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

take them skating as usual the next day. Dr. Jackson overate as usual taking three helpings of turkey and stuffing and everyone laughed at him but he insisted Harry’s stuffing was better than his grandmother’s. Sissy nagged Abby about when was she going to give them grandchildren and Kate nagged Harry for his turkey recipe. So it was a typical holiday meal.
“That was fun,” Harry gushed as they put all the kids to bed that night and he stretched out on the couch. Jake smiled and sat next to him. He looked out the windows and waved. Harry gave him a strange look.
“What are you doing, honey?” he asked. Jake grinned.
“Did you know that Violet has a telescope in her attic and it’s beamed to our house and at the right angle she can see right into our living room?” he teased him. Harry looked appalled.
“You’re kidding me?” he asked. Jake shook his head.
“Nope, Dr. George told me, Shelley heard it from Edna who heard it from Susie. Violet peeks into our living room every single day to see what we’re up to,” he told him. Harry giggled.
“Do you think she saw us that day we fucked on the couch?” he asked and Jake leaned forward to kiss him.
“I certainly hope she did, maybe then she’d stop giving me the goo-goo eyes and leave me the hell alone, that girl’s fucking annoying,” he declared and Harry laughed and wrapped his arms around Jake’s neck.
“Oh, you’ve noticed that have you?” he teased and Jake nuzzled his neck.
“Babe, its hard not to notice when she’s flashing those itty bitty titties at me all the time and batting her eyes and saying ‘oh, Jake you’re so strong,’ God, I love you, Harry,” he said and kissed him hard. Harry laughed.
“Talking about Violet makes you love me?” he teased. Jake laughed.
“No, feeling your dick get hard against me makes me love you, babe,” he said and Harry smiled and touched his cheek.
“I love you too, Jake,” he whispered and they kissed long and hard. “Let’s go to the bedroom, I don’t feel like giving Violet a show tonight,” he said and they got up and went to bed.
The next morning Harry used his Astro Mathematics to figure out the trajectory of Violet’s windows to his living room and put up a little shade awning to block her view. It was very decorative and made his house prettier and she hated it and couldn’t figure out why he put it up. Then she heard from the grapevine that he was getting a nasty glare from that side of the house and that’s why he put up the awning and she fumed and cursed the damned sun. But what could she do about that? She took down the telescope and had a hissy fit and broke it. Susie felt guilty because she had told her mother and had heard gossip about it and knew that Harry had heard about it and that’s why he put up the awning but knew better than to confess so she left it alone.
DJ and Grace had their daughter first on the second of December, a little girl they named Cheryl, so now they had Isaac, Irene and Cheryl. Then Hans and Nyla had twins they named Noah and Naomi to join their daughter Ruth. Charlie and April had twin daughters they named Patsy and Penny to join their son Charles the third who they called CJ which pleased DJ who called him his twin and their daughter May. Steve and Kathleen were next with their second son they named Cameron since Harry had picked the name Daniel, so now they had Stevie, Stephanie, Megan and Cameron. Synta and Joon had a little girl they named Elise to join Martin, Shannon and Sharon.
Christmas came and Harry was of course the last remaining pregnant person and everyone teased him but he just grinned. He wasn’t due for two days and he was like a clock and knew he would be on schedule as usual. All the kids made the center a noisy place and David and Gloria swore they were going to stop attending these affairs until the children got older and learned how to behave properly. They did agree that Emma and Cassie in their cute little dresses looked adorable. Emma ruined it by getting into a fight with her brother and pulling her dress over her head. Harry laughed and pulled it down but she kept pulling it up so he changed her into a pink pants outfit which she thought was stupid. Emma was a girl and girls belonged in dresses, not pants. She should have taught not to pull her dress up.
They had the party for the kid’s birthday the next day and six different and completely adorable little cakes were brought out and everyone cheered and sang Happy Birthday. Pictures were taken and everyone had a good time. Two proud granddads beamed and held their grandchildren on their laps and four grandmothers insisted they didn’t feel old enough to be grandmothers. It was a very happy occasion.
The next day Daniel waited until two in the afternoon to announce his pending arrival and Harry’s water broke a little after two as the kids were waking up from their naps. They called the boys in to baby-sit and called in the troops and everything went smoothly. Danny came out head first unlike his anxious brother before him but weighed an amazing nine pound, the biggest of the babies.
“When they start coming out nine pounds, it’s time to stop,” Harry declared and they all laughed. Jake smiled as he looked down at his new son.
