He saw Beth Randle there with her family and went up to speak to her.She was the reason that he’d come into the hospital today.Asking her how she was doing, she told him that she really was having contractions, but it worked out that she’d been able to get him there.He hugged both her and her husband, thanking them for the great start to his party.
For the next several hours, he was subject to a lot of jokes and well-wishes.There was not only staff there that he’d worked with over the past fifteen years, but patients that he’d seen too.A lot of them showed up and left early, but he was glad to see them all.As soon as he got to his sisters-in-law, he told them how grateful he was for them getting this organized, but not to do it again.He didn’t much care to be the center of attention under any circumstances, and this was right up there.
“ We love you and can’t stand the fact that other people can’t show you how much they love you, too.”He told Shipley that he was going to have her a belated party.“ Too late for that, I’m afraid.Besides, I never really retired.I just take less dangerous jobs now that I’m out of the action.”
He was also glad to see Carrie there.She had a baby in her arms, and he thought that it suited her.She and her new husband had been adopting children, as she couldn’t have any children of her own.It made his heart feel good to see her so happy after all these years.She was the best family friend that any of them had ever had.
When he finally found Dusty, he asked him what he’d been doing on the upper floors.He looked embarrassed, and Locke thought that was funny.He told him he’d been looking for him.
“ Alex said you’d forgotten your phone, and I was worried that you’d leave without coming down here.So I was going to go find you and have a piece of pie with you.But I saw that Alex and the girls had found you, and I had to sneak out of the third floor and head back down here.I’m surprised that you only saw me the one time.I’d been wandering around this hospital for an hour before you made it down here for this thing.”He asked him how he kept track of where he was at any given time.“ I got lost between elevators.”
“ I’ve been here every day for all this time.You sort of have to find yourself landmarks.”He hugged his brother.“ Thanks for helping out.I think that Alex and the girls kept the secret really well.”
“ The one I was worried about was little Brandon.He had it in his head that it was your birthday, and we had to keep telling him that it wasn’t.That’s why when he saw you, he kept saying happy birthday to you.”He said he had wondered about that.“ Kids are wonderfully helpful when you want them not to tell someone something.Aren’t they?”
He picked up one of the gifts on the gift table and opened it.He was just curious what sort of gifts someone got for a retirement.It was a book on pooping in the bathroom, now that he had more time.He was still laughing about a couple of the reasons one would give to take more time in the bathroom when August found him.
“ How are you going to do this with all the extra free time?I don’t know what I’d be doing if I didn’t have a job to go to every day.”He said he’d figure out something to do with his spare time.“ With Alex ready to go at any moment, you can’t go too far.Why don’t you guys take up camping?It looks like something that the five of you can do.”
He was the only one who hadn’t taken up camping when the others had.It wasn’t that he didn’t care for it, but there were other things that he loved to do more, like spending the night in a hotel with a nice mattress and pillows.Laughing, he told August that, and they both laughed at how pampered he wanted to be when he was ‘camping’.He’d gone on trips with them, but he stayed in an air-conditioned room rather than out, where they had to learn a whole new thing just to be able to sleep at night.
“ It’s not for us.”August told him he didn’t give it a try.“ And I don’t see myself giving it one either.I love my comforts, and since I can afford them, I’m going to use them.Sorry, but no thanks.Besides, it’s too much like working when I’m on vacation, and I don’t want to do that.As I said, it’s not for us.”
August walked away laughing and telling anyone that he walked by what a party pooper he was.He didn’t care.Camping wasn’t for everyone, and he’d be the first to say it wasn’t him.The thought of driving someplace in the middle of nowhere and setting up camp didn’t appeal to him.He wanted someone to come in and make his bed and clean up after him.He didn’t want to have to worry if his dirty water tank was going to have to be emptied before he was ready to leave.
~*~
Dusty picked up his oldest son and put him on his shoulder.He was cranky and tired, and if he got a short nap, he knew he’d be better.Besides, he loved holding Markus when he was all soft and ready to sleep.His energy levels could be through the roof sometimes, and it was nice to be able to hold him still for about an hour.He looked over at his lovely wife and smiled.
“ What?”He said that he loved her.“ You’re not getting lucky tonight, buster.I’ve been with the president all day, and I’m ready to curl up and take my own nap.How did he ever get elected with him being so stupid about shit?”
