Penelope (8 page)

Brock wasn’t sure how long they’d stood there in the doorway holding each other. Some part of him expected his sister and her family to show up and his brother and his wife. Hadn’t everyone in Missouri heard his mother?

They’d gone straight back into the kitchen because she’d calmed down enough now and she wanted to feed him. He wasn’t going to argue. It had been a very long time since he’d had a decent meal—a very long time.

He sat down at the table as his mother fluttered around the kitchen. His father sat across from him.

Brock thought he looked healthy, which was a bonus. When Brock had enlisted his father was taking insulin for diabetes. Now, he looked as though he’d lost about forty pounds and there was a healthy glow to him. That pleased Brock. The thought of his dad being sick hadn’t helped while he was dealing with his injuries and the vivid realities of war and death.

Gregory Romero had done his share of active duty. He too had a few scars to prove it.

“It’s good to see you,” his father said as he rested his arms on the table.

“Thank you. I can’t tell you how happy I am to be home.”

“You don’t have to,” his father said on a laugh. “I’ll never forget that final trip. Nothing like it.”

“I’ll agree.”

His father leaned in while his mother clinked plates and pots around as she mumbled to herself as she did when she cooked.

“How’s your injury?” his father asked in a hushed tone.

“It’s all healed. I’m fine.”

His father nodded slowly. “Your dreams? How’s your sleep? Are you doing okay?”

Brock knew where he was going with this. “Do you still have that beer fridge in the garage?”

A smile formed on his father’s lips. “You haven’t seen what your brother and I did to the garage. C’mon.” He stood and turned to Brock’s mother. “I’m taking him out to show him the cave.”

She nodded and kept moving about. Brock wasn’t sure if he was going to have a complete feast or if he’d come back to a sandwich and chips. His mother wasn’t the best cook—at all—but she sure enjoyed trying.

Brock’s father escorted him through the adjoining door and out to the garage. It wasn’t the garage Brock had remembered. This looked more like one of those garage take over shows where they come in and make it the ultimate “Man Cave.”

“Holy cow!” Brock laughed when he saw the old 50’s diner themed table in the corner and the enormous flat screen TV on the wall. “Do you even park in here anymore?”

“No,” his father let out a snort. “I’m afraid to mess up this floor.”

Brock looked down at the tiled floor done in a black and white checkered pattern. “This has to be one of the coolest garages ever.”

“Me and Mason think so.”

His father walked toward the full sized refrigerator in the corner and pulled out two beers. He handed one to Brock and he twisted off the top.

He took a long pull and let it roll on his tongue. “I have to say that has to be the best beer I have ever had.”

His father smiled and tapped the neck of his beer bottle to Brock’s. “I remember it well. C’mon, let’s sit.”

His father led him to the table, picked up the remote, and clicked on a random sports channel.

“How are Mason and Sadie?” Brock asked about his siblings, though he’d had emails from both of them before he’d headed back to America.

“Mason is keeping busy with that little business of his.”

“Little? He showed me a picture of his setup. I think he’s doing better than keeping busy.”

“I don’t think you can make a living and raise a family testing video games for companies.”

Brock laughed as he pulled again from his beer. He didn’t want to discredit his father’s thinking, but he was pretty sure Mason was doing just that.

“Wait, you said family. Are him and Chelsea…”

“Expecting?” His father smiled wider. “Maybe he didn’t want you to know.”

He doubted that. His brother told him
everything.

“Maybe.” He nodded. “That’s exciting. Must be something in the water.”

His father’s brows drew together. “Why do you say that?”

“Nothing, Dad.” He laughed again. “I just have a friend who’s expecting too. Don’t get too worried. I had nothing to do with it.”

“Well, that’s why I think he needs a real job.”

“I’m sure if he needs one, he’ll get one.” He took another sip from his beer. “Sadie said the kids grew nearly two inches since I’ve seen them last. I’ll have to stop by.”

“I think your mother would like to have everyone over for dinner since you’re back. Can you make time for that?”

Brock gave it some thought. “Yeah. I have some things I promised to do, but I’m sure I can do it whenever Mom wants to.”

His father grew quiet and rolled the beer bottle between his palms.

“You’re okay though? I mean you’ve healed? How is your sleep? You’re not drinking are you?” He looked at the bottle. “I mean excessively.”

Brock reached across the small table and rested his hand on his father’s. “I’m fine. The bullet left me with a scar.” He pulled up his sleeve and showed him his shoulder. “I was very lucky. I know that. As for what I saw and what I went through,” he considered. “I know I’ll have some restless nights. I might even look into some support groups. I’m not above looking for help if I need it.”

His father nodded. “You always did have a good head on your shoulders.” He sat back and took a pull from his beer. “So now what? Now that you’re home, what are your plans?”

Brock sipped his beer and let out a breath. “I’m going to head to Parson’s Gulch, Oklahoma for a bit. Sergeant Monroe’s family is opening a daycare center in his grandmother’s old house in town. They’ve done a lot of work to it. I offered to go down and help with assembling the play yard and the classrooms.”

His father narrowed his eyes on him. “There’s more. What else is there?”

Brock couldn’t help but smile. Just the thought of Penelope made him do that. “Okay, there’s a girl. Nothing big,” he tried to be calm and use his words carefully. “I just met her. She’s got a lot on her plate now. But, she’s good people.”

His father crossed his arms over his chest and nodded. “You have a way of reading people. If you say she’s good people, she is.”

That meant a lot coming from his father. Now, to convince his mother would be a different story.

Penelope sat at the table in the small kitchen of the old house with Amelia and Vivian pouring over the photos Vivian had taken of her wrecked home.

