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

Harry shook his head.
“I think that girl has a couple of screws loose in her brains, she doesn’t get it and she’s never going to get it so the only thing we can do is ignore her,” he said and they all sighed.
“Well, I’d still keep a close eye on Jake if I were you, Harry, you never know with men, the minute you think they won’t stray on you, that’s when you find out they’ve been cheating for years,” Kathleen told him. Harry nodded.
“I know, darling, but what can I do? I can’t tie him to me with a leash. I have to give him his freedom and just hope he loves me enough not to cheat and if he does then I have to decide if I love him enough to forgive him,” he said wisely and they all nodded.
“What if he leaves you?” Grace asked. Harry shrugged.
“I can’t tie him up and keep him a prisoner if he doesn’t want to stay, all I can do is love him the best way I know how and if he stays he stays and if he wants to leave then I have to accept it and go on, it’ll hurt like hell but if he wants to leave, I can’t make him stay,” he told them. Kathleen sighed.
“If Steve left I’d be hurt but its like you said, you can’t tie them up and keep them a prisoner, if they want to leave, they’ll leave,” she said and they all nodded. Then Harry grinned and reached into his bag.
“That’s enough sad talk, how about some chocolate?” he teased and they all grinned.
“Oh, yeah, I’d die for some chocolate,” Nyla declared and they all laughed. Harry took out one of his metal containers and they all were amazed that the candy was nice and hard and still cold.
“This is amazing, Harry, its still cold, how come it didn’t melt in that metal container?” April asked. Harry shrugged.
“This is a special metal called glyph and as soon as we find more of it Jake and I are going to make enough for everyone but we have to look in the mountains for some ore,” he informed them. Nyla nodded.
“We had such containers back on Minos, I remember them,” she said.
“Where did you get them?” Grace asked.
“From that Galactica ship, I grabbed a few before it blew up,” Harry told them. They all looked impressed.
“These would really come in handy, if you need someone to watch the kids while you go searching for ore let me know, I’ll help,” Kathleen offered.
“Me too,” April said and all the women nodded. Harry smiled.
“That would be great, I brought down a foundry and we can use it to melt the ore and make the containers. I know all the guys would love working in that,” he teased and they all laughed. Then Joon noticed the men coming back and it looked like they were carrying someone.
“Hey, it looks like someone got hurt,” she said and Harry jumped up and ran towards them. Jake thankfully was one of the men carrying Synta who was bleeding from his legs. But he seemed alright.
“What happened?” Harry asked as they laid him on the blankets. Jake shrugged.
“He fell off the ski and a shark bit him before we could pull him out of the water, no big deal,” he stated and all the men nodded. Joon sighed. Harry pulled the blanket away and they all gasped at the ugly bite. Harry rubbed his hands together and placed them over the bite and in a few seconds it was healed and Synta jumped to his feet and grinned. He hugged his wife who was very relieved.
“I guess you’ll be going out tomorrow on that stupid thing,” she said and he laughed.
“Of course, its fun and this was only a little shark and look, Harry healed it in just a few seconds,” he assured her. Everyone laughed and all the women thought the men were nuts.
“You men are crazy but we still love you,” Kathleen declared and Steve hugged her.
“Don’t worry, we look out for each other,” he told her and she shook her head. Jake and DJ went in to fetch everyone sodas and water and they all joined them on the blanket for some fun and told them all about the excitement. Jake glanced over Harry’s shoulder and grinned.
“I see she’s back again, man, that girl’s got a couple of screws loose,” he stated and all the girls laughed.
“That’s exactly what Harry said,” Nyla said and they all grinned. Jake reached out and pinched Harry’s nipples and he groaned and everyone laughed.
“These are my favorite titties,” Jake declared and Harry rolled his eyes. Emma and Jackson came over to the blanket.
“Daddy, can we go in the water?” he asked and Jake grinned.
“Sure, darling, let me take you,” he said and hopped up. And of course all the kids had to go so they walked them down to the water with the crashing waves and they had a ball splashing around. Jake and Harry took turns taking two at a time into the surf which made the kids scream and laughed, holding on to their dads for dear life. The ones watching got their feet wet and played in the sand which was fun too.
