“It’s the magical dust of summer.And it’s going to be on every project that they make this summer.I know how Dever loves it.”He really didn’t.He called it something that he couldn’t remember right now, but it wasn’t nice.He only said it around the adults.“I’ll be back before dinner.Is there anything that you’d like to have?It’s cook’s night off, and it’ll just be the seven of us tonight.Trevor said something about making your own pizza, but I’d have to stop at the store if that’s what you want.”
“It is.It sounds fun too.”Trevor usually would pick make your own something when the cook was off.Last week, it had been sundaes.It turned out to be really good, but the mess was something that he didn’t like cleaning up afterwards.But the kids had fun, and he couldn’t begrudge them something when they enjoyed it so much.“I can go to the store for the stuff we’ll need.I don’t mind at all.”
“All right, but don’t overdo it.Last time you got too much, and it was a week before we were able to get all the cheeses eaten.I love cheese too, but there was just too much of it.”He knew that he’d get too much again and didn’t mind the scolding.
As soon as he was ready to lock up the rest of the business, he headed home.He had to order some supplies for the next catering job, and he loved that he could save them so much money by ordering in bulk.The large walk-in freezer had saved them a lot of money since they put it in, and he was happy with the results.As soon as he was sitting at his desk, he heard from Denver.
“I have two things that I need to talk to you about.One of them isn’t important, but it’s just a question that I had.The other is something that I’ve been thinking about for a while now.”He told him that he had time now to listen to him.“Can I come over?It’s something else I’ve been thinking about.I miss you while you’re so busy all the time.”
“I always have time to be visited by my family.”He said he’d be over in an hour and was able to finish up the order before he showed up.Just as he was finishing up putting the order into the computer, Denver sat down across from him and looked sort of dejected.He asked him what was wrong.
“Nothing.Like I said, I miss you.With you working with Dakota all the time, it’s hard to get to see you.What have you been up to?”He told him about the party they were going to cater for the hospital and about how he’d just put in an order for the next three projects.But he could tell that he was only about half listening to him, and he said that he was going to have a baby on his own since Taylor was so busy with her projects.“That’s good.I was wondering if you’ve given any thought to having dinner with the brothers more than once a week.I really miss you guys a great deal, and it would dome some good to have you guys around more often.”
“What’s really bothering you?”He said it was that he missed them.“Something else is going on, and I don’t know what it is.You have to tell me before I beat the living shit out of you.Tell me what’s going on.”
“I feel like time is slipping away from me.”He asked him what he meant.“I don’t know.Since Grannie and Grandda passed away, I’ve been feeling my mortality a great deal.I don’t regret having Parker take away my immortality, but I do miss you guys and would like to spend more time with you.”
“You’d have to be more upbeat than you are right now.”He said that he’d been feeling his death coming on.“What are you talking about?You have a lot of years left in your life.You have a great family and a home that you love.I don’t understand where this is coming from.”
“I don’t either.”He wiped his hand over his face and looked at him.He could see tears in his eyes, and he felt bad for his brother.Asking him again what was going on, he finally got up and started pacing the room.“Everything is just too perfect.Like you said, I have a great family that I love.A good job with being leap leader and I love my wife so much that I can’t express in words how much I love her.But I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop, and everything will be gone.”
“If Grannie were here, she would pop you in the back of your head.You have to stop waiting for things to go bad all the time.”He said he knew that in his head, but his heart was elsewhere.“Well, get them on the same page.You’re going to make yourself ill if you keep thinking—you’ve always been this way.How am I just now noticing it?”
“I don’t know.Maybe I hide it well?”He told him that he wasn’t hiding anything from him.“I know.That’s the reason I came to talk to you.I wanted to talk to someone who would tell me like it is.And I’m not disappointed in you right now.You’ve always been the one person that I could talk to.”
“What about Bailee?Does she know how you’re feeling?”He said that she had popped him in the head.“Good for her.I knew that I loved her a great deal.”
“I’m making myself sick over this.I know that on some level, things are going to continue to go right, but right now, all I can think about is doom and gloom.I don’t want to feel that way.”He told him he needed to go home and hug his kids.“That does help a great deal.I can’t believe how lucky I am to have such a wonderful family.And to have Bailee in my life is just like ice cream with cake.”
