Chapter 7 #3
“He told you not to worry about that.” He took a step back and smiled at her. “I’m suddenly starving, so we’d better get going. But I’m going to kiss you whenever I get the chance. That was just too good to let go just one time.”
While he was getting dressed, he thought of being in love with the beautiful woman.
They’d come so far the two of them, and he wanted to take it further still.
But he would go slow for her. He knew that she had a great deal on her mind and would be overwhelmed if he rushed her.
Besides, they had plenty of time to get to that point.
He wanted her in his bed, but could wait.
They had a lifetime of getting to know one another, and he couldn’t wait.
The drive to Stockport was fun. It was a pretty drive, too, with all the trees green.
She’d never been to this part of Ohio, and it had been a while since he’d been there.
They had cattle and hog auctions in the fall and spring, and he’d come up with his brothers sometimes.
Stockport was a nice town, and the restaurant they were headed to served a good fish fry from what he’d heard.
They were just in time to get a seat. After ordering the dinner, they waited for their turn to be served.
There were kids doing the serving, and they were working to get money for their trip in December.
It seemed a long way away, but he knew that it would be expensive to go, and they had to work hard to get there.
He was going to look into sponsoring something for them in his town for the kids, too.
They were forever selling something to make money for trips and uniforms, and such.
Dinner was as good as he’d heard it had been.
The kids that were in their section were good about keeping their water glasses full and fish on their plates.
He didn’t know how much he’d eaten, but he felt almost too full to drive back home.
After leaving a hundred-dollar tip for the trip, he and Hailey walked around town to feel less full.
They found a dairy bar open and decided to have an ice cream cone.
While eating it and walking, they talked about the things going on around the little town.
In addition to the trip for the band members, they were raising money for the new library and getting books for it.
He’d not realized that people actually did that, but he and Hailey thought it was a great idea.
There was also a little tea shop that they stopped in that sold tea leaves by the ounce and pound if you wanted them.
They both decided to get some different flavors of tea to take back home with them.
“I want some lavender tea. It’s said to help with going to sleep.
And here lately, I need something to help me fall asleep more than when I lived at home.
I was never a part of my parents’ lives when I lived there.
I think they forgot about me most of the time.
” He said that he’d not had a good childhood either.
“You had a terrible childhood. I heard about how your father killed your mother over a party he wanted to have.”
“He’d only just gotten out of jail, and some of his buddies wanted to have a get-together and drink the night away.
Since we had a house and not an apartment back then, he wanted to have it there.
Mom and us kids had picked berries all day and were making them into jam for the winter months.
He backhanded her first, then beat her badly.
Us kids tried to stay out of the way, but he knew we were there.
He kept cursing at us for her being dead.
When she didn’t die from him beating her, he strangled her with the belt from her dress.
That got me a lot. Knowing that Mom had looked so pretty with her dress on while we made jam.
The neighbors called the cops, and Dad decided to do away with the body by cutting it up with a chainsaw.
Thankfully, it wouldn’t start, or he might well have used it on us.
He had Bodi and I hold down her body so that he could cut it into pieces before the cops got there.
I can’t to this day stand anything to do with red berry jams.”
“That’s worse than I’d heard.” He said that when the police arrived, he tried to convince them that they didn’t see her body. “You mean he wanted to finish the job?”
“Yes. Then he called us from prison just before we sold the farm, asking us why we didn’t go see him.
” He didn’t think that killing our mother was all that big of a deal, and that we should put some money into his pot he called it so he could get a bag of chips.
Of course, we never did that.” She asked him where he was now.
“Dead. He died when he started a fight with another inmate over chips, of all things. I never in my life knew he liked them that much. I know we never had them around the house when we were kids. We didn’t even claim his body, but left him there at the prison to be buried.
Good riddens to him is all I have to say about him. ”
“He’s a terrible man, and I’m glad that he’s gone.
” He told her that he was as well. “My goodness. It’s a small wonder that you guys turned out the way that you have.
I don’t know that I could have gone on with my life, knowing that he was in prison.
You guys turned out all right, and that’s a blessing. ”
“Thank you. But we have our grandparents to thank for how we turned out. As soon as the funeral was over, my grandparents told us to come and live with them. I was about ten when it happened, so they’re all I really know about as parents.
Grannie made sure that we had meat on the table and that we had food when we wanted it.
In turn, when we all got out of high school, we did a tour in the service and sent her money home so that she could raise the rest of us.
Kinsey had started it, and the rest of us saw no reason why we didn’t carry it on so that we could have our educations paid for.
It came in handy, too, to have that paid for.
I miss my grandparents every day and wish they were here now to see what we did with ourselves.
The money aside, it would be nice if she could see our homes and the wives of the others. ”
“I bet she’d be proud.” He put his arm around Hailey and held her close.
After going to the car to drive home, he kissed her again and held her hand while he drove.
Gleason was about as happy and in love as his brothers were, and he was glad that he’d found Hailey.
She was the best thing that had ever happened to him.