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

I’ll heal the ankle so she can walk,” he said and Jake did that. Violet smiled sweetly and all the boys who were now twelve and eleven all stared at her naked breasts. Kate rolled her eyes. Harry rubbed his hands together and placed them around Violet’s ankle and closed his eyes. Then he stood up and smiled.
“That should do it, how does your ankle feel now, Violet?” he asked pleasantly. She smiled and put her foot down and wiggled it around.
“Oh, Harry, you’re a miracle worker, it’s all better now,” she declared and everyone smiled. Harry didn’t, he shook his head and Jake looked at him. Harry sighed.
“I didn’t heal it,” he told her and she looked confused.
“What do you mean?” Violet asked.
“There was nothing wrong with your ankle, Violet, I only pretended to heal it, I never healed it,” he told everyone and they all looked shocked. Violet glared at him.
“Yes you did, everyone saw you heal it,” she snapped. Harry shook his head.
“There was nothing wrong with your ankle,” he said and he reached out and turned her around and pulled the top of her bathing suit out of the back of her wrap.
“And here’s the top that you said you lost,” he said and handed it to her while she glared at him. Everyone laughed. Jake ran his fingers through his hair.
“Gosh darn-it, Violet, what kind of simple minded game were you playing with me? You made me carry you all the way from the mango grove and there was nothing wrong with your ankle,” he snapped. Violet shrugged.
“You’re a strong man, it was no effort at all for you,” she said and licked her lips. She smiled up at him and Harry almost hit her.
“The whole thing was a setup, Jake,” Harry told him and Jake looked surprised.
“What do you mean, babe?” he asked. Harry laughed.
“Little Miss Itty Bitty here wanted an excuse for you to carry her while she pressed her naked breasts against your strong masculine chest and hoped that that would turn you straight and send you flying into her arms and you would leave me for her,” he said and Jake and everyone else laughed.
“Oh, it would take a whole lot of what she ain’t got to do that,” he declared and everyone laughed. He turned to Violet. “Violet, I am gay, do you understand what that means, it means that what you’ve got down there I’m not interested in, now do you understand that? So stop waving those itty bitty things at me and leave me the hell alone. I’d never leave Harry and my children for you, never; I love my life too much to go running to some foolish little girl.” Violet glared at everyone and stomped onto the carrier. Harry sighed and walked up the ramp. Jake grabbed him and gave him a passionate kiss and everyone cheered.
“Well, I guess he told Miss Violet where to go,” Harry said smugly when he and all the women were sitting in the cockpit flying home. Kathleen giggled.
“I love Jake, I’m so happy for you Harry, now at least she’ll give up and leave the two of you alone and find someone else to bug,” she said and all the women agreed it was about time for Violet to move on with her life.