“He looks more like you than me, babe,” he said and it was true. Daniel was half Chinese and his slanted purple eyes looked exactly like Harry’s. Jake was in love once again. Harry closed his eyes and snoozed while they put him in the bed. Daniel was the last baby born in the Edenville Hospital.
“What’s it going to be this time, babe?” Jake teased as he feed his son. Harry grinned.
“Chicken salad with lots of celery and bacon, mm, that sounds good,” he declared and Fiona laughed.
“That sure does, bring me two of those, Jake,” she instructed and both men laughed.
“You got it, Fiona, I’ll bring two for Dr. George too,” Jake said and he placed his son in the bassinet and leaned down to kiss Harry.
“Nine pounds, babe, that’s really terrific, you did great, I love you,” he whispered and Harry smiled.
“I love you too, honey,” he whispered and closed his eyes. But when Jake left he opened them and looked at the baby who opened his eyes and looked at him. Harry smiled and picked him up.
“Daniel Simon Talbert, my, you do have my eyes, you look like Ester Chang, young man and Simon Woo and me. Us slanty eyed people have to stick together,” he told him solemnly. The baby just moved his mouth like he wanted to talk and wiggled. Harry grinned, kissed his little mouth and rocked him back to sleep. This was his last precious baby and that made him special.
Jake arrived with the sandwiches and all of his children and Fran and the boys who wanted to see this baby who looked like Harry instead of Jake and they all agreed he really did look more like Harry even though he was dark like Jake. Fran cried when he opened his eyes and said he looked just like Harry. They all laughed at her. Jake grinned and kissed him.
“Your mothers going to have a fit, she swears none of the babies have any of your DNA but they all have your purple eyes and she can’t explain that,” he teased and Harry grinned.
Kate took one look at Daniel and gasped.
“Oh, my goodness, he looks just like you, Henry,” she exclaimed and everyone laughed. Then she frowned. “But that can’t possibly be, he has done of your DNA,” she stated firmly. Harry shook his head.
“Actually, Mom, he does, all of the boys do, we tested them and they all have some of my chromosomes,” he informed her smugly and she gasped again.
“That can’t be, Simon was convinced that none would pass from the birth father,” she informed him. Harry shrugged.
“Simon couldn’t be sure of everything, it was all a crap shoot from start to finish, these babies are the first known humans to contain three sets of chromosomes in their DNA, it’s a medical miracle,” he told her and she nodded.
“I must study this, oh, my God, on Memphis they must be going mad studying this, the break-through, the cutting edge of medical science and I’m on the edge of the universe. We all could have made the history books, shit, we all probably did make the history books but we’ll never read them,” she sounded sad. Harry patted her hand.
“Well, you’d be dead right now so think of the bright side,” he told her and she laughed.
“Now you’re beginning to sound like me, Henry, I don’t like that one little bit so stop it,” she said sternly and they all laughed.
The next day everyone checked out fine so Dr. George released them and they all went home, their family was complete and all that was left was raising them. Harry put them into the SUV and laughed. Jake glanced at him.
“It’s a good thing we stopped at seven, honey; there’s no room in this car for any more,” he teased and Jake grinned.
“We’d just two cars and put them together like Jan and Joy did,” he informed him. They both laughed at the thought of Jan’s blue SUV which was really two cars welded together to form one giant car. It was a funny looking vehicle but it did do the job and all of their kids were safely buckled in.

In January the whole town went to Hawaii for the rest of the winter and they had the best time enjoying tropical nights with warm breezes off the ocean and nice hot sunny days in the shade with the kids playing in the sand and building sand castles and playing in the surf. Jake took Jackson and Emma down to the beach and they had a blast riding the waves with Daddy while Harry sat on the beach under an umbrella with the little ones. Then he took Cassie and Adam for an ocean ride while Jake sat with the others, they all had a good time.
When they were all sound asleep Fran sat with them and Harry and Jake would enjoy a moonlight stroll on the sand, splashing in the surf, holding hands and kissing. They felt like newlyweds again and not some old married couple with seven kids. Jake grinned as they stood in the surf and gazed at the moonlight.
“Do you believe we’ve got seven children, babe?” he whispered and Harry giggled as they held each other. A waved crashed against their feet.
“No, do you think it’s too late to put them back in?” he whispered back and Jake laughed.
“I think it is, babe,” he said and they both laughed.
“I’m so happy, Jake, sometimes I have to pinch myself, I love you and my life so much, I wouldn’t want any other life,” Harry said. Jake reached up and pinched Harry’s nipple and he gasped.