“I hardly filled up Sam’s truck. The tree had fallen in before they got to it and everything was ruined,” Vivian said.

Penelope looked at the pictures from the girls’ room and it brought her to tears. She’d only had a few very precious toys when she was young. Toys her mother deemed educational and useful, but she would have been devastated to have lost them.

“I wish we could do something to replace it all,” Penelope scanned through the photos again.

“I’ve lived in this town my whole life. I’ve seen it leveled worse than this. I was unlucky this time, but my girls and I were safe. I can’t even be upset about all of this.”

“I still don’t know what you were doing here. It was like a divine intervention that you weren’t at the house,” Amelia said, looking over Penelope’s shoulder.

Penelope looked up at Vivian who was already smiling wide. Then Sam cleared his throat.

“I think the two of you need to come clean and tell her about the body you were burying in the basement that night.”

Penelope nearly broke out in a laugh when Amelia gave him a shake of her head.

“Did Adam’s mother make an appearance that night?” she asked, looking right in Vivian’s direction.

Vivian’s humored look sobered up. “You say crap like that as if you think I’d do that.”

“Oh, lighten up. I was kidding.”

Sam rested a hand on Vivian’s shoulder. “I carried an enormous box down there today,” he stressed his words. “Maybe you should take a walk.”

Penelope clapped. “Oh, goodie! It came.” She stood from her chair nearly knocking Amelia back.

“What is going on?”

Vivian walked past her and opened the basement door. “Shut up and come see where your grave is.”

“
My
grave? You’d rather bury me in the basement than Adam’s mother?”

“Oh, you two.” Penelope stepped between them. “Will you ever stop?”

It frustrated her when they went at each other. Though sometimes she couldn’t tell if they were fighting or messing with her.

She reached for the switch to turn on the light for the staircase and then took her first carefully coordinated step.

Going down the stairs had already become a balancing act with her body.

Penelope cleared the last step and could hear the girls barreling toward her. How Amelia had no idea what was down here was beyond her. Those girls had been so excited she was sure they’d never get the last piece there before Amelia knew what they were hiding.

She looked up the steps and Sam walked in front of Amelia as if to shield her.

“C’mon. Let me down there,” she scolded.

“You’ll get there,” he argued back.

Vivian stood at the bottom of the steps looking up at Amelia. “I don’t plan on always being nice to you.”

“Obviously,” Amelia retorted.

“But, you’ve selflessly made changes in your life to keep my family intact and to take care of Penelope and her baby. We can’t repay you for that. You didn’t have to leave us with anything. You could have walked away.”

“I never would have done that.”

“I know that now,” Vivian said, her voice soft and sincere. “You only ever asked for one thing.”

She stepped aside and stood with Penelope and the girls as Amelia turned the corner and saw what had been planned out just for her.

“Oh! You built me a gym.” Her voice rose in pitch as her eyes grew wider and brighter as she took in the sight of barbells, dumbbells, and big rubber balls.

“It was the least we could do for you,” Penelope added.

“This is great.” She moved toward the heavy bag. “I’ve needed to punch something.” She let loose a punch into the bag.

“Yes, you’ve been doing that in your sleep,” Sam joked.

Amelia narrowed a stare at him and then quickly looked around again. “You all put down a sparring mat. Who wants me to take them down first?”

Penelope wondered why she’d turned and looked right at her. But a moment later the girls were right by her side punching and kicking the bag with laughter.

“I guess I should have bought them one of those years ago,” Vivian said. “I could have used it too. I certainly would have liked to kick the crap out of a few people. This would have vented that better than me holding it in.”

“Now you can come down here and let it out,” Penelope gave her a smile.

Sam leaned up against the basement wall and crossed his arms over his chest. “I guess other than assembling the furniture, the last item we have to address—now that this is done—is the attic. We’re going to need storage space and maybe extra office space, even if we keep the room across from Penelope’s as an office.”

“Are you sure you want to go up there?” Amelia laughed as she landed a roundhouse kick into the pad and the girls giggled. “Remember last time you tried to open the door.” She grinned. “It knocked you on your ass.”

Sam rubbed his chest where the set of stairs had come down and hit him. “Oh, I remember. That’s why you’re going up first.”

Amelia gave him a wink. “That’s why I love my man.”

Penelope rested her hands on her stomach as the baby kicked. “I’m beginning to wonder if this kid is going to take after Amelia. I’ve done some reading and I don’t think he should be kicking quite this hard yet.”

Emma hurried over to her. “Is it a boy?”

“I don’t know. I just use the terms loosely. Tomorrow I might say her.”

“I want a sister,” Ava added.

“You have a sister, goober,” Emma retorted as Penelope rubbed her stomach again. “Can I feel?”

Penelope nodded and took Emma’s hand and rested it where the baby had kicked. “I don’t know if he’ll…”

“Wow!” Emma’s eyes grew wide. “I felt that.”

“Me. Me.” Ava held out her hand.

Penelope placed it on her stomach and held it flat. Ava’s face crinkled up as if she were concentrating hard to make the baby move.

“Where is he?” she asked.

“Well honey, maybe he went back to sleep.”

“Does he have a bedroom in there?”

Penelope laughed. “Sorta.”

“And pillows?”

“No. I’m his pillow. He’s just in there.” The baby kicked again. “Oh, there. He’s trying to get comfy. Did you feel that?”

Ava pulled back her hand. “Ewww.”

That caused everyone to laugh and when Penelope looked up toward Vivian even her eyes held humor. That eased Penelope’s heart. She loved Vivian’s girls and they were excited that the baby would be their baby sister or brother. She wanted to keep that enthusiasm.