Chapter 24
Chapter Twenty-Four
“And then I just put them in the crockpot and turn it on low, and sometimes if I think about it, I might shuffle them around so they don’t get too brown on one side, but if not, they’ll be fine by the time it’s time to eat.”
Amy spoke to Summer and saw her listening attentively. She smiled. It was obvious that Summer wanted to learn how to make the filling balls so that she could fit into the family. Amy wasn’t completely oblivious to the shy smile that moved between Summer and her brother Gilbert.
“I really appreciate you coming. You and Jones didn’t have to spend your first Thanksgiving together here at our place, but it’s definitely nicer to see someone make them than to just be handed a recipe.”
“It’s my pleasure. We usually hang out at Mom’s house before the meal, so it wouldn’t surprise me at all if the entire family is here by ten o’clock. I hope you’re ready,” Amy said with a laugh.
“Gilbert told me not to get excited about it. He said the family was very low-key, and you definitely made me feel at home.”
“I’m glad about that,” Amy said. “And Gilbert’s right.
We’ve had people coming in and out of our house for years.
Ever since I can remember. Mom never told anyone no, and we were as likely as not to have someone new sitting at our table for any holiday or Sunday meal.
Even a regular evening meal after school, we might have people there. ”
“Your mom is quite a lady,” Summer said as she wiped off the table and threw the empty bread bags away.
“She sure is. I know I went through the typical teenage stage where I wanted to do everything the opposite of what Mom did, but that was short-lived. Nowadays, my main goal in life is to be half as good as what she is.”
“That’s a pretty high goal,” Summer said, and they laughed together.
Larissa, who had been listening to them, said, “Can I call Grandma and see when she’s coming?”
“You sure can, honey,” Summer said.
Larissa left the room with Summer’s phone.
“It’s almost like they’re yours,” Amy said thoughtfully after she watched Summer hand Larissa her phone, not even needing to say her password, which Larissa already knew.
“Well, don’t forget I had therapy with them once a week for a while, then went down to twice a month, but I still saw them an awful lot.”
“And you always spent more time with them than you needed to,” Amy said. “I’m not forgetting that.”
She had admired Summer back then when Summer had been working with Gilbert’s children, but she hadn’t really put the two of them together.
However, seeing them together in the house before Gilbert and Jones had taken the boys on out to the barn really made her think that perhaps Gilbert had finally found someone who appreciated the man he was.
Amy had never really thought that he and Desire were the best couple, although she certainly would never tell her brother that he couldn’t marry someone that he claimed to love.
“Hey, girlfriend,” Jones said, sticking his head in.
“Hey yourself, husband,” Amy said, wiggling her brows at him.
A look passed between them that felt as old as time but also new and different from the friendly looks that had passed between them all their lives.
“Gilbert wants to know if Summer will go down and help the boys ride horses before dinner. I told him that I’d send her down and stick around here and keep you company, even though it’s a hardship,” Jones teased.
Amy stuck her tongue out at him and said in a loud voice to Summer, “That man is incorrigible.”
“That woman is gorgeous,” Jones said, coming in and wrapping his arms around her.
Summer left without Amy even noticing as she twisted in Jones’s arms until she had her arms around him and lifted his face so he could kiss her.
“Now that’s what I’m talking about,” Jones said as he lifted his head.
Amy felt her cheeks get warm, and she didn’t know why. It wasn’t like they hadn’t been married for almost a year. Plus, they’d been best friends forever before that.
“Kissing you will never get old,” she said, snuggling deeper into his arms and enjoying a little bit of privacy.
It wasn’t like their whole house wasn’t private, since they didn’t have any children, and Amy was a little bit sad about that.
She kind of thought that they would start having children right away.
But the money that they were supposed to have inherited from his aunt after they got married had never materialized.
It turned out there had been some embezzling going on, and all the money from his aunt’s estate had been needed to pay the bills.
There was still some litigation going on, but Amy didn’t figure they would ever see the money.
“You look sad,” Jones said, and Amy again was amazed at how tuned into her moods he was.
“I’m not,” she said, putting a smile on her face.
“Is it the money?”
“No. We’re doing fine.” And that was true.
They had to move his practice, since the place where he had had it when they got married had been sold, but it actually worked out well because they were able to move it into the building right beside Amy’s house.
Where she kept her animal sanctuary. They had had to invest a little bit of money into redoing the building to contain exam rooms and a waiting room, and an operating table in the back, but they had done most of the work themselves, and their practice was busier than ever.
Jones had let all the office help go, and he and Amy did everything.
Apparently people thought it was quaint that a married couple ran the veterinary practice together, and business was booming.
“You know we wouldn’t be doing so well if it weren’t for you,” Jones said.
“Because people know how ferociously I love animals because they see what a crazy animal sanctuary I have?”
“No, because they love seeing a husband-and-wife team working together. And because they see how much you love their animals.”
“All right. So I was half right.”
“I can’t even give you that much? Or you taunt me and lord it over me.”
“I’d never,” she said, swatting his arm lightly.
“When you do that, you know I have to kiss you to calm you down.”
“Is that what happens,” she murmured as his lips lowered again.
They didn’t talk for a while, but Jones finally lifted his head and looked around the kitchen.
“These are nice digs,” he said, admiring the spacious area and the high-class cabinetry and counters.
“They are, but I guess I would rather be with you than in a high-class kitchen all the time.” She wasn’t really much of a cook anyway. She could do it, because her mother had insisted she learn, but she preferred working with animals, and Jones did too. Sometimes her meals were rather lean.
“Have you seen the way Gilbert looks at Summer?” Jones asked, lifting his brows after he rested his forehead on hers.
“I have. Interesting, isn’t it?”
“They really seem good together, although Summer seems so young compared to him. But she is a baby, and he’s this old man with practically grown children.”
“It is kind of amazing how quickly his kids have grown, isn’t it?
” The thought made her a little sad. Time marched on, unceasing, relentless, sometimes it felt like.
She just wanted to freeze it and enjoy being young, but someday she’d look like her mother, and Jones would look like an old man beside her, and they’d be grandparents. If they ever had any children.
“There’s that look again,” Jones said.
“I don’t have sad thoughts,” Amy said, trying to summon up a happy smile.
“But it’s Thanksgiving. You’re supposed to have thankful thoughts,” he said.
“I’m thankful for you. Thankful for my family. I’m thankful for the blessings that God gives me every day, that half the time I don’t appreciate, and I know I should, because I’m so blessed.”
“And I’m thankful for you. And I can say the same thing. God has blessed me far more than I deserve, that’s for sure.”
Amy snuggled in Jones’s arms, thankful that his aunt had died and left them money, even though they’d never gotten it.
If she hadn’t done that, she and Jones might never have considered getting married, and she wouldn’t be as happy as what she was right now, pressed against him, knowing that whether they had children, whether they didn’t, whether their veterinary practice was a success or whether it wasn’t, whether they got the money eventually or whether they didn’t, it didn’t matter.
She was one of the blessed people who had found the real deal. A man of character and convictions who would love her until he died.