Then they walked back to the house and got rinsed off with lukewarm water and changed into shorts and tops and went into the house for lunch that Fran had waiting for them. Then everyone lied down for a nap, Jake stretched out on the couch and Harry fixed dinner. It was back to their old boring routine and everyone couldn’t have been happier. They had the best winter vacation ever and Harry and Jake played pirates several times and the couples got together for wine and games and barbecues and everyone enjoyed Hawaii.
Spring came and it was back to the fields and Harry planted extra fields of corn, barley and potatoes to replace the alcohol they had taken from the barn and the other men helped so it wasn’t anything. They enjoyed the free booze and liked helping make it so it was no problem to them to plant an extra field or two. David Marshall took out his recipe books and planted a field of barley and corn so he could make whiskey and scotch. He had a couple of stills and figured if he followed the recipes he shouldn’t have any problem making it. If that stupid Harry could make whiskey, why couldn’t he?
The kids went back to school and life continued in the little town and everyone was happy and busy. There was weeding to do and Church to go to and date nights to plan. Now that all the kids had kids they divided the date nights into two nights a month and took turns baby sitting and cleaning up. Farms One and Two dated the first Friday and Farms Three and Four dated the second Friday. Harry supplied the liquor for both nights and everyone was happy with that. He didn’t mind supplying the liquor, after all, he had a ton of the stuff and it was his community and it was a good will gesture. The problem was that some of the greedier people seemed to expect it and didn’t consider it the good will gesture that it was and considered it their due for being who they were and that pissed him off. Just because he had a liquor store didn’t mean he had to supply the liquor and he was angry with himself for supplying that first party years ago. He never should have taken that liquor out and let them fend for themselves, he had created their greed and he only had himself to blame. Now he was stuck with the greedy bastards so all he could do was grin and set up the bars.
Weeding came up and Harry reprogrammed all the tractors on the farm so that when you attached the weeder to them they would only go three miles an hour and that pissed a few of the people off who liked to go faster like Violet and Dr. Jackson but the others laughed and said if they didn’t like it they could just move to another farm and raise crap vegetables but on Farm Four they raised the best vegetables.
“You’re not supposed to go faster than three miles an hour, dear, why are you mad that the tractor won’t go any faster?” Kate asked in her reasonable tone and Violet flushed.
“Three miles an hour is too slow, why can’t we go five miles, we can still get weeds at five miles,” she snapped. Mike shook his head.
“No, we can’t, at five miles an hour you leave most of the bugs and bugs eat our crops. Everyone knows the most effective speed is three miles an hour. If you don’t like it then move to another farm but here we weed at three miles an hour,” he told her firmly and she stomped off to her tractor. Dr. Jackson sighed.
“Can I ride with you, Granddad, I love weeding,” Jackson said and smiled up at him. The man smiled down at his favorite grandson and beamed.
“Sure, Son, let’s get all those nasty weeds and bugs, we’ll kill all those bastards,” he declared and the two hopped on his tractor and Dr. Jackson let his grandson steer. Jake laughed.
“Was that your idea, babe?” he teased and Harry shrugged.
“I just suggested to Jackson that his granddad might want some company today and you know how much the kids love riding with him,” he said and everyone laughed.
“You’re very clever, Henry,” his mother Kate told him. Both of her older kids Tracy and Travis who were twelve and eleven had their own tractors this year and were loving weeding. Jake’s older brothers Monroe and Dwight had their own tractors too and so did all the older kids so they had a bunch of tractors in the field so weeding was easier than ever. Jake and Harry took their kids on their tractors and they had a ball riding. And, of course, all of them had to ride a couple of rows with granddad who loved to tell them stories, they all loved granddad.
The next week Harry and Jake took all of their kids to Dr. Dennis to get their teeth clean and their check ups and he proclaimed them the best teeth on the planet.
“You know Harry, we’re all getting pretty low on toothpaste and we’ll be running out soon,” he told him. Harry nodded.
“I know. Myla, mom and I have been working on an organic solution. You know toothpaste is mostly sodium fluoride with mint or something added to make it taste better. We can find those ingredients on the planet,” he explained and Dr. Dennis nodded. Harry continued.
“I’ve got a factory that I can use to make toothpaste, it wasn’t designed for toothpaste, it’s a factory that makes icing for cake decorating but those little tubes that hold the icing would be perfect for toothpaste,” he told him and the other man nodded. “Salt we can get from the salt mine we discovered in the hills and fluoride we’ve got so all we need to do is grow the mint and find the right formula and