Chapter Four

Spring planting and everyone was back in the fields and Harry and Jake took their four oldest kids on their tractors to show them how to plant a field of crops. They all enjoyed riding along and they all bragged that they were going to be the best farmers when they grew up. And, of course, granddad had to take Jackson on his tractor and show him how a real man plowed. This made everyone laugh remembering how the man hated the tractor in the beginning.
Once the crops were in the children went back to school which made a lot of them gripe but Harry scheduled some field trips for his class which they enjoyed especially the one to Volcano Island to watch the lava run and they all made volcanoes and had a science fair and invited all of the parents to watch their volcanoes erupt. Everyone said Harry was the best teacher and Jake beamed with pride.
In the Talbert house they went back to their old schedule and Harry made sure to schedule fun stuff for the weekends so the kids would still have some fun and wouldn’t feel that going back to school meant that all the fun was over. They drove up to the mountains and went hiking to see the trees in all their wonder and the kids loved seeing the birds and the purple bunnies in the fields hopping around. Bo and Gertie had a ball trying to catch them with no success of course but they barked and made a lot of racket.
Violet spent the whole first week of their return sulking in her room and refused to come out to help with the planting while everyone laughed at her. No one minded her being gone, she was barely any help anyway and all she did was ride around and stare at Jake and Harry so they did without her. She did a lot of peeking through her new telescope, mostly at Harry who always had one of his stupid kids riding along with him. She didn’t understand the attraction of those little brats, they had to do everything for them, feed them, take them to the bathroom; it had to get boring after a while, what was the sense in having the stupid little things? But everyone acted like kids were the most wonderful thing in the universe and it baffled her.
When Harry sent an email out announcing a coffee run she had to come out of hiding. He listed people who hadn’t shown up for several runs and her, David and Gloria were on the list and if they didn’t show up he informed them they wouldn’t get any coffee because it wasn’t fair to the others who helped pick the beans if they didn’t and got coffee. She made a face when she read it and thought who died and made him king of Eden. But Saturday morning bright and early she pasted a big smile on her pretty face and drove to the carriers and greeted everyone warmly.
“Nice of you to show up, Violet,” Harry greeted her and she smiled.
“No problem,” she said sweetly and walked over to where David and Gloria were standing.
“Do you believe the nerve of that man, to threaten us like this,” Gloria snapped. David shrugged.
“He’s right though, honey, it’s not fair to the rest of the community if we get coffee all the time and we don’t show up for picking duty once in a while,” he said. She glared at him.
“Okay, that’s everyone, let’s load up and head out for some fun,” Harry called out and everyone laughed. Mike patted him on his back.
“Fun, right, boss,” he teased. They walked up the ramp and when everyone was aboard Harry flew to Savannah. And it was a perfect day for picking beans, nice and hot but not too humid. DJ set up some music and everyone talked and had as much fun as they could. Violet hated every minute and spent more time looking around than she did picking, he could force her to come but he couldn’t force her to pick. Mike glared at her.
“Hey, Violet, more picking and less looking, you haven’t filled one bag yet, you lazy ass,” he yelled and everyone turned around to look at her. She shrugged.
“I’m doing the best that I can, some of us aren’t meant for menial labor,” she told him primly. He snorted.
“Well, maybe you should drink what you pick, how would you like that,” he sneered and she looked shocked.
“That’s not fair,” she stated. He shrugged.
“We didn’t bring you here to stand around and look attractive, get your ass to work,” he snapped and she frowned and started to pick seriously. If they made her drink what she picked she’d better pick more than this, this wouldn’t last her a week.
When Violet took her bag up to the front, Harry put it aside from the others which scared her.
“Why did you put my bag over there?” she asked suspiciously. He shrugged.
“You, Gloria and David are being lazy so we’ve decided that you’re going to keep what you pick for yourselves so you’d better get moving,” he told her and she panicked and walked back to where the lazy couple were standing around. She whispered what Harry had just told her and they looked shocked.
“They can’t do that, that’s not fair,” David shouted. DJ laughed.
“We’ve been out here for four hours and you haven’t filled one bag yet and I’ve filled four, talk about not fair,” he shouted and everyone turned and glared at them. Gloria glared back.
“I’ve just had a manicure, you can’t expect me to pick coffee beans with a fresh manicure,” she protested. Harry shrugged.
“Gloria, I don’t give a shit about your damned manicure, you drink what you pick you lazy bitch,” he stated and everyone cheered while she gasped with shock.
“Hey, you can’t talk to my wife that way,” he sputtered.
“Oh, shut the hell up you lazy bastard,” Jan shouted and his mouth opened with shock. Violet raised her hand.
“I want my coffee kept separate from these two, I’ve already filled one bag,” she shouted and everyone cheered for her. Gloria looked shocked.
“Hey, I thought you were our friend,” she yelled. Violet shook her head and began picking faster.
“Not when it comes to coffee, you’d better start picking faster because I’m not sharing with you,” she told her. Gloria sighed and began picking faster. David nodded and began picking faster. Harry winked at DJ who winked back.
When the day ended Violet had four bags of coffee and the couple had six and everyone cheered for them. Violet felt quite smug. Harry put his arm around her and gave her a hug.
“We had to trick you but we finally got some work out of you,” he said and she frowned.
“You mean you’re not going to give me what I picked?” she asked. He shrugged.
“You can have what you picked or you can put it in with us and divide it evenly, whatever you want to do,” he told her. She looked at the four big bags and the huge stack that they had picked and decided to keep her own. Gloria and David did too. After all, that big stack had to be divided between a lot of houses. Harry nodded and put them in a separate bin for the ride home.
Back at the Mill, Harry roasted their beans first and Violet had a fifty pound drum of coffee which pleased her tremendously and the couple had a drum and a half which pleased them. Then Harry roasted the rest of the beans and put them into fifty pound drums and everyone got two fifty-pound drums and then a third drum filled half-way. Violet gasped with shock. Everyone got twice as much coffee as she did. Gloria glared at Harry as if