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

a great day too, see you later,” he gushed and left. Jake smiled at his partner and kissed him.
“You’re such a nice person, you know that, babe,” he told him. Harry smiled.
“People like to hear that you appreciate them, it makes them feel special,” he said. He looked around the store. “I think that was everyone in town so we can close up and head home now, honey.” Jake nodded and they cleaned up, locked up and drove home, holding hands as usual.
“Daddy’s home,” Harry shouted when he entered the kitchen. Instantly seven kids jumped up, squealed and came running in to great them. Harry bent down and grabbed as many as he could for hugs. Jake grinned and put the box he was carrying on the table and bent down for his hugs.
“Did you bring me any whiskey, Daddy?” Sean yelled and Harry grinned and kissed him.
“I sure did, Sean, and you can have some after dinner,” he teased and everyone laughed. Sean giggled and Gertie barked. Mike walked in and laughed.
“That one knows a hundred jokes; what are you feeding him?” he teased. Jake grinned.
“I don’t know, him and Ryan are the funny ones, they’re always telling jokes,” he told him. Mike grinned.
“Is that my box on the table?” he asked and Jake nodded.
“We put an extra bottle of vodka in it for baby sitting duty, we appreciate you watching the kids for us,” he told him and Mike grinned again and patted him on the back.
“Hey, thanks, buddy, that’s super, I love your vodka, hell, for that I’ll baby sit any time,” he gushed. Harry grinned.
“Here that, honey, we have a free baby sitter and we’re got like six hundred bottles of vodka down at the store,” he teased and they all laughed. “Jake’s going to grill some steaks for dinner, Mike, why don’t you stay and help him?” Mike nodded.
“That sounds great, Harry, he looks like he needs some help when he barbecues,” he declared and Jake rolled his eyes.
I’ll have you know I’m the master chef when it comes to the barbecue grill, man,” he told him. They walked outside to light the grill and Fran and Harry exchanged an amused glance.
“Men are funny when it comes to the barbecue grill aren’t they, Frannie?” Harry teased and they both laughed. They went into the kitchen to get the rest of the meal ready and of course Harry’s buddy came in to help so he put Danny up on the counter to watch him slice cucumbers and tomatoes.
“Here you go, buddy, you want to help me chop up these tomatoes?” he asked cheerfully and Danny grinned and nodded. Fran smiled. Adam came in the kitchen.
“What’s to eat, I’m starving?” he complained. Harry grinned.
“There’s an apple,” he suggested and the little boy nodded and grabbed one. Of course when all the other kids saw he had one they all rushed in and grabbed one. Harry laughed and took a bowl into the living room for the cores and a cloth for them to wipe their sticky hands on.
They ate outside in the backyard and had a great time. Mike helped cut up steaks for the kids, he was great with them and all the kids ate with good appetites. He grinned at that.
“No food gets wasted in this house, does it,” he teased and Jackson laughed. Harry smiled.
“No way, all of my children are good eaters just like their dad,” he said proudly. Jake beamed.
“Poor Harry and Fran are going to have to open a restaurant when these boys get older. If they eat like this now, I can’t imagine how they’re going to eat when they’re teenagers,” Jake bragged. Fran and Harry laughed.
“That’ll be easy, instead of one roast for dinner, we’ll just cook two,” Harry told them. Mike grinned.
“With seven men to feed, you’d better make that three roasts,” he predicted. Fran giggled.
“It’s a good thing we’ve got two ovens,” she said and they all laughed. Harry shrugged.
“We can always go to another house bin and get a third if we have to,” he said and Fran groaned.
“Oh, man, I’m moving into the garage,” she teased and everyone laughed.
After dinner Mike stayed and helped with the clean up and then he left and then it was bath time and everyone went to bed and the men decided that it would be a great night for naked dancing so they danced and got all romantic and had a lovely time. They sipped whiskey sours in the candlelight and got all warm and fuzzy, just one each, they didn’t like getting tipsy when they had children to watch over, in case there was an emergency but one was nice to relax them. It had been a very nice day.
September came and now four children were off to school and they were all excited and Sean and Ryan were dreading the next year when Ryan would be old enough to go off to kindergarten and poor Sean would be left home alone with Danny. But Harry and Jake thought that the separation would be good for them, they needed to have time to develop their own personalities and not rely on each other so much. Especially Ryan who depended on his little brother too much, it would be good for him to be on his own.
