mother was wrong of me, and they wished that instead of their mother dying, it had been me. I didn’t know what to say to them. I actually had a moment of fear that they’d killed her after the twins were born. Anyway. They went on about how I had ruined their lives. How I had stolen a good life from them by being a mother to my own children. They didn’t care, you see, that my own children were what made me happy. That raising the two of them for my now-dead sister was something I had thought was wonderful as well because they were all the connection I had to her. The two of them wanted things their way, and they were never going to forgive me for doing such a horrid thing as having a family of my own when I should have been there just for them.”
“They’re little pricks. You know that, don’t you?” They both turned when someone spoke from the doorway. It was Del. He agreed with her. “She was hurt by those two, and I’m going to hunt them down and take care of their asses. You want to join me?”
“Yes.” Katie hugged her son and then hugged him again as she cried on his shoulder. “I’m so sorry, Mom. I didn’t know anything had happened. Do the others know?”
“No. I know I should have told you all, but I was so afraid you’d tell me the same thing.” Del asked her if her head had been hurt while she was gone. “No. And I’d appreciate it if you didn’t take the tone with me, young man.”
“I love you, Mom.” She kissed him on the cheek.
When he handed Merce the bags he’d had in his hands, she took them to the counter so she could help out, not sure what she could do, but she felt like an intruder right now.
“Merce, do I have you to thank for this revelation? If I do, then I thank you very much. I think she’s been holding it in for some time now.”
“Del, leave the girl alone. What did you bring home? Everything I told you?” He said he thought he had, but he kept staring at Merce.
Merce finally turned and looked at him. His mom kept talking about the food in the bag while the two of them stood there. The phone ringing took Katie out of the room, and Del asked her again if she’d done this.
“I only asked her about your stepbrother and sister and if they were coming over when she said she was going to call her kids here.” He nodded and laid a file on the table. “I’m sorry, Del. I didn’t know there was bad water between them. By the way, I want you to know that I like your mom, and right now, I want to go there and beat the shit out of the two of them. How could they do that to her?”
“I don’t know. She’s a wonderful person. But it’s all right. I think I’ve known for a while that she was hurting about them. I hadn’t noticed the missing cards at her birthday and the holidays until I came here to help her out. And no, I didn’t shove her down the stairs.” She told him she was sorry about that. “Don’t be. I owe you for this. I think she’ll be able to talk about it now that the wound is open. I really am grateful to you for having her talk about it.”
Merce hadn’t really done anything but talk to the other woman. And she really did like her. But those others, her stepchildren, needed to have their heads knocked around. Not a little bit either. She was beginning to like her grandda’s saying of sparing the rod would spoil the children. Their parents must have been real wieners.
Chapter 2
It was nice having her sons home for a while. They’d all brought her something too. Chocolates and roses. Plants she could put into her garden, as well as a few heirloom seeds they’d gotten off the Internet. Katie loved every one of the gifts, but her sons most of all. They were still waiting on Peter. He’d called and said he was picking something up. She wished they’d not gone to the trouble but was happy they cared enough.
“I’m here.” She went to the front door to scold her oldest when she saw what he’d picked up for her. There, standing in the flesh, was Delmar, her father-in-law. “I called him and told him to be ready to come out with me. I had no idea that he’d be packed up and ready to leave that place when I got there.”
“Delmar Archer, you’ve finally come to your senses? Are you finally going to be among the living again?” He said he would if she’d have him. “Of course, you old buzza
rd. I have been wanting to have you here for a long time. Come into the kitchen. You know that’s the meeting place.”
Katie made her way to the bathroom to gather her emotions around her. Delmar had been her saving grace for many years after her husband had passed away. Now with him feeling his age, what he’d told Peter on the way over, she wanted to help him. The knock at the door startled her. Opening it up, she wasn’t surprised to see Merce there looking concerned.
“Are you all right? Do you want me to beat someone up for you?” Merce was a breath of fresh air to her. Katie told her that her heart was taking a beating today. “Well, I would imagine it would be. Your father-in-law, Del introduced us to each other when you left, told me he thinks I’m a pretty little thing.” Merce snorted. “I can bench press a hundred and twenty pounds. I’m six foot one. I think I’ve not been called little since I was little. Are you really all right?”
“I am. I thought you were tall. My goodness. I believe all my sons are only a couple of inches taller than you are.” When Merce looked in the room where they were all standing, Katie noticed she only had eyes for Del. “Did he give you the project?”
“No. But he said he has a story to tell us at the table. Is that normal for these guys? To vent at the table? When I was little—there’s that word again—my brothers would vent too, but usually to me. They thought that since I was so much younger than them, I needed them to boss me around. I fixed that.” Katie hugged her. “You’re a nice lady, Mrs. Archer. I do hope you get the opportunity to make sure those other two get their heads out of their asses soon enough.”
“I do as well. And please call me Katie. There is more to this trouble with them than I told you and Del, but it’s all right now. Getting that off my chest and having Delmar here is making everything seem less stressful.” Merce told her that the guys were ready with dinner if she was. “I am. And I’m so happy you’re staying. It’ll be nice to have another woman at the table with me.”
“I’m not sure how much I’ll be helpful to you. I’m not what a person might call a girly kind of girl. I’m more of a spit in their eye sort of person.” Katie told her she’d gotten that. “I thought you might have. Del is a nice man. Everyone I’ve met so far is. Why hasn’t anyone snatched them up? If you don’t mind me asking.”
