Chapter 13
Lottie had just finished her second doughnut when her folks arrived in the rec room that morning. “Hey, y’all made it,” she called out and waved.
“Just long enough for a cup of coffee and a doughnut, and a tour of the first cabin y’all have put up,” Darlene answered and crossed the room to give Lottie a hug. “The movers are supposed to be at Ryan’s by noon.”
“I’ll team up with Knox while you show your folks around,” Eddie offered.
“Thanks,” Lottie said with a nod.
“Would y’all be interested in the second cabin?” Jack asked. “Mandy would be glad to have some space between her and her siblings, and I would like to be next door to you and Zeke.”
“Yes, definitely,” Darlene answered and sat down at the table where Knox was sitting. “Our house in Houston has a buyer. We’re just waiting for paperwork, like you and Mandy. That would mean we wouldn’t have to store anything but could move right on up here.”
“Then consider it yours,” Jack said with a grin.
“I can show you the foundations for the other six cabins, but I’m glad you’ll be moving while I’m still here for a little while. Does that mean you are making lunch for me every day, Mama?”
“Only if you help me unpack, decorate the place, and go fishing with your dad every evening,” Darlene answered.
“Oh, no! I’m not good at decorating, and I do not want to argue with you about whether to put up white window blinds or wood-looking ones,” Lottie said with a giggle. “I’ll just eat my lunch with the guys and leave all those jobs to you.”
Zeke took a seat beside his wife, reached into the box, and pulled out a doughnut with chocolate icing. “Smart girl, but I might steal Knox away from you a few times to go fishing with me. I’m bringing my boat, and your mama fries up a mean batch of fish.”
“That can be arranged,” Lottie told him.
Darlene nudged him on the arm. “Zeke, darlin’, do you realize this means we can be moved in before we go on our cruise the second week in May? That we can come home and begin our second honeymoon when we get back.”
Lottie poured two cups of coffee and carried them across the room. She set one in front of each of her parents, then sat back down beside Knox.
“It will be noisy for a while after you get here,” Knox was telling them. “We’ll still be working on the last couple or three cabins when y’all get here.”
“How does all this construction stuff work anyway?” Darlene asked.
“Knox, Gabe, Thomas, Eddie, and I are framers. We get the first cabin ready in a week, and then those guys over there at that table”—she nodded to her left—“they come in behind us and put up the outside and roof.”
“Get it in the dry, right?” Zeke asked.
“Yes,” Knox answered. “It’s kind of like an assembly line. We’ll be framing the third cabin when the next crew comes in to do the drywall, painting, and all that.”
“The fourth week, the finish guys bring in the cabinets, do all the baseboards, doorjambs, and that kind of thing,” Lottie said.
“When the framers are done with the last cabin, we all go back to wherever we are needed to help get everything else up and going,” Knox added. “Or if it rains and we can’t put up walls and roofs, then we pitch in where we can.”
“What else are you good at, son?” Zeke asked.
Her father’s last word was like a sword piercing Lottie’s heart. In spite of all her dreaming, the likelihood of Knox ever being a son-in-law was at that point at the .00001 percentile.
“I can do it all, from the foundation to putting up the last ceiling fan or staining and varnishing, but I enjoy framing most of all,” Knox answered. “I hear y’all’s cruise is going to Hawaii. I’ve never been, so you’ll have to tell me all about it when you get back.”
Zeke rolled his eyes. “Oh, we definitely will, and you’ll have to sit through eight million pictures that Darlene will take on the trip.”
Darlene shook her finger under his nose. “Hush, you old coot. You’ll be the one who looks at the photo album more than anyone else.”
Zeke winked at Knox. “Got to keep the womenfolks on their toes so they don’t get antsy. A little argument is good for the soul and the marriage.”
“I’ll remember that, sir,” Knox said. “So, you’ll be at Swan Song Estates before you leave for your cruise?”
“We’ll only be here a couple of weeks before we fly to California to catch the ship taking us to Hawaii for thirteen days,” Zeke said.
“By the time we get back, the sidewalks and landscaping should be done, and we can spend the summer either fishing in the lake or watching the sunrises and sunsets.”
Lottie shoved the box over closer to them. “I’ll be glad when you are here, and I can spend more time with y’all.”
Her mother’s face glowed, and her eyes misted over. She didn’t let a single tear fall, but Lottie could tell by her expression that those few simple words meant the world to Darlene.
Darlene laid her hand on her daughter’s and gave it a gentle squeeze. “Yes, and so will we.”
