“Do you suppose I can run the pride when I’m older?I’m learning all the rules so that I don’t mess up.I’d love to be able to rule people all the time.”He simply nodded, knowing that for a ten-year-old, he had no idea what it was like to rule.“I’d make everyone bow down before me like we read about in that one book.I would make sure, too, that I had people around me who would do what I said to them, no matter what it was.”
“I’m sure you’re thinking that’s a good thing, but would you want the family to hate you?”He shook his head no and said they’d love him.“Only if you’re fair.And to me, it sounds like you only want things for yourself.That’s what is important when running a pride: you have to be fair about everything you do.It might mean that you have to tell them no once in a while, but it’s for the good of everyone, not just for yourself.Understand?”
“Yes.But I’d still like them to bow down to me like they do Uncle Ronin.Everybody about kills themselves getting to the ground when he comes around.”He told him because he was king of their kind.“Then that’s what I want to be someday.King of all lions.Wouldn’t that be so cool, Amy?”
“You’d just be a wiener head, and you know it.You don’t have good enough grades to run anything.”He had to stifle a laugh when she played the grade card.“If you were to just do the homework, then you’d be able to have good grades like Lee and I.But you have to show off, don’t you?”
And then there was a fight.After letting them wrestle for a little while, he broke it up.Amy was winning anyway, as they knew better than to hit her first.They could defend themselves against her, but seeing that she was smaller than them and a girl, they would cut her some slack.After settling down again, he read a chapter to them and told them it was bedtime.Each of them had their own room, so he got to go from room to room kissing them goodnight.He stayed a little longer in Harmon’s room because he had more questions.
“Do you think I’ll have a mate, Dad?”He told him that he didn’t know why not.he was a lion after all.“I don’t know that I want one.If they have to be a girl like Amy is, she’ll drive me crazy all the time about rules.I know the rules, I just don’t have to like them.”
“You’ll get used to them.And when she comes around, you’ll be happy that she found you.I know for a fact that I was when your mom found me.”He asked if they’d have to do kissing and stuff.“I should hope so.But you’ll be older then and won’t mind it so much.So long as you remember the most important rule of all.”
“It’s her body and her right.I remember that one.When a woman says no, they mean it too.”When he had him tucked in, he kissed him on the forehead.“I don’t mind when mommy kisses me, Dad, but I love it when you kiss my forehead.I feel like a grown-up little boy.”
“Good, I’ll remember that from now on so that I don’t kiss you on the cheek.”After turning off the light, he told his son good night.All he could think about was his brother Lance and him not wanting a mate either before meeting Georgie.He nearly lost her when he started spouting off the crap that he’d been.
“Did you get them all to bed?I swear to you, Harmon asks about two million questions a day.I bet you that he makes a list in his head while he’s sleeping, and that’s why they come out during the day.”He told her about the mate question.“I hope you reminded him that it doesn’t matter if he wants her or not, she’s his forever.”
“If I told him that, he’d never leave the house for fear of finding her.”The two of them laughed and sat down on the couch together.“He wants to be king someday because he wants people to bow before him.I didn’t tell him that we need to bow before Ronin, but he’s a bit young for that kind of advice.I’ll save that for when he’s older, and it means something to him about Ronin.”
“Have you spoken to the others about what we were talking about yesterday?”He said that he’d not but would at the Friday meeting.They’d been getting together on Friday nights for the past ten years.It had worked out well for them.“I’ve been talking to the girls.They’ll have an opinion when the time is right.I don’t think that any of us wants to be immortal anymore.I know that I’ve given it a great deal of thought, and I just want to die like your grandparents did.In each other’s arms while slipping away in their sleep.That’s so romantic.”
“The fact that they knew it was time to go boggled my mind.Grannie had us all over for dinner and told us that they were going to go home.Imagine my surprise when they didn’t mean Texas.”She said she didn’t think that any of them got it until Lance did.“No, he understood before any of us.I’m glad too.I felt foolish for thinking what I did.And then within three days they were both gone.”
He missed them every day.There wasn’t a day that went by that he didn’t think of them and miss them.When he remembered that they’d died, he’d get sad again and miss them all more.They’d been a huge part of their lives, and now that they were gone, he realized how much more they’d done for them when they’d been alive.
