Compromise Me (Book Two of the Kirkland Family)

Compromise Me: Chapter 44

Chapter 44

Justin and Hannah had their house to themselves for the first time in weeks. They stood on the porch as Josie drove Hannah's minivan full of the kids out to the Kirkland farm for the night. The boys wanted to camp out, and the girls were eager to help Grandma go through the stuff in the attic and basement.

"How did she get so grown?" Justin asked his wife when the van and Travis' truck disappeared from view.

"She couldn't stay a child forever, Jack," Hannah said.

"I know," he sighed. "But she's getting married."

"He hasn't officially asked her yet," she reminded him. "She'll still be your baby girl for a little while longer. And just think...soon she could have a baby girl of her own."

"Do you think they'll wait too long?" Justin asked as they went back inside.

Hannah smiled at him. "Are you so eager for her to be a mother already?"

He paused to gaze at a family photo in the hallway. One that had been taken not long after the twins were born. "She'll be a great mother, and...and I kind of miss having babies around."

Hannah laid her head on his shoulder. "Me, too. That Tristan is adorable, isn't he?"

Justin chuckled. "It was a stroke of genius bringing him with them. Josie was always too smart for her own good."

"She got that from her father," Hannah said. She grabbed his hands. "Tell you what...you help me clean up the dinner mess, and even though we aren't able to make babies anymore, we can spend the rest of the night pretending we can."

"Songbird," he growled deliciously, "Do you think about anything other than sex when we're alone?"

She gave him that mischievous smile that always erased the years from her face. "No."

He grinned back. "Yeah...me either."

They skipped the dishes and got straight to pretending.

*****

"This is a great spread of land," Travis said to Mary Alice Kirkland that night while sitting on the front porch of Josie's grandparent's farmhouse. "I didn't get a chance to appreciate it the last time I was here."

He'd been trying to make small-talk with Josie's grandmother for the last half hour, but he got the feeling that he was failing horribly. Mary Alice rocked in her rocker, commenting on occasion, but mostly she continued to hum the same tune. Travis thought the melody was beautiful, too, but after the fifth time, he began to wonder if the older woman still had all her marbles.

The creak of the rocking chairs echoed along with the chirping of tree crickets, and Travis glanced behind him into the house. Josie and her siblings were digging around in the basement, searching for camping supplies, of all things. After leaving Hannah and Justin's house that afternoon, they all came over to the farm so that the boys--Jak and the uncle/cousin Max (Travis didn't grasp that weird relation description)--could go camping out in the backyard, and so that the girls--Rose and Violet--could help grandma clean out closets before she started packing up to move. Travis was there with Josie because Tristan heard about the camping venture and begged to go, too. What was a father to do when his son batted those big brown eyes?

The rocker next to him stopped moving. "I gave it to Josie, you know," Mary Alice said, and Travis looked at her. Her eyes seemed coherent and steady. Maybe she wasn't as blank as she seemed at times. "After Ronald passed," she went on, "I didn't have a reason or the capacity to live out here alone." Mary Alice leaned over the arm of her chair with a smile. "I'm old, you know. Sixty-five on my last birthday."