“Speaking of investments, I have to go over ours tomorrow.I’ve been so busy that I’ve been putting it off in favor of hanging out with you.”He asked her if that was a bad thing.“No.It’s the perfect reason to put things off.I love being with you.”
After dinner of curry chicken and naan, they sat in the living room to watch some television.He must have been dozing some because when he woke up, the news was on.He’d slept through the entire night.Wondering if he was going to be able to sleep tonight, he undressed and got into bed.His body was so tired that he had to let it calm down a bit before he was able to rest.As soon as Shawn turned off the light, he was gone.He must have needed it because he didn’t think that he was ever going to get up again.
Whistling the next morning, he was glad that he felt so much better.Getting up a little later thanhe’d thought that he would, he was out of the shower and dressed at a little after seven.Since he had to be to work by eight, he knew that he’d just have enough time for a good breakfast and a hug and kiss from his wife before he was out the door.When he got to the kitchen, Shawn was waiting for him with a huge smile on her face.He asked her what was going on.
“Nothing.It’s good to see you so rested.”He said that he felt good, too.“I know that I do.I don’t think that I had a single dream last night.I was so exhausted.Maybe we should do that more often, doze on the couch before going to bed.I know that I was relaxed enough to sleep like the dead.”
“I didn’t move, I don’t think.And I thought for sure I’d be sore from that, but I feel like I’ve slept good for the first time in a long time.”They’d been running at both ends of the candle or something like that, and he knew that the two of them needed to sit down and chill.“We need a vacation.I think that we all do.I saw Kayce today, and he looked like he was tired, too.I wonder when the last time any of us took any time off since the foundation was opened.”
“Someone was talking about a cruise, but I don’t know what happened to that.It sounded nice and fun.We should bring it up the next time that we see them.I’m all for it.I could use some downtime after the month that I’ve had.”He knew that she’d had a hard month, what with the loss of her son, Finny.“Hell, at this point, I’d even pay for everyone to go just so we can have some fun for a change.The next time you see one of your brothers, bring it up and see what they have to say about it.”
“You do the same with the women.I know you see them more than I do.”She said she’d made a note on it on her phone, and that was something that she’d gladly do.“The kids will be coming around soon, and we should do it before anyone announces that they’re going to have a baby.I know that Ivy is, and so is Molly, but they’re still in the earlier stages of their pregnancies, so it will be a while for them to have them.”
When he left for work, he made a note in his phone as well.He thought about reaching out to everyone and asking about it, but he knew that early mornings could be hectic for his family.The only reason that he’d gotten out of the house on time today is because of Shawn.He thought about her son dying, and his heart broke for her.
Finny had been a pompous ass.He had demanded that his mother turn over all her investments to him so that he could keep an eye on them.Among other things, he demanded that they not have any children, as he was her firstborn and everything that she had was his.And he positively hated him.Ethan had done nothing to Shawn but become her mate, and that was what had the man up in arms.Finally, when she kicked him out, changing the locks on the doors so that he couldn’t get back into the house, he’d hired three men to beat him so that she’d have to allow him to live with them.And once he had his foot in the door, she wouldn’t be able to toss him out again.In the end, though, he was beaten so badly by the men that he’d hired, and he died a few days later from the injuries.
His morning started off on a good note.He was able to look over the surgery list from the day before and thought that things were going well.Approving the surgery schedule for the following week, making allowances for emergency surgeries that might have to be done, he was finished by noon.He still had a long day ahead of him and was glad that he could do things like this to make the hospital run smoothly.Going down to get himself something to eat, he heard from Jack.
“I just heard from one of the patrons of the restaurant that the hospital is closing.I know it’s not true, but if rumors get around like that, then the place is going to lose business.”He said he’d not heard that and asked for the person’s sources.“He said that he heard it from his daughter, who works there.Could be a disgruntled employee who is trying to cause trouble.He wouldn’t give me her name, but I found it on the credit card he was using.If I give it to you, you’ll be careful with it, won’t you?”
“Of course I will.I won’t even approach her unless I hear about it from someone else.”Jack gave him the name.“Thanks.I hadn’t heard anything like that, and I’ve been out on the floor for the past hour.No one has approached me about it.Like you said, it’s probably someone who isn’t happy with their job and is hoping to spread rumors to cause trouble.”
“Yeah, I thought that if anyone would know about it, someone would have said something to you about it.That’s the way trouble starts.”He agreed with him and asked him about the cruise that they’d beenplanning.“I remember someone talking about it, but didn’t hear anything else.I would love for us all to get together and do something like that.I can leave here for a couple of weeks, and I doubt that anyone would miss me.”The two of them laughed.
“I’m supposed to ask all of you guys about it, and what is going on with it.Shawn is going to talk to the women.I need to have a vacation.I’m about at my wits’ end here running this department.It’s all going smoothly right now, but I’m stressed waiting for the other shoe to drop.I’m sure most of us are.I know that Denver is worried that the Fosters are going to pull the funding of the foundation every day.”They talked about how much fun it would be to go away, even for a single week.“We’d all come back so rested that we’d not have to have another vacation for another year.”
