As soon as he was home, he crashed on the couch and went to sleep.It didn’t matter to him that he had a nice, comfy bed to sleep in.He was just too tired to go up and get into his tonight.As soon as his head hit the pillow, he closed his eyes.After tomorrow, he only had two more days, and he couldn’t wait.He was going to take a month off just to relax and chill out until he found himself a building that he could work in.It might take him that long as there were very little empty buildings around town nowadays, and he was happy for that as well.
Getting up once to go to the bathroom, he had no trouble at all making his way there and back to the couch.He’d been sleeping so hard that his shoulder was a little stiff, but other than that, he was doing fine.Still sleeping on the couch had better appeal for him than going up to his bedroom and going to sleep again.He was just too tired and didn’t care if he had to sleep on the floor, so long as he didn’t have to go up any stairs to get there.
~*~
Molly was feeling better than she had in the last couple of days.Her pop-pop was pampering her a bittoo much, but she loved him and could forgive him most anything.As soon as he was out of the room, getting her a cup of coffee, she sat up higher on the couch and looked around the vast room.
This room had always been her favorite.When she was just a child and staying with her pop-pop and Grannie, they had the best times watching television and eating popcorn.Of course, back then they’d had staff.Pop-pop had told her once that he’d outgrown having someone wait on him, and that was why he’d let them go.She thought it had more to do with him having very little money, but she never said that to him.Things were tight around the house, and she knew it by helping him pay his bills every month.It didn’t help that her two brothers, Seth and Ryan, were forever trying to take Pop-pop’s social security check along with her dad.
She thought it would have been better for them if they just got a job, but she didn’t tell them that.The one time she’d suggested it, she’d been barely sixteen and had nearly died from the beating that they’d given her.All three of them had taken turns knocking her around until she had to spend a week in the hospital.Never again did she suggest they do anything.But she was trained now in how to defend herself and never passed up an opportunity to show them how much training she’d had.
“I was just having a look at my leg.I’m telling you that it’s nearly healed up, and the bruising isn’t as bad as it was either.That doc must have used some of his mojo on me and got me to feeling better, too.I feel like I could take on William Toby and come out on top.”He laughed.“I won’t, mind you, but I was just thinking about how much better I’m feeling.Did you know that the doc is a lion?He’s about the nicest shifter I ever known.”
“How many shifters do you know, Pop-pop?”He said that he’d been around them all his life and never had a problem with a single one of them.“I know a couple, too.Most of them are nice, but every once in a while, you run into a bad apple.They are usually mean to everyone, so I don’t give them much mind.How about for dinner we have us a pizza?I’ll pay for it.Dad didn’t get all my money the other day, only what I wanted him to have.”
She stretched her jaw and felt it pop.It was feeling better, too, after the beating that she took from her dad.She could eat now and wasn’t above slicing her pizza with a knife and fork just so she didn’t have to eat any more leftovers.The women around town had been bringing Pop-pop food every week since her grandmother had passed away, and she wanted some real food.Pizza was about as real as it got for her nowadays.
Molly had gotten an extra week off when she’d called her boss.She’d been set to go back out of the country as soon as she visited her grandda, but it had been hard to do much of anything after she’d gotten beaten up.He wasn’t happy that she had been hurt, but he knew about her family more than anyone else did, and she figured that if anyone understood her getting knocked around, it would have been him.Her father was a prick.
Seth and Ryan weren’t nearly as bad as their dad, but they would be egged on by him when things needed to be taken too far.Seth was the youngest and by far the stupidest of the three of them.She’d thought that he’d had some mental issues, but the doctor said he was smart for his age, just mean.She believed it.He was as mean as their dad when it suited him.
Ryan would stand back and watch what the other two were doing before he joined in.Ryan, unlike Seth, had spent some time in prison and swore he’d never go back.She figured that he’d learned something about being behind bars, but she couldn’t figure out what that might be.He would kill her if given the chance, and that was why she never gave them the opportunity to do much more than knock her around until this last time.
They’d caught her off her guard.While in the kitchen making grilled cheese for her and her grandda, something had hit her from behind and she’d been knocked out.It wasn’t until the pain she was in woke her up that she knew that she’d been beaten badly.It still surprised her that she didn’t have any broken bones.They’d kicked her while she was down, and she would swear that some of her ribs had been broken while out.
“I’d love to have some pizza.Some of that hot sauce on it that we like too.”Molly told him that they had the hot sauce in the cabinet and would get it out when it arrived.“I’ll call and order it for us,and you can pay.I’d do it, honey, but I’m on a tight budget as you know.”
“I know.I understand what it’s like to be on a budget.”He ordered them a large pie that they’d share with onions and mushrooms on it.The hot sauce that they’d enjoy on it was nothing more than hot wing sauce, but it was better than just a plain old pizza, and they’d both have a good meal.As soon as it came, she got up to get the sauce while he was clearing a place at the table for them to eat.