“I’ve been thinking about something else when I was cleaning up the dining room.I think I’d like to have another baby.”He said he was game if she was.“Just like that?You’re willing to have another child because I want one?”
“I would do anything for you.And that includes having another child if you want to.”She told him that she did and was wondering when they could start on it.He told her right now, and she laughed at him.“How about I lock up the house, and we go up to our bedroom and try?You’re not ovulating right now, but that doesn’t mean we can practice.You remember how much practicing we did before Amy came along, don’t you?”
“I’m surprised that she wasn’t twins or more, the way that we kept at it.”She kissed him on the mouth, and he held her to him.“I love you, Denver Tucker.With all that I am.”
“And I love you too, my dearest heart.You make me a better man when you’re around, and I couldn’t be happier with the results.”After standing up, Bailee went off to bed.He locked up the house and turned off the lights.
He loved this old house and thought that it was the perfect size to have more children in.He couldn’t wait to tell his family that they were trying again and would be thrilled if they had another girl.Just so long as it was healthy, he really didn’t care what it was.
After getting up to the bedroom, he locked their doors too.The kids knew that they locked the door at night and would know to pound on the door if they needed them.Harmon had nearly walked in on them when he’d just been a little boy so they started locking their door nightly.He didn’t want to scar his children for the rest of their lives by them walking in on them when they were making love.It was a habit that he thought all his brothers had since they all had kids.No matter how little they were, things had a way of just coming up when they were around.
~*~
Lance put the glass bowl in the hot kiln so that it wouldn’t cool off too quickly.He’d been making a set of stacking bowls for the last few days, and he thought he was finally getting the hang of it.The trouble was, he was having a hard time not making them all big.But Ivy told him that she needed a set for serving at the table, and he was going to get them even if he had to use all the glass in his shop.Not that he thought that was possible.He had a seemingly endless supply of glass that he worked with.
“I have an order for you.”He looked up at David, his brother-in-law, when he came into the room.“Can I help you with that?I’ve gotten pretty good at cutting for you when I just show up.”
“I just have to set it on the mold.If you could just give me a few minutes, I’ll have it there, and we can talk.”He said he’d stand out of the way.“Thanks.It’s dangerous being out here when I’m blowing.”
The mold took the glass like he wanted, and he moved it around so that it would be even.Picking the mold and glass up, he headed for the kiln again and put the two pieces in it to cool down.He even loved the colors of this set that he was making.The dark green was going to look good in Ivy’s home, too.He looked at David when he was finished.
“That amazes me every time I see you do it.I would fumble and fall with it when I tried to move it to where he needed to be.”Lance told him that he’d done that several times, and it never got any easier.“I bet not.About this order.I think you’ll understand what we need.I need at least a dozen little bowls about the same size.We want to put herbs in them as we use them, so that they don’t get all mixed up at the same time.I think that Dakota called them pinch pots.Just big enough to take a pinch out of them to put into whatever we’re cooking.”
“I have a set of those already.”He went across the room and pulled the large box of glassware off the shelf.“I was trying to figure out if I could get the same sizes made up when I was working the other week.I thought that I’d put them in the shop as pinch pots, good name for them by the way, and see if I could get rid of them that way.Take what you want of them or all of them if they’ll work for you.”
“These are perfect.And I love the colors too.Where did you get this bright red from?I think that’s the most beautiful color I’ve seen you use out here.”He said he’d been mixing broken glass with some of the colored glass that he had, and it came out that way.“Which means you’ll never get the color again.I remember you telling me that once.How you had this blue color that you dearly loved and couldn’t get it again.”
“That’s right.I remember telling you that.”David was going through the box and stacking them on the table in size.“How are those going to work for what you had in mind?I don’t mind making you something different if they’re too small.”
“They’re perfect.And I love that I have so many of them.Are you sure you don’t want to sell them sometime?I mean, there must be about three dozen of them.”He said he was just going to put a couple of bucks on them when he sold them, and he was doing him a favor by taking them all.“If you’re sure, I’ll take them.This is going to save us a lot of time in prep work.I’m going to have to label them, but I’m thinking now that they’re in colors, we can just remember the colors.I love them.”
