Chapter 8 #2
“Have you spoken to the others about what we were talking about yesterday?” He said that he’d not but would at the Friday meeting.
They’d been getting together on Friday nights for the past ten years.
It had worked out well for them. “I’ve been talking to the girls.
They’ll have an opinion when the time is right.
I don’t think that any of us wants to be immortal anymore.
I know that I’ve given it a great deal of thought, and I just want to die like your grandparents did.
In each other’s arms while slipping away in their sleep. That’s so romantic.”
“The fact that they knew it was time to go boggled my mind. Grannie had us all over for dinner and told us that they were going to go home. Imagine my surprise when they didn’t mean Texas.
” She said she didn’t think that any of them got it until Lance did.
“No, he understood before any of us. I’m glad too.
I felt foolish for thinking what I did. And then within three days they were both gone. ”
He missed them every day. There wasn’t a day that went by that he didn’t think of them and miss them.
When he remembered that they’d died, he’d get sad again and miss them all more.
They’d been a huge part of their lives, and now that they were gone, he realized how much more they’d done for them when they’d been alive.
“I’ve been thinking about something else when I was cleaning up the dining room. I think I’d like to have another baby.” He said he was game if she was. “Just like that? You’re willing to have another child because I want one?”
“I would do anything for you. And that includes having another child if you want to.” She told him that she did and was wondering when they could start on it.
He told her right now, and she laughed at him.
“How about I lock up the house, and we go up to our bedroom and try? You’re not ovulating right now, but that doesn’t mean we can practice.
You remember how much practicing we did before Amy came along, don’t you? ”
“I’m surprised that she wasn’t twins or more, the way that we kept at it.” She kissed him on the mouth, and he held her to him. “I love you, Denver Tucker. With all that I am.”
“And I love you too, my dearest heart. You make me a better man when you’re around, and I couldn’t be happier with the results.” After standing up, Bailee went off to bed. He locked up the house and turned off the lights.
He loved this old house and thought that it was the perfect size to have more children in. He couldn’t wait to tell his family that they were trying again and would be thrilled if they had another girl. Just so long as it was healthy, he really didn’t care what it was.
After getting up to the bedroom, he locked their doors too.
The kids knew that they locked the door at night and would know to pound on the door if they needed them.
Harmon had nearly walked in on them when he’d just been a little boy so they started locking their door nightly.
He didn’t want to scar his children for the rest of their lives by them walking in on them when they were making love.
It was a habit that he thought all his brothers had since they all had kids.
No matter how little they were, things had a way of just coming up when they were around.
~*~
Lance put the glass bowl in the hot kiln so that it wouldn’t cool off too quickly.
He’d been making a set of stacking bowls for the last few days, and he thought he was finally getting the hang of it.
The trouble was, he was having a hard time not making them all big.
But Ivy told him that she needed a set for serving at the table, and he was going to get them even if he had to use all the glass in his shop.
Not that he thought that was possible. He had a seemingly endless supply of glass that he worked with.
“I have an order for you.” He looked up at David, his brother-in-law, when he came into the room. “Can I help you with that? I’ve gotten pretty good at cutting for you when I just show up.”
“I just have to set it on the mold. If you could just give me a few minutes, I’ll have it there, and we can talk.” He said he’d stand out of the way. “Thanks. It’s dangerous being out here when I’m blowing.”
The mold took the glass like he wanted, and he moved it around so that it would be even.
Picking the mold and glass up, he headed for the kiln again and put the two pieces in it to cool down.
He even loved the colors of this set that he was making.
The dark green was going to look good in Ivy’s home, too.
He looked at David when he was finished.
“That amazes me every time I see you do it. I would fumble and fall with it when I tried to move it to where he needed to be.” Lance told him that he’d done that several times, and it never got any easier.
“I bet not. About this order. I think you’ll understand what we need.
I need at least a dozen little bowls about the same size.
We want to put herbs in them as we use them, so that they don’t get all mixed up at the same time.
I think that Dakota called them pinch pots.
Just big enough to take a pinch out of them to put into whatever we’re cooking. ”
“I have a set of those already.” He went across the room and pulled the large box of glassware off the shelf.
“I was trying to figure out if I could get the same sizes made up when I was working the other week. I thought that I’d put them in the shop as pinch pots, good name for them by the way, and see if I could get rid of them that way.
Take what you want of them or all of them if they’ll work for you. ”
“These are perfect. And I love the colors too. Where did you get this bright red from? I think that’s the most beautiful color I’ve seen you use out here.
” He said he’d been mixing broken glass with some of the colored glass that he had, and it came out that way.
“Which means you’ll never get the color again.
I remember you telling me that once. How you had this blue color that you dearly loved and couldn’t get it again. ”
“That’s right. I remember telling you that.” David was going through the box and stacking them on the table in size. “How are those going to work for what you had in mind? I don’t mind making you something different if they’re too small.”
“They’re perfect. And I love that I have so many of them.
Are you sure you don’t want to sell them sometime?
I mean, there must be about three dozen of them.
” He said he was just going to put a couple of bucks on them when he sold them, and he was doing him a favor by taking them all.
“If you’re sure, I’ll take them. This is going to save us a lot of time in prep work.
I’m going to have to label them, but I’m thinking now that they’re in colors, we can just remember the colors. I love them.”
After David left him in order to take the cups to his wife, Lance started breaking up glass for the next project he had in mind.
He’d been thinking about it for the last week and thought that he had all the processes down in the way that he needed them to be made.
Just as he was cleaning up his mess, Adonna, the queen of the fae, appeared in his building.
“I waited to see what you’d be doing next when I wanted to come here.
I have some news for you. The little birdbaths that you made for my people have become a good hit.
I’ve been using them for special awards when they do something extraordinary.
They really love them.” He said he was glad, and like he did for his brother, he went over to his shelf and pulled down the box of them he had.
“Oh, how beautiful. These will be perfect for the next round of giveaways. You’re so talented, can’t you tell me something that you want so that I can repay you for it?
You’ve made so many of them now, I’m sure that everyone will have one by the end of the next sowing season. ”
“Just pay it forward like you’re forever telling me to do.
” She flushed brightly, and he had to smile.
He’d made an ancient woman blush, and he felt good about that.
“You could do me a favor, though. Not that you’d have to do it, but the next time you’re playing around with the roses at my grannie’s house, could you please make it so that all of us can have a bush started from them?
You don’t have to do it if it puts you behind.
I know you’re on a tight schedule as it is. ”
“I would love to do that for the family. I’ll have them finished up in a week.
That way, I can make sure that the seedlings are going to be strong enough to hold their shape.
Your grannie had the most beautiful flowers of all the gardens around her.
She loved them so, and I can understand why you want a cutting for yourself.
” He said that he wasn’t going to tell his family until he had them, so they’d be surprised.
“What a wonderful thought. Yes, I’ll be very careful about not telling them about them, too.
You have a brilliant mind, and I so love you. ”
“I love you too, my lady. You and I have gotten along so well over the seasons that I feel like we’re related on some level.
” She flushed again, and he had to laugh.
“When you get them, let me know. I’ve already got the little containers made up for them.
It’s pieces of the glasses that we used when we would all go over there. ”
“They’ll treasure it all from you.” When she left him, telling him that she might need more of them sometime soon, he decided to make a list of things that he was going to need to get her an order done.