“I feel like I’m about healed up, too.It’s amazing.I’ve never felt like this after a good beating from them.”Pop-pop told her that he wished he could have done more, but he’d been afraid of them hurting him, too.“You did the right thing in hiding from them.Don’t ever put yourself in a position where you are going to be hurt by them for me.I should have known that they’d be around.They just caught me off guard there, and it won’t happen again.Not so long as I can get the jump on them.”
“It scared me a bit when you could barely breathe.And all that blood, too.I never seen the likes of it.”She watched as he shivered and put his slice back on the box.“I tell you something, baby girl.I’m thinking that I’m getting too old to have them coming here and beating on me.I’ve been thinking of giving you this house and moving into a nursing home.I’ve even been looking at the best ones.”
“We don’t need to talk about that now, do we?”He nodded and told her that he’d given it a great deal of thought and wanted her to take him to the one he’d been looking at.“I don’t want you to do that, but if you have your heart set on it, I’ll take you there in the morning.I sure will miss coming here to be with you.”
“That’s the thing about this place I’ve been looking into.It has two bedrooms for those who want them, and you could stay with me for a while when you come home.You don’t have that much longer to go, do you?”She told him how many days she had left to be in the service.“No time at all when you think about how long you’ve been in it.I tell you, it was the best advice I could have given you when you turned eighteen and joined the service.You’ve been able to help me when I needed it, and I’ve loved all the stories that you’ve told me.Those are stories that I’m going to take to my Sally when I go.She’ll be tickled pink that I have so much to tell her.”
“She will at that.”She thought about the nursing home and knew that if he’d done any research on it, she’d be happy with what he was doing.“I’ll take you there tomorrow.How much more than your check is it going to cost you?You know that I’ll help you when you need it.”
“Nothing much more than what I’m paying now.Without having to pay for the utilities and such, I’d be coming out ahead.Not to mention I’d be getting three meals a day that I don’t have to mess with.I like that part best of all.And having a nice room for you to stay in when you come to visit me.The best part is that I’ll be safe from my son and grandsons.They won’t be able to get into the place without me telling them that it’s all right.I decided that the only person that I’m going to allow to visit me is you.”He took her hand into his much larger one and patted it.“I love you, Molly, my dear.I miss you so much when you’re gone.”
“I love you, Pop-pop.”He wiped his napkin over his face and told her that he loved her more.“We’ll head over there in the morning to get you signed in.With dad in the hospital still, we’ll be able to get you there without him knowing.I think that’s going to be our best bet in keeping you safe.”
“This will work out better, you’ll see.”He finished up his half of the pizza and took one of her slices.She wasn’t as hungry as he’d been, apparently, and she was glad that he had such a good appetite.He wasn’t a big man, but tall.Since he’d always eaten so well, she never worried about him having any trouble with being too thin.She loved the old man and would move heaven and earth for him if there was something that he needed.
The next morning, after pancakes for breakfast that she’d made them, he was ready to go.He’d even been packed to stay when they got the paperwork finished.He’d really put a lot of thought into this, and she was happy that he was going to be safe.Now, if she could figure out a way to make herself safe, she’d feel so much better.But she was leaving in a few days and would be about as far from them as she could get.They wouldn’t know how to get in touch with her either.
The place had charm, she’d give it that.As soon as the paperwork had been filled out and filed, he was set to be living there.As he pulled out his luggage from her rental, she felt like he was runningaway from home and told him as much.
“I sort of feel like that.Like I’m on some new adventure too.”He laughed, and she had to smile.“This will be one more thing that I can do for myself before I’m kicking up roses.You’ll come here to visit me, won’t you, little bit?”
“Nothing could keep me away.”He nodded as they set up his room.he wasn’t allowed to cook in his room, for which she was grateful, and he could have a coffee pot so long as he didn’t leave it on all the time.He only drank one cup a day and rarely, if ever, had more than that.She was just putting the last of his clothing away when he turned to her.“What is it?Have you changed your mind already?”
“The house is in your name.It has been since you were home the last time.”She said that he didn’t have to do that.“I do.It belongs to you.Please tell me that you’re going to find you a nice young man and bring the house to life again.”
“I’ll look, but the chances aren’t all that good that someone is going to take me on with my family around.”He told her that he’d feel better about things if she were to at least try.“I’ll try.I don’t want anything to do with the men that I see every day.Perhaps when I get out, I’ll find me a nice young man and have twenty babies.How about that?”
“So long as you’re happy and safe, I don’t care if you have fifty children.”They both laughed, and she hugged him.“Now, let’s go see what they have to offer for lunch.That was nice of the woman who signed me in to tell us that you could join me for lunch.I think that my first meal here should be with the one person that I love more than I do myself.”