“I tell you what.I’ll get with the others, and we’ll have a pity party for you.”He told him he wasn’t nice.“I wasn’t planning to be.You need us to kick you in the ass, and we both know that they’ll be all for it.I don’t know what’s wrong with you, but you’re going to have to snap out of it before you make yourself ill.I’ve said this before, but you have a good life and everything a man could want in the world.Stop waiting for something bad to happen.”
“I agree with you.”He finally sat down and looked at him.“When did you become so smart?Is that something that I’ve missed?”
“Everyone misses how smart I am.Even Taylor forgets sometimes when I’m around her.”He laughed, which is what he’d been planning.“If nothing else, the two of us will have dinner more often.I’m betting that I can convince the others to join us.They love getting together as much as we do.And they won’t allow you to be in self-pity mode for long.”
“I already feel better.I wish I could be as free as the rest of you are from worrying.”He told his brother that he worried all the time.“You don’t show it.I need to be more like you are, rolling with the punches.”
“I don’t always feel like I’m going to lose everything, but when it hits me that I could, I go and hug my wife and children.They’re the best medicine for any kind of bad thoughts.”Denver said he’d have to do that more.“Good.You need to get your head out of your ass and remember that we are all doing well and that we’re going to be doing this well in the future.Longevity is in our jeans, and we couldn’t have a better role model on that than our grandparents.They lived to be a hundred years old.That gives you more than enough time to be more productive with your feelings.”
“I know.I know.I just have to figure out a way to stay more positive.I’m going to take youradvice and hug my family more, including my brothers.I miss that Margo and Grayson have moved away.They were so much like Grannie together that you sometimes forget that she’s not her.”He laughed and told him not to tell her that next time he saw her.“I won’t.She’ll bop me in the back of the head with something hard.I know she’s got a bit of a mean streak inside of her.”
He was glad to hear his brother laughing.He did worry about him and wondered what he was going to do to keep him upbeat.He wondered if having dinner with the family was going to be enough and decided that it would have to be.Letting the others know what was wrong with him might bring them all together more.It couldn’t hurt, and he’d love to have dinner with his brothers more often.
After Denver left, looking better than he had when he showed up, he got back to work.Getting things set up for the following week always made him feel better, and when he realized that they had the weekend off starting on Friday, he thought that it would be the perfect time for them all to get together at his home.He called Taylor to see what she thought of his idea.
“I was just thinking about getting us all together yesterday.It’s been a couple of weeks since we’ve had dinner together, and it will be fun.”He agreed with her and told her that they’d just have things grilled out on the grill that way there wouldn’t be too much in the way of cooking.“You’ll have to pick up somethings for that as well.Maybe we can have someone cater it so that we don’t have to worry about the clean-up either.”
“Better idea all around.”He marked his calendar for the dinner and reached out to all of them to let them know.Maybe Margo and Grayson would make it, and that would be epic.Since they moved away, they’d not gotten to see each other very often.
Margo had started her own school, and it was a great success.He was so proud of the two of them that sometimes he’d think they had the best life of all of them.Only having the one child, they were the busiest family that he knew.Grayson was still working as a CEO of the foundation; he did it from afar, coming in once a week to make sure that things were going the way that they should be.So far, he’d not had any problems with the foundation, and he thought that it should make Denver happy.He was going to talk to his wife about his brother at dinner tonight.They had to get him on the right page with life, or he really was going to get himself sick.
Picking up the things they’d need for dinner tonight, he was happy that Taylor was going to be ordering the food for the catering service.He loved that they could afford to have it done that way.He got to spend more time with his family without having to worry about the clean-up, and could visit more.He thought that being with his family was the best balm that he’d ever had.When he got home, the kids were ready to eat, so he started portioning out things that they’d want on their pizzas before Taylor came home.
With a kiss to her mouth, he decided that he had the best wife of all his family.She was so free-spirited that he found himself laughing with her about the strangest things.She, of course, had to show him what she’d been able to pick up at the store, and he loved that she’d been able to get everything on sale.She was a bargain hunter if nothing else.
Chapter 10
Colby looked over the schedules that he had on the wall and thought that everything looked like it was working out.He had a fleet of ten ships now and couldn’t believe that he employed over a hundred people.The deep-sea fishing was going well, and he was still having fun.
