Page 10 of Waylon

“Let me ask you this first. Do you want to work, or do you think you have to work? You don’t if you don’t wish to. My mom does a great deal of charity groups and is on the board of a lot of the businesses around town. Like the library and the hospital. Also, she does a great many fundraisers throughout the year as well.” Londyn said that she did notice that she was busy all the time. “I was thinking too that you could come in and work the hardware store with me but I’d be closed more than opened. Chasing you through the shelves would just be too much fun not to try. I don’t know that my parents could work together either. Dad’s not very neat when he works at his desk, and it drives my mom nuts. Her area, usually the dining room table, is neat as a pen, and she knows just where everything is.”

“I would enjoy going to see where you work sometime but you’re right, we’d never be able to sell anything if you and I are together for very long. Even though I’m still a bit sore, I can see us having fun like we did downstairs against the cash register.” He laughed, telling her that was just the way he’d take her too. “I need to work. I can’t be idle for long before I start down the path of being depressed. I’ve had depression all my life and low self-esteem. The only reason that I was able to do what I didwas that I kept telling myself that it would end soon and I’d be on my own as an attorney. That’s all changed now. I still want to be one but I want to work for a single family, yours. Will you get in the tub with me?”

“Yes.” Once he was in the water behind her, he washed her arms and shoulders while thinking about how to answer her. “Dad would love to have you with him on things like that. He doesn’t go all that often, but when he does, he usually wins. Also, it would be good too to have you around as you’d be able to read contracts. We usually have a couple of those we need to go over a week for one thing or another. I don’t know that you know this but I also own General Hardware. It’s a place that I worked at for a long time as a kid so when the time came up for it to be sold off, I bought it and didn’t change a thing. It works well in keeping me busy, as you said. I’ve only just realized that you probably know very little about my family. Do you?”

“No. I mean, I’ve heard bits and pieces. I know that Dallas works at the zoo, and that’s how he met Amy. She’s a photographer.” He told her that Dallas was part owner of the zoo and that he had a doctorate in animal husbandry. And that Amy takes pictures of zoo animals so they can be made into calendars to sell. “I didn’t know that much at all.”

“Jayden used to teach but is now the administrator for the district. He has his office right there in the building with the little kids. He’d been the teacher of the year for about five years in a row before that. He wants to be in the middle of—Also, I just thought of something. Amy’s brother is the president.” She asked him of what. “The United States. When we were trying to find your boss, Jamie, that’s his name was the one that got us into some of the buildings that Roman was in. He also has extra guards on him for us because you’re not officially, but you are a part of Amy’s family. We’re all under surveillance with the Secret Service all the time.”

She turned and looked at him. “Are you serious right now? I mean, the president of the United States helps out this family?” He pointed out that she was a part of the family as well. “Yeah, sure, by about a million times removed. She really is his sister?”

“I wouldn’t kid you about something like that.” She nodded and went back to playing with the bubbles in the tub with them. “Let me see. Booth teaches Spanish at the high school. He can teach a lot of languages but that’s on the curriculum right now. Falkner, as you know, is still living at home, working on becoming a doctor. He’s decided that he wants to be a pediatrician/OBYGN doctor when he gets out, and we’re all proud of him.”

“And Cullen? What’s he doing? I know that he’s home from some place but I don’t know that I ever heard from where.” He told her just as they were both getting out of the tub. She paused when he handed her a towel. “What do you mean he’s just a serviceman? I’m pretty sure that if he’s a Dixon, he’s not telling you the entire thing. He must be something like special ops or a green beret. You guys are much too competitive for you to be just plain old anything.”

“I didn’t say he was a plain old serviceman. I just said that’s what he is. And the only person that would know anything like that would be Dallas. He’s the closest to him.” She was mumbling something about Cullen running for president someday as she snatched the towel away from him and dried her body like she was angry with it as well. “Honey, you’re going to rub your skin off if you keep that up.”

“You drive me crazy.” When she stomped her foot at him, he couldn’t help but laugh. Storming out of the bathroom, he went to find her while drying off. He didn’t know why she was so upset but he was willing to bet it was going to be his fault. He found her on the bed sobbing. He asked her what was wrong. “Nothing. Everything. I’m just…and I am just a plain person that you tried to save. You guys know presidents, are land and business owners, and I’m barely cutting it by hanging around you. I have money but only because my…are you laughing at me?”

“You’ve had money since the moment I met you. As for being a business owner, you also own the hardware store. I put your name on the business and the deed. And as for your family money, honey, you could toss it all away for all I care. Having you to hold and to love is the best I’ve ever thought to have in a mate. You’re loving and kind. Smart too. I’d put you against my dad any day ofthe week if you had to go toe to toe. As for Cullen running for president, believe it or not, Dallas is working on that very thing. Jamie is helping him fill in the gaps of what he needs to do so that when he steps down in a few years, he’ll know that the torch has been passed to him, and he’ll make sure that things go just the way that the two of them have planned out. Why, I’d bet that Jamie would run as his running mate if I had to guess.”

“I love you.” He kissed her on the nose and pulled her body to him. “I have to ask you one more thing then I’m going to sleep. What happened to Todd?”

“You mean the little boy that Hazel called Logan about?” She asked him if he knew any more Todds. I do, as a matter of fact, but you’re right. I should have known who you were talking about by the way you keep changing the subjects—ouch. That flipping hurt.”

