One by one, the rest of our children began piling in.
“What was Josh so pissed about?” Carter asked at the same time as he handed his wife, Michelle, a paper plate with a slice of pizza on it, before holding out a chair for her to sit.
I smiled at how chivalrous all of my boys were.
“Your brother was upset because I was about to remind him of how sexy your father still is.”
In unison all four of our sons—Carter, Aaron, Joshua, and Tyler—groaned in horror. Each of their faces were a display of disgust, as their wives giggled.
Tyler, our youngest, who happened to be holding one of his own children, covered his daughter, Annalise’s, ears. “There are children around!” he stated, with narrowed eyes looking between Robert and I.
“You nor your child would be here if it weren’t for us, so can it,” I admonished, just before Robert moved past me to pluck our granddaughter out of Tyler’s arms. Anna, as I called her, giggled when Robert tickled her little belly.
A second later, Tyler’s wife, Destiny, entered the conference room, hanging up the phone. “Computers will be delivered in an hour, and cable and internet company will be out first thing tomorrow morning to get us all connected,” she stated, excitedly.
“Good news,” I responded, handing Destiny, who reminded me of a younger version of the actress, Nia Long, a slice of pizza.
“Thank you,” she gushed. “I haven’t eaten all day.”
At that, Tyler frowned. “Why the hell not?” he questioned, his voice darkening from the lighthearted tone he’d expressed just a minute earlier.
Destiny rolled her eyes, before looking up at her football player husband. “Because we have three children under the age of one, I run my own company,andmy sisters and mother-in-law have been working our butts off to open this new women’s shelter. In other words, I’ve been a little busy.”
“We have a damn chef just to make sure this doesn’t happen.”
“Lay off her, Ty,” I interjected, knowing how possessive and controlling my sons could be. They learned it from their father.
“He’s right, princess.”
I rolled my own eyes at Robert’s words. I knew he’d take Tyler’s side.
“All of you ladies have been busy working your asses off to get this project off the ground, but you need to take care of yourselves first.”
“Thank you, Father,” Tyler agreed.
“Robert—”
“Don’tRobertme. Did you have breakfast this morning before you left the house?”
I looked to Tyler. “See what you started?”
“See,” Destiny chimed in, “now you’re causing a rift between your parents. Happy with yourself now?”
“He’s right,” our second oldest son, Aaron, added, causing, his wife, Patience, to roll her eyes.
“Let it go, Destiny, you’re not going to win this argument with these four. Aaron practically force feeds me if it’s past ten in the morning and I haven’t eaten.”
Aaron, with his ever present scowl, simply glared down at his wife and shrugged because what else could he say? Everyone in the room new Patience was telling the truth.
A frowning Destiny finally decided to drop it and continue eating.
“Deb, did you know Robert was the one when you first met?” Michelle asked once we were about halfway through eating our lunch.
Robert turned to me, giving me the same smoldering stare he’d been giving me for forty years, and nodded.
“Of course.”
“Psh, don’t believe him,” I responded, glancing between our children and two of our now ten grandchildren. The rest were back at our home with three nannies and two babysitters between the eight of them.