They set up a time for a dinner together and decided that was when they’d bring it up.Both things, as a matter of fact.As soon as he closed the connection, he went in search of the woman who was spreading rumors.He wouldn’t approach her about it, but he would look into her file to see if she had a reason for telling lies.Perhaps it was something that she did all the time.He’d find out and take care of it soon.
~*~
Molly loved working the phones at the foundation.She was partnered with Lance today, and he was drawing on a pad of paper things that he wanted to blow in his art studio.She was jealous of how well he could draw, and when she asked him about what he was doing, he explained it to her in great detail so that she could nearly see the finished piece of work when he was finished.Answering the phone when it rang again, she pulled up her list of questions when the person said they needed help.
“I just need about five hundred dollars for my rent this month.”She asked where she was from and how many people lived in her home.“Just me.I’m having trouble since my husband of twenty years left me for another woman.He emptied out the bank account of all the money that I’d put in there after working two jobs.”
They went through the list of questions, and she was setting up an appointment for her to come and talk to one of the people who worked with others when the woman said no.She wasn’t having it.She needed it right now and couldn’t wait for a ‘committee to get off their asses and decide’ her fate.
Lance told her to hang up.When she did, she knew that the next phone call was going to be her again, and Lance answered it.He was a bit more firm with her from the start, and she had to marvel at the way he handled her.In the end, she didn’t need the money for anything other than a day at the race tracks, and that was all.
“People hear that we’re giving away money and they think that they should get a piece of it.That’s why the questions are there so that when it comes right down to it, their true colors come through.”She asked him why he didn’t just take the call from her.“Because she would have been pissed because she had to call back, and those kinds of calls nearly always show what they really want.”
“I will keep that in mind.”When the next call came through, she took the questions to the next level.Asking if the man who needed the money could wait for a week.That’s how long the process would take when you applied for money.Of course, there was money for emergencies, but nothing much that would cause a person to get a lot of cash right away.She loved what she was doing for the foundation and was thinking that she’d work a couple more days a week at it.Telling Lance, he told her she didn’t want to do that.
“You’ll get burnt out.And jaded.That’s why we only work here a couple of days a week and not all week.Hearing people be negative all the time would wear on you, and that would make you upset.You have to balance out your work and family, or you’ll get sick.While you might be immortal, you can still cause damage to your health if you don’t take care of yourself.”She asked if that had happened to anyone working here.“No.When Brook first came to us about answering the phones, that’s what she told us.I don’t know that anyone from their foundation ever had it happen to them, but I can see it happening.Some days, while I’m here, all I can think about is going home and never returning.Not to say that there aren’t good days too, but it’s the bad ones that can make you ill.And the ones that you’ll remember too when you go home.That’s another thing.Don’t take your work home with you.That’sfamily time.”
“I did notice that when Kayce works here, he never comes home and tells me about his day.I never understood that until just now.Thanks for telling me.”He said it was his pleasure.“You all are so nice.I can’t believe that you had the parents that you had.Then I met your grandparents, and I understood.They’re about the nicest people I’ve ever met.And they love you boys so much.”
“We love them too.They’re not immortal, did you know that?They decided that they’ve been on this earth for about as long as they want and don’t want to hang out anymore.I can understand that.I’m going to miss them when they pass, but I understand what they’re saying when they say that they only want to live for as long as they have.”She wasn’t sure about being immortal either and said as much to Lance.“I’ve been giving it some thought myself.I don’t know that I want to outlive my friends.Maybe once the kids start coming, I’ll feel differently, but right now I just want to live my life one day at a time and see where that gets me.”
“That’s what I keep telling myself.And then I think of being around forever, I wonder how many Tuckers that will be in say a hundred years, when all of us are immortal.That will be a lot of people just hanging around for no other reason other than someone decided that they should be immortal.”She thought about something else.“What if my kids don’t want it either?Will I have to watch them die when they get older?I don’t think I could handle that at all.To watch my children get old and die when I’m going to be around for the rest of the days in my life.”
They both talked about immortality between calls.She asked him if he’d talked to anyone else about it, and he said that he’d mentioned it to Georgie.But they didn’t have any reason right now to not want it.She asked about his grandparents’ dying and how he was going to handle that.
“Not well.They raised us, as you know.My grandparents are all that I know as parents, and I don’t know what we would have done without them around when they took us in.”He told her how his parents had dropped them off one Thanksgiving and never returned.“They were selfish right up until they were killed by the pride.My mom was even upset about them having ten kids and having to raise them.She said that it wasn’t their fault.I don’t know whose else it would be but theirs, do you?”
“No.Kayce said that he didn’t remember them at all, that he was just a toddler when they were left behind.”He said that he was old enough to remember how much he hated them when they’d done that to them.Not to mention the grandparents.“They couldn’t have been very young when this happened.I wonder what was on their mind when they were suddenly the parents of all of you.They certainly made it work for you guys.”
“They made it so we all got to go to college as well.That couldn’t have been easy on them either.But there was always food on the table.Not always meat, but there was plenty to go around.”She was glad that she’d gotten to know them and told Lance that.“Yes, I am as well.Hopefully, they’ll be around for when the kids start coming, but I don’t know.They’re well into their nineties now and are starting to look it.”
