Chapter 17 #2
“When I was a kid,” Wilson said as he got the measuring cup out and measured flour into a bowl, allowing Lavinia to dump it in, “I was responsible for breakfast one day every week. It runs in my mind it was usually Tuesdays. Pancakes was the meal that I always made. So yeah, I’ve made them for years, and I have the recipe memorized, although… I’m doubling it today.”
“I hope there would have been as many people eating at your house.”
“Terry was out of the house for years, and sometimes Isadora didn’t eat much. And then she complained the pancakes were just big globs of carbs, and she ate fruit or something instead.”
“Wow. I guess I kind of love big globs of carbs. I think I’ll take a double portion.”
Wilson laughed as he continued to allow Banks and Lavinia to help him measure the ingredients out and crack the eggs.
“Now, we’re going to stir it all up, but we can’t stir too much, because that’s the key to good pancakes. Just stir until it’s mixed, and no more.”
“Really? That’s the key?” Banks said, like he was remembering everything that Wilson told him for a future date.
It struck Wilson anew the responsibility he had to raise these children.
They were looking at him, watching him, emulating him, and thinking about the things that he said and did.
It felt like a heavy responsibility. And of course it was, but it was a responsibility that every man who had a child had.
Gifford put the first pancakes on the griddle, and Charity set the table with Serafina and Evans, and while they were waiting, he walked over to where Charity stood, washing off the utensils that they’d used and putting them in the drainboard.
He wanted to put his arm around her and nuzzle her cheek, maybe kiss her neck and tell her good morning, but Pastor Connelly had said he needed to wait a year, and that seemed a little forward for a couple who was supposed to be courting, even though they were married.
So, he leaned his hip against the counter and shoved a hand in his pocket, feeling a little awkward, because he couldn’t do what he wanted to do.
“Did you sleep well?”
He wanted to ask her a million other questions, like, did you change your mind? Are you still okay? Did you decide that you’d made a huge mistake and you want out of it? But he didn’t.
“I did, surprisingly. I didn’t realize how nervous I had been about being here by myself with all the children and if there was a bump in the night, it was all my responsibility.
I just thought to myself, ‘Wilson’s down there now, and he’ll take care of it,’ and I laid my head down on the pillow and slept like a baby. ”
“I’m happy to hear that,” he said.
“What about you? I always thought that couch was really comfortable. It sags through the middle, and I just love it.”
He laughed. “That sag in the middle kind of made my hips hurt, but I walked it off. And I slept really well. So well in fact that the three oldest children were standing around me, staring down at me talking about me before I really even realized what was going on. I never heard them come downstairs.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry. I’ll say something to them?—”
“No. It was fine. You wouldn’t say something to them if I was their real dad. Would you?” He hated to use that word, “real.” But it was true. If they were married and they were his kids and hers, she wasn’t going to stop them from doing that if he allowed it.
“No. But… I don’t mean to say they’re not, it’s just, I’m not sure that you’ll tell them no if you don’t want them to do something.”
“Will it make you feel better if I promise you that I will tell them no if I don’t want them to do something?
Or maybe I should say if I feel like they’re doing something they shouldn’t do.
Because it might not have been the best way to get woken up this morning, but when you’re a dad, sometimes that’s the way you get woken up and it has to be okay. ”
“You could have yelled at them and told them to leave you alone, that you were still sleeping.”
“And then I would miss this time making pancakes with them. I’m glad I didn’t. And I don’t want to. I don’t want to take the easy way out. I want to do the hard things. The hard things that dads do, when they’re good dads. And they don’t put themselves and their own comfort above their children.”
“Wow. That’s inspiring.”
He chuckled, but he knew she was also serious. He didn’t mean to be inspiring. He meant to be honest.
“So are you okay?” he asked, wanting to know if she changed her mind but not wanting to say it.
“Yes. I’m fine. How about you? I worry a little that after all the hubbub of yesterday, you would…regret what you’d done.”
“Never.”
She looked like she wanted to say a little bit more.
And he thought for an instant that maybe they should talk about what the pastor had told him, but that kind of defeated the purpose, didn’t it?
He was supposed to be wooing her, courting her, not getting her input in everything, and if he did that, she might feel compelled to have to say that she didn’t want to wait a year, because there might not be any way he could keep himself from saying that he didn’t.
And he didn’t want to pressure her. The pastor was right, they needed to build a strong foundation, and that would be slowly and surely, over time.
“I didn’t really have any plans for today, other than maybe starting to pack some things up.”
“That sounds good to me. I was going to get some of my brothers together, and my brothers-in-law, and figured they could give us a hand between now and the new year, when they’re not working as much.
I actually think Jones has closed his clinic for the entire week.
So he will probably be available almost any time. ”
“All right.”
“I know you want the kids to take their naps in the afternoon, so not today, but maybe I can get some things in line for tomorrow, and maybe during that time, we can figure out exactly when we want to move everything so that we don’t have one kid’s bed here and another kid’s bed there and we’re trying to figure out how to put everybody to sleep some night. ”
“That makes a lot of sense. I suppose I should have been the one to think about that.”
“I think you had enough to think about.” He paused and then figured he’d better check. “It’s still okay to move to my house?”
“Yes. And the sooner we can do that, the sooner we can get this up for sale.”
“Sounds good to me.”
“And I’ll see if I can get in touch with Clancy and see how we’re going to split the money for this.
I hate to do it. But I might as well take the bull by the horns.
Of course, I might not be able to get a hold of him.
It’s not like he left me contact info. All I have is his old phone number, which, unless he changed it, should still work. ”
“If not, we’ll figure it out by going to a lawyer and seeing what they say. It will be nice to know, but I think probably we should just work on the assumption that you get half and he gets half, and if something else works out, we’ll just be pleasantly surprised.”
“That’s a good idea.”
“I think the pancakes are done. Would you come check them, Mr. Wilson?”
“We’ll have to figure out what the kids are going to call you,” Charity said softly as he started to move away.
His lips turned up in a smile as their eyes met. “Let’s give them some time.”
She nodded and looked happy that he suggested it, and he was glad he didn’t insist. He would really like for them to call him Dad, it seemed a lot more casual than Mr. Wilson, but at the same time, they had a dad, and he hadn’t been gone long.
And Wilson didn’t want to push in where he wasn’t welcome or make the kids resent him.
Maybe, the kids were an awful lot like Charity.
They could just use a little bit of time.