“Lonzie, you heard your aunt,” Lena tells her and Micah’s son.
“Can we take our water guns?” Parker, the sassiest of all of my grandchildren, asks, looking directly at me.
“No, I told you not to play with water guns in the house,” I reply with an evil grin.
“But you?—”
“Parker, are you talking back to your grandfather?” Ace’s tone is biting, stopping Parker in her tracks.
She mumbles something before heading downstairs to the children’s room with most of the other children. The only oneleft is baby Amelia. When she reaches for me, I can’t help but to take her out of Savannah’s hands and set her on my lap.
“You missed your grandpa, huh?” I turn to Ellyn. “This is my youngest grandbaby, Amelia,” I introduce like no one else is in the room.
Ellyn coos at Amelia, taking her free hand while the other one is busy in Amelia’s mouth, soaked with drool.
“Aren’t you the most precious thing in the world,” Ellyn croons.
Amelia reaches over, struggling to get into Ellyn’s lap. She looks at me, her expression questioning whether it’s okay for her to take the baby.
At Amelia’s insistence, I hand her over to Ellyn, who takes to her like a horse to a stack of hay.
“Hi, sweet girl,” Ellyn coos.
That settled, I turn to my kids who’ve watched this exchange in silence. “Now, someone tell me what the hell all of you are doing here.”
“Joel,” Ellyn scolds.
I give her a sheepish look. “What?”
“Be nice.”
A chuckle from the end of the table catches my attention. It’s Gabriel, my youngest and probably the most sensitive of my three boys, but he covers it up with one-liners and jokes.
“We’re here because our family always comes to Montana before the holidays.” He leans in. “Or did you forget?”
I press a palm to my chest. “Did I forget? I’m here, aren’t I? Which almost didn’t happen since all three of you had to pull out for one reason or another.”
Gabriel visibly flinches, and I wonder if I’ve pushed a little too hard. It wasn’t my intent to guilt trip him or my other two, but I suppose some of the hurt I experienced when they all had to cancel hasn’t completely dissolved.
Ellyn holds Amelia in one hand while lowering her free hand to my thigh. My heart squeezes with love for this woman.
“Which,” I continue, “I completely understood. You all have families of your own and busy work schedules to pay attention to. Originally, I had every intention of canceling this year’s trip, but then I thought better of it.”
I pause to look at Ellyn who’s smiling at me.
“I chose to ask Ellyn if she would like to come with me for a weekend and she agreed.” I sit back and throw an arm around the back of her chair. “So here we are.”
Amelia squeals a little and claps when Ellyn makes a funny face at her.
A smile splits my lips as I watch my woman playing with my granddaughter. She’s a natural with the funny faces she makes. It’s as if she doesn’t even realize the rest of us are here anymore. It’s just her and Amelia.
The sound of someone clearing their throat catches my attention.
I turn to face Micah.
Which makes sense. The oldest is usually the ringleader of the three of them.
“We appreciate your understanding,” he starts, and then looks at his brothers. “But then we all talked and realized that we’d be breaking an almost ten-year tradition by not coming up this year.”
