AllFreeNovel
Share Us
"My mama," Will said. "Chrissy. Mama, this is Reggie.”
He sure seemed to like her, because it was impossible not to love Mama the moment you met her. Will had seen it time and time again, especially before she got sick. Somehow, her losing her hair and not being able to get up only endeared her to others faster, and Reggie took her hand and kissed it before they all sat down.
With their heavy sighs lifting up into the air, they faced the little pond off the back of the deck. No one said anything, and Will couldn’t wait to get old so he wouldn’t be expected to talk.
“Oh, there he is,” Mama said, pointing. “See the ripples, Reggie? Will?”
“I see ‘em, Mama,” Will said, watching the water ripple toward the shore. In that moment, he realized the pond he was looking at was the very one he’d dreamed about several nights ago. A month? Who knew when.
But he’d seen this pond. There were no trees, like in the dream, and he walked to the edge of the deck and leaned over the railing. No deck chairs for him and Gretchen to sit in and watch the beaver build his den.
“Will,” Mama said, and he turned back to her. She gestured for him to come sit down. “It’s your day off, son. Come tell us how Gretchen is doing.”
He swallowed and shot a look toward Reggie. He wore the same disgruntled look on his face that he had when Will had shown up at the little house in the country. Will had asked him if he felt well enough to get in the truck and ride for twenty minutes and then put up with a very loud family dinner.
Reggie hadn’t hesitated at all. He’d said, “I need my shoes,” and together, he and Will had located them and put them on.
“She’s doing pretty good,” Will said. “I mean, I don’t know. I was there for maybe twenty minutes, and most of that was me yelling about her taking me as I am, her crying, a lot of apologizing, and then quite a bit of kissing.”
He grinned at his mother as he sat beside her. She and Daddy sat on a swing bench that Daddy kept moving with his toe. Reggie sat beside Daddy in a zero-gravity chair, and Will had one on Mama’s right.
He leaned it back, still smiling up into the sky. Well, he would if the back of the house didn’t have a huge roof that hung over the deck. That way, Mama could still sit outside if it was raining.
“Oh,” Reggie said, blurting out the word. Will sank back to the ground, looking past his parents to find Queenie nosing Reggie’s hand. Or she had been. He’d pulled it back and was wiping it on his pants.
“Queenie,” Will said, jumping to his feet. “Leave ‘im alone. Come sit by Mama.”
“She can stay,” Reggie said, reaching out to pat the golden retriever now. “She probably just smells Howl. I once had a dog named Eastwood. He went everywhere with me.”
“Even into the Army?” Will asked, returning to his chair.
“I got ‘im from the Army,” Reggie said as if Will should’ve known that already. “Retired war dog. Came home with me when I retired too.”
“That’s wonderful,” Mama said, and she was willing to let Queenie sit by Reggie and get scrubbed. It sure seemed like Reggie needed the dog, and Will smiled at them too.
“Is that why Max named his cat Elvis?” Will asked, leaning his chair back again. He got it into the best napping position and locked it there.
“Elvis?” Reggie chuckled. “No, Joan named that silly cat Elvis because she loved Elvis.”
“Oh.” Will didn’t know what else to say. Max and his wife were separated, as far as he knew, and Gretchen was taking care of Max’s cat, because he had his hands full with three kids and no wife.
“Max didn’t want to keep him after Joan left,” Reggie said, just stating facts. “Gretchen took the cat, and she doesn’t even like cats.”
“Gretchen helps everyone,” Will said absently. He wanted to be the one to help her, and he wondered how he could do better at that. Bringing her father here surely would help, he hoped.
“He could come live here,” Daddy said, surprising Will. He actually turned his head and cracked his eyes to look at his father. “We always need mousers in the barns.”
“He’s an indoor cat, Dad,” Will said. “You should see what Gretchen feeds him. It’s like cut up salmon and mashed potatoes and peas.”
Both Mama and Daddy looked at Will, about equal expressions of surprise there. “You’re kidding,” Mama said.
“Mama,” Will said back. “What did you feed Queenie this morning?”
“That’s different,” Mama said, squaring her shoulders and looking back out to the beaver den. “She needs her joint supplement.”
“Yeah,” Will said dryly. “Sheneedsit stuffed inside a peanut butter and banana sandwich.”
“Used to feed Eastwood raw steak,” Reggie barked out. “That doglovedsteak.”
Will started laughing, and when his dad joined in, he felt freer and happier than he had in a long, long, long time.
Now, he just needed Gretchen to show up so he could introduce her around to everyone in the family. He’d already sent them a stern text about being on their best behavior that night, to which Travis had replied with a laughing emoji. Lee had promised he would if Will wouldn’t say anything about taking the game to town for him, and Ford wouldn’t be there tonight so there’d be no oily dogs and no muddy boys.
Mama was always nice, and Daddy was getting better. Clarissa and Spencer weren’t a problem, and Clarissa had given him permission to bring both Gretchen and Reggie to dinner. She was cooking, so Will only thought it fair to let her know there’d be two more mouths to feed.
His mind drifted, and he imagined the Sunday family dinners with everyone there. Mama and Daddy, Clarissa and Spence. Trav and Shay, and him and Gretchen. Lee had a brunette at his side, and even Cherry had come home to celebrate…something.
Will didn’t know what. He just knew he was happy in the vision, and he had Gretchen at his side, and all he needed was her, and all she needed was him.