“ I’m sure you know the answer to that.”She’d gotten him elected when his numbers were way down.All she’s done is tell him where the air strike had to land, and he was reelected nearly overnight.“ You have any idea how much I love you, Shipley?You’re the best thing that has happened to me.”
“ I love you too, you big nerd.”Ever since they’d been married, she thought him to be a nerd.Just because he loved numbers and how to make them work for him, he thought of himself as a financial wizard.Shipley thought of him as a nerd.“ Markus will need to have his bedtime changed if he sleeps much longer than an hour.I’m not staying up all night with him.I’m really exhausted.”
“ I got him.It’s my turn to be up anyway.”They’d always taken turns with duties that had to do with their children.He will never forget the time Shipley was to entertain the Vice President of the United States, and it was her turn to do diaper duty.She did it right there on the chair that was next to her while talking to him.It was a sight to remember, and he would always love her for being the best mom there ever was.All his brothers took turns taking care of their children, and it seemed to suit them all.
“ Markus looks comfortable.I wish I could join him.”He grinned at his brother, Locke, and told him that he was going to be taking a lot of naps from now on.“ Not so much.As soon as our baby comes this time, I’m going to be a stay-at-home dad.I’m looking forward to that.Alex is still working for the foundation, and I don’t think she’s going to be quitting anytime too soon.She thrives on that job.”
“ She gets to talk to adults all day is what she loves.You’ll soon be begging one of us to come over and talk manly to you.You’re going to be knee deep in tea parties and dress up.”He said he’d enjoy it too.“ I’m sure you will.I know that I missed that part with having three sons.Are you guys going to have any more?”
“ No, this is it for us.How about you?”He said they were going to try one more time for a daughter, then that was it.“ You know the old saying?How if you have more than one sex of a child twice, the rest of them will be the same.”
“ I’ll take my chances.”Moving Markus to his lap while he slept, he looked at Locke.“ I can’t believe that all of us named one of our children after Martha.Markus was as close as I could get after Demi had a boy named Martin.”
“ I’ll let you in on a secret.Martha hates her name.I tried telling her that she was named after someone great, but she won’t have it.The kids at school tell her that she’s an old woman.I wish I had thought of that when she was born, and I would have made it her middle name.She’s getting teased a great deal.”He asked if her uncle had to step in and take care of her.“ I don’t think so yet.But I’ll let you know.She thinks of you and Zander as her favorite uncles.And only because she has the two of you wrapped around her little finger.”
“ That she does.And when she’s all grown up and dating—yes, I think it will happen, I’m going to be the uncle that double dates with her until I know the boy as well as I do her.And he’ll have to deal with Shipley, too.She’s overly protective of your girls as well.”He didn’t laugh with Locke becausehe was serious about his duty as the favorite uncle.“ All three of them are going to have a hard time dating as far as I’m concerned.”
The party was winding down when Markus woke up.He didn’t seem to be in that good of a mood until Locke took him into his arms.For an eight-year-old, he loved to be cuddled.He thought that was all on Shipley and him being their firstborn.The two of them could cuddle up and be asleep before he even got the movie started on movie and popcorn night.He wouldn’t trade that for the world.
He had three sons and loved each of them.Shawn, the middle one, was the thinker in the family, and he didn’t get into as much trouble as the last one did.Dusty didn’t know if it was because he was thinking up the plots or thinking of ways to get out of them, but he was rarely, if ever, in trouble, not like Markus and Kevin.They were ready for anything at any time so that they could be in the middle of all the action that was going on.
When his son went off to play with his cousins, he leaned back in his chair and watched the people in the room.Locke was doing a good job of mingling around the room, talking to people, but he could tell that he’d rather be anywhere but here.He wasn’t the type of person to be up front in front of a crowd.
He’d never forget the first time he realized how special Locke was as a brother.He’d given up everything so that he could be a nurse for Martha when she got into her golden years.They’d all had jobs and homes, but he’d stayed with her until the very end.Making sure that she could have her one request granted and die at home.He’d done that and more for her while the rest of them had gone on with their lives like nothing was in their way.
It wasn’t as if they didn’t love her.They all had and thought of her as the mother figure they’d never had.But when she’d gotten ill that last year, it had been Locke who had stayed with her night and day to make sure that she wasn’t in any pain when she took her last breath.He’d done that for her, and he’d never regretted it once.