Zeke reached into the box and picked up a second doughnut. “Absolutely. We’ve missed you, ladybug. I understand you only live a couple of hours from here, Knox. Do you have a lot of family up in that area?”
Lottie shrugged when Knox glanced over at her with questions written all over his face. “You tell them about the Paradise. I can’t remember all their names.”
“I guess that means you come from a big family,” Zeke said. “Darlene said your last name was Callahan. Was your mother a Paradise?”
“Paradise is a place, not a name,” Lottie answered.
“I’ll try to make the story as short as possible,” Knox said.
“I have a twin brother, Tripp, and we were adopted. My mother had an older son, Brodie, who’s about two years older than us.
He doesn’t belong to my father and only found out who his biological father was a few months ago.
Just before my mother passed away, she told all of us about our biological fathers.
Mine and Tripp’s was no longer living, but Brodie’s father was alive and well in Spanish Fort, Texas, living at the Paradise,” Knox answered and took a sip of his coffee.
“They came to Spanish Fort to the Paradise where Joe Clay and Mary Jane live to see Brodie’s blood father and decided to stay in the town,” Lottie continued.
“Joe Clay is retired military, and Mary Jane writes romance novels as Mary Jane Simmons. They adopted all three of the Callahan brothers into the already large family.”
“I’ve read Mary Jane Simmons books for years. My favorites are the ones about the ladies who worked in the old brothel…” Darlene clamped a hand over her mouth. “That’s the Paradise, isn’t it? The one that she wrote about and where she lives.”
“Yep, and if you read her biography, you know that she raised seven daughters there,” Knox answered.
“She and Joe Clay are in the process of adopting Ivy, a teenage girl who needed a home. So, the short version is that there are seven, soon to be eight daughters, seven sons-in-law, and my two brothers are newly married, so there are two daughters-in-law. Plus, a handful of grandkids. That means I have a very, very large family. Maybe someday you can come up to the Paradise and meet them.”
“Do you think Mary Jane might sign some of my books, or would that be intruding?” Darlene asked.
“Not at all,” Knox answered and pushed back his chair.
“She’d be glad to sign them for you. Looks like my crew is ready to go to work.
Nice visiting with y’all. We’ll be putting down the sill plates this morning.
Why don’t y’all stop by? We could even let Zeke hold the plate or drill in a bolt so he can say he helped build his new home. ”
“I’d like that,” Zeke said. “Hurry up, Darlene. I want to brag to all the others that I had a hand in building our cabin.”
Knox stood up, took a couple of steps, and then blew Lottie a kiss. “You don’t have to rush too much. We’ve still got to cut the boards.”
She caught the kiss and pretended to shove it into the pocket of her bibbed overalls.
“Now that one is a keeper,” Zeke whispered. “Don’t let him get away.”
Lottie’s mother shot a look across the table that made her feel even worse than she already did. “He is a wonderful guy, Daddy.”
“I can see that,” Zeke said. “You ready to take us on the tour of Jack’s cabin and then show us all around this place? Until last night, we had only seen pictures and mock-ups of what the cabins will look like when they are finished.”
Darlene got to her feet and looped her arm into Zeke’s. “And we decided that the pictures didn’t do justice to any part of this place. I can’t wait to plant roses around my house.”
“And I’m planning to till up a garden on part of my land. I’ve always wanted to try my hand at growing vegetables. If the apples make good, we might even make our own pies for Thanksgiving,” Zeke said.
Lottie followed behind them. “I guess this means y’all are pretty well finished with traveling the world?”
“Absolutely,” Darlene answered. “This cruise will be our last. We are ready to settle down and grow old together.”
Lottie giggled.
“What’s so funny?” Zeke asked.
“I didn’t think y’all would ever get tired of traveling,” Lottie answered. “But since you have, I’m glad you are moving here. Uncle Jack told me why you named the place that, but it sure doesn’t go with the cabin idea.”
“No, but we all loved the name,” Zeke said when they entered the first cabin with only the framework finished. “Would you look at this, Darlene? It’s the bare bones of what our new place will look like.”
“I can see now that I’m going to have to size down a lot,” she said as she wandered from what would soon be two bedrooms into an open living space for the living room, dining room, and kitchen.
“But I love it. The kids can bring their trailers when they come visit since Jack already has places set up for that kind of thing. The second bedroom can be my hobby room where I’m going to make quilts. ”
Good Lord! Her parents who had been city people her whole life were going back to nature.