All of the first kids were now ten and in fifth grade and Harry’s class was now in tenth grade and in two years would graduate and everyone was excited about that. Even the two who were a year younger were doing the same work as the older kids and loving it. Harry saw no reason to hold them back another year and had everyone working on the same projects. They had all missed the same amount of school and it had been easy to start them off in the same books and everyone appreciated being in the same grade. It was more fun that way.
Jake was left with only three at home and they were much easier to handle and he was able to do more things with them and they had lots of fun. He took them skating and bowling and on nature walks and to the playground and things he wasn’t able to do with all of the kids and they loved him for it.
They were sleeping one night when the alarm on Jewel’s old house went off and Harry sat up in bed and wondered what in the hell that noise was. Jake sat up too and they looked at each other. Then Harry realized what they were hearing.
“Shit, Jake, that’s the alarm on Jewel’s house, someone is breaking in to it,” he snapped. Jake sighed and reached for his shorts.
“Who in the hell could be doing that at three in the morning,” he muttered and they both threw their pants on.
When they got to the house, most of the men were gathered and watched Harry turn the alarm off. They all looked pissed.
“What happened, Harry? Did the alarm go off by itself?” Steve asked. Harry shook his head.
“No, someone tried to break in, everyone take a window or door and look around, I’ll check the security camera,” he said and walked in the house. DJ went with him. The security system was in the front closet and they found it easily and turned it on. They both laughed at Violet armed with a crow bar from her car at one of the back windows trying to jimmy it open. Steve and the other men walked in the house.
“We found one of the back windows has scratches on it, someone tried to force it open,” Steve announced. DJ laughed.
“Hey, guys, come and look at this,” he shouted and they all huddled in the closet and looked.
“Hey, that’s Violet, what is she doing?” Billy asked.
“She’s trying to open the window, the idiot, I guess she didn’t know about the alarm,” Jake surmised. Bobby laughed.
“Why in the hell is she trying to break into an empty house?” he asked. Harry shrugged.
“Maybe she thinks that if she can sneak in here and move in without us knowing about it then we won’t toss her lovely ass out when we find out,” he said and Jake laughed.
“Oh, that would be great, Violet and her itty bitty titties living right next door to us,” he declared and they all laughed. Harry sighed.
“I’ve had enough of that girl. Jake call Carl and Frank and wake them up, we’ve got her red-handed and that girl is going to jail for the night,” he decided and everyone laughed.
“Oh, man, I’ve got to see this,” DJ declared and they all stood outside Violet’s house and watched as she was dragged kicking and screaming down her stairs and put into the police car and taken to jail. Harry sighed and went back to bed.
The next day they called a town meeting and showed the video of her breaking into the house to the whole community to decide her punishment and Violet cried and said it was just a harmless prank, she hadn’t been trying to steal anything; she just wanted to live in the house.
“David told me about squatter’s rights and said if I moved into the house then Harry couldn’t throw me out because the house had been empty for so long and I was a squatter and I had the right to live there,” she told everyone. Harry sighed and stared at David who shrugged. Linda stood up.
“Why can’t Violet live in the house, it’s an empty house, Jewel doesn’t live there, it’s not Harry’s house, he already has a house,” she said. Harry stood up.
“It’s my house, I brought it down and I gave it to Jewel,” he told them. “When she went back to her planet the house was mine again and I decide who I want to live there and I certainly don’t want anyone but immediate family living in it. I’m saving it for one of my children to live it. Whoever lives in that house will share my barn and that’s a very private thing to do.” Kathleen stood up.
“It’s Harry’s house and he has the right to say who lives there and Violet and Susie have already asked if they could live there and he already told them no so they shouldn’t have tried to break in,” she reasoned. Reverend Milo stood up.
“Violet didn’t mean any harm, Harry, she’s just confused,” he said. DJ snorted.
“Violet is twenty-three years old, Reverend, she’s old enough to know what she was doing. She’s a demented bitch who’s been stalking Harry and Jake for years, ever since she was ten years old she’s had a crush on Harry and we all know that. Now, for some reason she’s switched that crush to Jake and it’s embarrassing to watch. Something’s got to be done about her before she does something really drastic and dangerous, the woman is dangerous,” he stated and more than a few people nodded. Kate stood up.
“You have an unhealthy fixation on my son and you need a psychiatrist, young lady. I don’t blame Harry and Jake for