The Kids Grow Up by Trish Hanan (novel24 .TXT) 📖

at the blue blanket covering the baby seat with longing on his face. Then he frowned.
“No way is that thing my grandson,” he stated and they went back to eating. But when they got home he opened the birth email and they both looked at it.
“Oh, my, look at him, he looks just like Jake did when he was born,” Sissy gushed. Dr. Jackson laughed.
“He looks just like me,” he observed and it was true because Jake looked a lot like his dad. They both admired the pictures and then he decided that he was going to take a little drive up the road and visit his namesake.
“I didn’t come to see you, I came to see my grandson,” he informed his son when Jake opened his front door to see his father standing there with a determined look on his face. Jake nodded and opened the door wide. Dr. Jackson walked in and looked around.
“This is really nice, Fran keeps it nice in here,” he remarked as he took off his coat and hung it up. Jake laughed.
“Harry does most of the cleaning, Dad, he’s the neatest person you’ll ever meet,” he informed him and his dad sighed. Then Harry came out of the living room to see who was at the door. He grinned when he saw who it was.
“Hi, Dr. Jackson, come to see you grandchildren, I’ll go see if they’re awake,” he said and turned around. Jake took his dad into the living room and sat him down on the couch and went into the dining room. Luckily for everyone the babies woke up when they picked them up. Jake carried Jackson into the other room and watched his dad’s eyes lit up at the sight of the little boy.
“Jackson Henry Jackson, I want you to meet Jackson Henry Talbert,” he said grandly and put the baby into his father’s arms. Dr. Jackson looked confused.
“Why’s his name Talbert?” he asked. Jake grinned and he patted his dad’s shoulder.
“When I married Harry I took his name, we thought that one Jackson Jackson was enough for the universe,” he told him. Dr. Jackson laughed.
“I suppose you’re right, I used to get teased like hell over that name,” he confessed. Then he looked at his grandson and his eyes misted over. “Oh, Jackson, look at you, why you’re the spitting imagine of your dad. And look at those purple eyes, they’re so adorable, I could just eat you up, yes I could,” he cooed. Harry took several pictures.
“Jackson, meet your granddaughter, this is Emma Rose,” Harry said and handed him Emma to hold and Jake took his son. Jackson cooed over her, calling her the most precious and beautiful girl in the world. Then the babies started to cry and he looked panicked until the boys laughed and said it was just dinner time. Jake and he switched babies and Harry brought out bottles and Dr. Jackson got to feed his grandson while Harry took pictures of this. Then he put him in his bassinet and admired their setup in the dining room and got a tour of the house. They skipped their bedroom and gave him a keg of beer to take home. Standing at the front door, Dr. Jackson did a surprising thing. He reached out and hugged his son.
“You did a great job, Son, I’m so proud of you,” he said and Jake felt tears come to his eyes. Harry did cry as he watched the touching scene and wiped the tears away. Dr. Jackson looked at them both.
“I’ll be back to see my grandchildren,” he told them with a big grin. Both boys nodded.
“Come back any time, Jackson, you and your family are welcome in our home, you’re family,” Harry said and the older man nodded and left. Jake hugged Harry.
“You were right, babe, a grandson turned my dad into a giant teddy bear,” he said with disbelief. Harry laughed.
“Wait until we have all five and he’s got a basketball team to coach, then he’ll be really happy,” he retorted and they both laughed. Then Harry got that gleam in his eyes and Jake grinned. They both turned around and rushed to the bedroom for a quickie while the babies slept. Fran saw them and laughed. Those two might be an old married couple with two children but they were still frisky young men.
The next day Violet knocked on their front door. Harry opened the door and she held out the ring.
“Here’s your damned ring, can I have my car back now?” she said rudely. He grinned at her.
“Don’t you mean, here’s your damned ring, can I please have my car back,” he teased her. She sighed.
“Here’s your ring, Harry, can I please have my car back?” she said super-sweet. Harry nodded and took the ring. He left her on the porch in the cold while he got the keys and the deed. He put his coat on then drove the car out of the garage and stopped in the driveway. Then he got out and handed her the deed which she looked over carefully. Then without another word, Violet got into her car and drove off. Harry laughed and went back into the house. Jake looked up from playing his video game when he sat back down on the couch with his book.
“Who was that, babe?” he asked. Harry grinned and showed him the shiny ring.
