CH 54 - #generations
#generations
Luke
“Hey!” I said, smiling at my mom and Hayden and hugging them. They’d arrived at the ranch.
“It is so good to see my two boys at the same time again.” Our mom patted our cheeks, pride for us showing in her eyes.
“Are you ready to meet your grandson?”
“I am.”
I looked at Hayden. “Your nephew is a handful.”
“Well, he is a Harrison, so…”
“He sure is, but he also has Madison’s fire.”
“Is that a good thing?”
“A very good thing. Both of you come on, let’s go inside.”
When we walked into the living room, Madison got up from the couch, smiling. Her mom stood up from her recliner, her eyes shining with happiness, then went straight over to my mom and hugged her, saying it was wonderful to see her again. Then she did the same to Hayden.
I picked up Beau off the floor, sitting in the middle of his many toys, and held Bella’s hand, looking at Madison next and nodding for her to follow me over to my mom and Hayden.
“Here’s my family. This is Madison, our girl Bella, and our boy Beau,” I told them.
My mom stepped up to Madison and held her face, smiling at her. “It is so good to meet you finally.”
“It is you, too, ma’am.”
“Thank you for…” My mom was suddenly choked up. “For opening the door to Luke to have this family with you. He loves all three of you so much.”
“We love him too.”
Madison hugged my mom, then turned to Hayden.
“I know you’re upset with me,” she said.
“Not anymore because you did right by my brother. Bring it in, sister-in-law,” he said, moving his fingers for Madison to come to him.
“I’m not—”
“You practically are.”
She smiled, the two of them hugging and chuckling.
After introducing Hayden and my mom to Bella, they hugged her, too. Then I asked my mom if she wanted to hold her chunk of a grandson. She nodded and reached out her arms toward him. He went right to her, smiling at her.
“Oh my gracious, look at you, you beautiful boy,” she said, her eyes brimming with happy tears.
Beau surprised me by pointing at me and saying, “DaDa.” It was the first time I heard him call me that.
“He just…” I couldn’t get all my words out as I looked at Madison.
She grinned. “I’ve been working with him on it, showing him photos of you on my cellphone and saying your name.”
I focused on Beau again and patted his back. “Buddy, you just made my day.”
When my mom handed him to Hayden, my boy smiled again.
“Man, he is a solid one-year-old,” my brother said, looking at Madison and me. We nodded, then he added that he thought it was cool that Beau had the same heart-shaped birthmark by his left eye that I did.
“He’s extra special like me,” I teased.
Hayden rolled his eyes, grinning. “Whatever.”
For the next three hours, he, my mom, Sara, Madison, our kids, and I hung out in the living room, chatting and enjoying our time together. It was healing to me. I could tell by the light shining in Madison’s eyes that she felt the same.
Beau started getting fussy. It was his naptime. Before Madison took him to our bedroom to nurse and rock him to sleep, my mom and Hayden said they needed to get back to Lubbock and Dumas. They kissed Beau on the cheek, then said goodbye to Sara, Madison, and Bella. I walked outside with them.
“How do you two feel about everything?” I asked.
They both nodded, saying they were happy. My brother then said something that wasn’t surprising. He wanted to know when I was going to pop the question to Madison.
“As soon as I buy her an engagement ring. I’ve actually been looking at some online.”
“A year has been wasted. I’d get that ring soon, so you don’t waste another second of Madison not being yours.”
“She already is, but I know what you mean. I’m ready to marry her.”
“Son, what will your living arrangements be with her?” my mom asked.
“She and I haven’t figured that out yet. I always have the option to move back to Amarillo and work at one of the other horse ranches. There are some in Dallas, too, but I really don’t want to move there.”
“I don’t blame you.”
Hayden raised his arm, pointing up. “I stopped by your storage unit like you wanted and found your box of high school stuff. I’ll grab it out of my truck real quick.”
“I really appreciate you taking the time to do that. Madison is going to be so surprised.”
“What’s the deal with her wanting to see all of it?”
“She and I are both curious about those days for each other. Look at this photo of her.”
I pulled my cellphone from my jeans pocket and showed Hayden and my mom the drill team photo of Madison.
“Damn, she looks the same,” my brother said.
Our mom agreed, commenting on how beautiful Madison and Bella were.
“Bella is calling me ‘daddy’ now. She asked me if she could. Her biological father signed over his custody rights of her.”
“I believe you’re just the daddy that sweet little girl needs.”
“I need her too.”
I watched my mom and brother drive away, grateful they came here.
After I went back inside the ranch house, I carried the box of my high school memorabilia down the hallway to my old bedroom, quietly opened the door, and peeked around it.
Madison was laying Beau in his bed. He was out, sound asleep.
“What do you have there?” Madison whispered, coming up to me.
“What you requested, but Hayden got it for me on his way here.”
I took the lid off the box. Madison’s eyes dropped to what was inside, her mouth instantly falling open.
“Oh—my—gosh,” she said, smiling and wiggling her body around as she held up my senior year football jersey, looked over it, and hugged it to her. “May I keep it?”
“Yep.”
“Where’s a photo of you in it?”
I pulled the frame photo from the bottom of the box. “Here you go.”
“Oh, Luke, your handsome face looks the same except for it not having any scruff. You were in great shape, too, just like you are now, but you’re a bigger man today.”
“By thirty pounds.”
Madison kept staring at my photo, smiling. “I would’ve had the biggest crush on you if we’d gone to high school together.”
“I would’ve made you mine in a heartbeat. I would’ve also given you this.” I grabbed my class ring from the box and handed it to her. “I want you to keep it too.”
Her lips parted in surprise as she looked at it, then up at me. “Really?”
“Yep.”
“I love you being old-fashioned. If I wear your ring, that means we’re going steady like they used to say back in the fifties.”
“Whether you wear it or not, you’re mine.”
“And you’re mine.”