“And I’ll pinch you again if you don’t tell me what I want to know.” Her smile got him. He could live on that for the rest of his life without food if need be. “Well?”

“He’s gone.” She rolled her eyes and threatened him again. “What I mean is, he’s been taken care of and put in a prison for the rest of his life. He did kill his parents, along with the neighbors, to the right of their home. Not only that, but Logan was able to find where he had plans to kill off Jayden and Hazel as well as the baby. Not that it would work, but he had a very sick mind. And a very spoiled way of looking at things. I’m glad that you and Hazel talked that day, or there is no telling what might have happened to them.”

“I’m glad. I’ve never seen her so upset before. I’m happy that Logan simply took him away without arguing with her about it, too.”

He got into bed with Londyn and held her to him. She continued to ask him questions, mostly about his other half as well as the others. He was going to have to let her see his gorilla soon so she’d know how to tell him from his family. Also, he didn’t want her to freak out—words that he’d never say to her face if he had to shift to save them. She was yawning when she said something that he’d not heard from his family.

“The Crowns are wanting Allen back, did you hear? They’re saying that your family pressured them into letting him go.” She snuggled down in the pillow. “Hazel is having a fit, and you can imagine how Jayden is taking it.”

When she was asleep, he reached out to his brother. Yes, the couple, Daisy Crown and David Winehouse, were wanting their child back and were in the process of suing Jayden for his and Hazel’s part in the kidnapping of their little boy.

“What’s going to happen to him? Or you guys, for that matter?” Jayden said that Hazel was, of course, upset and that he was trying his best not to hunt the kids down and beat their asses. “They more than likely heard that there was money, and they’re out to get a piece of it.”

“That’s what Mom said, too. She was a bit more colorful about it, however. But you’re on the right track. They’re suing us and Sister Mary Grace. She’s one of the sisters at the hospital who helps with the babies. Also, the hospital.” He asked him why. “As I said, I don’t know, but Mom and Dad are over here tonight getting some loving in. Hazel is beside herself with fear. Logan keeps telling her that they don’t have a leg to stand on, but we both know that anything could change at any moment.” He did know that and told him he’d be here for him. After thanking him, the two of them closed the connection, and he willed his body to sleep.

Waylon had a truck coming in tomorrow. Mr. Brown’s attorney wanted to speak to him as well as he wanted to spend the entire day with Londyn to get to know her better. He just wished they’d have a sort of normal day.

~*~

Sherman tried his best to listen to what was going on with his grandson, but all he could think about was that someone was going to come and take him away from them. Allen was a huge part of him feeling like a new man, and he wasn’t willing to give that up easily. Jamie snapped his fingers in front of his face, and he glared at the man.

“I’ve been saying your name for the last five minutes. I didn’t mean to be rude just now, but Iwas actually concerned that you were having a heart attack.” He shook his body, telling the younger man that he was upset. “I understand that too. But I’ve been looking into things. It’s amazing what a person can do when they have so many people willing to do their bidding. But I have it on good authority that Jayden nor Hazel had any contact with the Crown/Winehouse couple.”

“What does that have to do with the price of tea in China, might I ask?” Jamie grinned, telling him that was an old saying. “It works, doesn’t it? Stop teasing this old man and tell me what it is you’re going on about.”

“They’re claiming that Jayden and Hazel came to the hospital to talk them into letting them have the baby for a price and that they’d not received any money. They’ve never met. Also there was never a time when there was supposed to be money exchanged for the child. Did you know that they have videos all over the hospital that are simply for the use of things like this one? I didn’t. But I’m glad that they did. The hospital is saying that Daisy, the biological mother, got into a huge fight with Sister Mary Grace about her not ever wanting to see the child. The Sister was explaining to her at the time that it was a closed adoption. They’d not know who was taking their unwanted child. We’re still trying to figure out how they knew it was this family that adopted him.” Sherman said it was more than likely a greedy nurse or someone who had a grudge against one of his grandchildren. “It could very well be. Or their grasping at straws.” Jamie looked around, and so did Sherman. “I don’t suppose you have any more of those wonderful cookies I had the last time I was here? They were blueberry lemon cookies. I could eat them forever.”

After pulling out the little tin that he’d been using as a sewing box for nearly twenty years, he laughed at the look of disappointment on his face. Giving him the cookie jar, he was still laughing when he got up to get the two of them a glass of milk. They were just waiting on the rest of the family to show up, and Sherman decided that he was going to get him a bit of information now before the rest of them came in and started hogging up all the time.

“Something else I want to share with you while I’m thinking about it. If you’d not mind reminding me when they get here, I’ll get around to telling them about Roman Davis as well. He’s going to skip a trial and go directly to prison. When he threatened Waylon’s wife, who I love like my sister, he threatened me as well. I know that it might not stick, but that’s what was on the report. He’s also been stripped of his licenses as well. I’m to understand that he had a wholesaler’s license as well as having his driver’s license.” He asked about the man’s family. “Mr. Davis is closing down his offices and retiring. That was his idea, not mine. But he said he’d not have to answer awkward questions when people would come around asking them.”

“I’ll remind you. I don’t want to be insensitive here, but have you heard any more about your mother? I know that she’s passed on and all but what are the press saying about it? And I want you to know that in no way was I trying to open old wounds.” He told him that he’d not heard a whimper of news anywhere. She was just gone. “Good riddance to her, too, if you ask me.”