“Violet finally exchanged her ring for her car,” he informed him. They both laughed. Then Harry took a good look at the ring and noticed that it looked funny and slightly different than it had before.
“Son-of-a-bitch, this stone’s been replaced,” he swore and he got up and got his coat on. “Stay with the twins, honey, I’m going to the jewelry store and checking this out, I think little Miss Violet and her friend Gloria’s replaced this diamond with a cubic zarconia.” Jake frowned.
“Those two bitches,” he snapped.
Harry drove carefully to the store and checked the ring out and found out that it was in fact a fake diamond. He then replaced it with a real one and put it back on the tray where it belonged. Then he went home and informed his husband.
“Well, I sincerely hope that Violet is happy with her diamond because it’s the last thing she’ll ever get from one of our stores,” Harry said firmly. Jake nodded. They sent her an email informing her that they had discovered her little ploy and that she was now forever banned from their stores for her life time along with Gloria and David. All three were furious.
“This is all your fault,” Gloria snapped at her husband. He looked shocked.
“How is this my fault? It was all your idea, you and that stupid girl,” he snapped back. She glared at Violet who just shrugged.
“I’ll just get Susie to buy me stuff and he’s right, this was all your idea so don’t blame him,” she declared and smiled at the handsome man who looked pleased that she was taking his side. Gloria looked at her with her eyes narrowed. The black girl was younger but she didn’t have any breasts and therefore wasn’t a real threat. So Gloria smiled and decided that Harry would forget about the whole banning thing in a couple of years.
“You’re right, lets’ play Sultan and the slave girls,” she said and the other two grinned, they loved her sex games, she had the best imagination.
In January they took the babies to Hawaii for some sun and had a ball relaxing on the beach and making love in the sand just like they always did. Now they just carried the kids with them and laughed about what they were going to do when they got older. They had to take turns running with the dogs on the beach in the mornings but that was fine. Harry did two hundred sit-ups every day to get his stomach back in its flat shape. The girls were jealous that he was so diligent and able to lose weight faster than they so he took them with him to run the dogs. Kathleen was better than the other two, especially April who whined so much the others wanted to drown her. But by the end of January everyone was back to before baby weight and happy.
“I can’t believe you’re going to have one baby a year, don’t you think that’s crazy,” Kathleen asked one night as they were sitting on the patio having drinks and talking. All the babies were sleeping in bassinets in the living room. Harry shook his head.
“You forget, I’m only pregnant for twenty-four weeks so that’s plenty of time to recover and I’m having five while the rest of you are only having four,” he said. “This way every other time we will have them together.” They all nodded, it would work out fine and they all agreed that he had to use all five of his eggs, he wasn’t like them; they had millions of them. Leaving one or two would be horrible, almost like murder.
In February they went back to Edenville for the arrival of Harry’s last sister and keeping to tradition they named her Karen because they had named the previous baby, Kent. Now they had, Tracey, Travis, Alex, Allison, Kent and Karen, it was almost cute it was so sickening. All the kids laughed at that, almost as much as they laughed at Jan and Joy’s ‘J’s. Those two had another son and named him Jeramy. Now they had Jamie, Jason and Josh, Jon, Jenny and Jasmine, Jonah and Jeramy, that was eight and everyone wondered when they were going to stop.
Sissy had her twins and they turned out to be girls to Dr. Jackson’s disappointment. They were the only ones who didn’t want to know the baby’s sex until delivery. Now they had the two boys, Monroe and Dwight, followed by five girls, Pearl, Charlotte, Mabel and the twins whom they named, Yvette and Yvonne. Sissy immediately got a birth control shot following delivery. Her husband wasn’t happy, he wanted another son, but she remained firm. Nine children was more than even his sainted grandmother Mabel had had and she wasn’t going to have any more.
Everyone assumed that having Fran in the house to help them made the job of raising twins easier for the two men but Fran complained to everyone that getting them to give up a baby for her to hold or take care of was like pulling teeth. Harry and Jake tried to share as much as they could but holding and playing with Jackson and Emma was just so much fun that they hated to give them up.
“Don’t worry Fran, next year we’ll have Adam and we’ll have plenty of babies to go around,” Harry assured her and put Emma in her hands. He went off to the kitchen to bake banana nut bread; a specialty of Frau Ida’s which Jake loved. Humming to himself he worked while listening to soft music and soon the house was filled with the aroma. Jake came out of the basement where he was building a model train town for his son, which meant he was playing with trains.
“What is that I’m smelling?” he asked