Chapter 17

For the rest of the day, neither Shawn nor Stephanie showed up looking for me. Eventually, I gave up on waiting and headed back to the house. Soon enough it would be time for dinner and, after last night’s debacle, I didn’t want to be late or miss it. As great as last night was, and it was amazing, I couldn’t afford to get myself into too much trouble.

When I walked through the front door of my grandparents’ house, I found the place completely still and empty. When there wasn’t a response to my call outs, I looked around to see if maybe, by some chance, they hadn’t heard me, but the search was fruitless. The only thing going on in the house was the Crock-Pot on the kitchen counter that made my mouth water with a wonderful barbeque smell that permeated the whole house.

There was no way I wasn’t going to sample what Grandma was cooking if I stayed in the kitchen. I decided to head out onto the back patio and wait. I was sure it wouldn’t be long before someone showed up.

“Hello?” I heard a muffled voice call out from inside. “Anyone home?”

“Out here!” I called, twisting in my chair to see who it was.

“Hey, Sam,” Sheila had a surprised look on her face, but she schooled it effortlessly. “Where are your grandparents?” I shrugged. “You mind if we join you for a bit?” Jeff said, following closely behind his wife out onto the patio.

“Are Shawn and Stephanie here?” I asked, starting to get up to go meet them.

“No, no,” Sheila smiled sadly. “They’re back at the cabin.”

“Oh...” I slumped back into my chair.

“Don’t look like that,” Jeff said, sitting down across from me while Sheila moved a chair so she could sit next to her husband. “They have some ... stuff to do. You’ll see them later.”

The pause when Jeff told me Shawn and Stephanie had stuff to do was telling. I didn’t press for any more information. If they wanted me to know what was going on, they would tell me.

“You can come over tomorrow morning for breakfast if they don’t show up for some reason.” Sheila offered, changing the mood around the table in an instant.

“Oh, okay.” My eyes widened and I grinned, sitting up a little straighter in my chair. The idea of Sheila’s breakfast was not something I was going to turn down or miss if I could help it.

“Do you know when your grandparents are going to be back?” Jeff asked, shifting the topic. He almost seemed nervous but hid it well enough that I wasn’t sure that was really the case.

“No,” I replied. “But I don’t think they’ll be gone long.” I tiled my head up dramatically and sniffed the air and I smiled. “Dinner smells like it’s almost done.”

Jeff laughed at my stupid antics while Sheila snickered, her hands covering her mouth just in case someone saw her.

“I can definitely see why Stephanie and Shawn like you so much.” Sheila chuckled, the corners of her eyes wrinkling showing the barest hint of her age and I smiled, my cheeks flushing.

My grandparents showed up around twenty minutes or so after Jeff and Sheila sat down with me. Grandma came out on the patio for only a moment, just long enough to acknowledge that Jeff and Sheila were here.

“We can talk about—” Whatever Grandma was about to say was abruptly cut off when her eyes fell on me. They got really big for a moment, obviously surprised to see me there. She sobered quickly before looking back to Jeff and Sheila. “Like I was saying, we can talk after dinner, if that’s okay with you two?”

“That should be fine, I think,” Jeff nodded, but looked to his wife. “Right Hun?”

“I wouldn’t pass up the chance for some of your famous ribs,” Sheila grinned, rubbing hands together excitedly.

Dinner was flat out absolutely amazing. Best ribs I had ever eaten, hands down. Not that I got to eat a lot of ribs because Sara hated them, but of the ones I had eaten, these were unquestionably the best.

“When you’re done,” Grandma said, as she wiped her face with her napkin. She didn’t need to actually wipe her face though. She was the only person I knew in the world that could eat messy barbeque covered ribs and not get any sauce on her face. “Can you please put your plate in the sink?”

“Sure,” I replied, my voice muffled due to how full my mouth was. I dropped the sixth and final perfectly cleaned rib bone onto my plate and started chewing fiercely.

I looked at the empty cookie sheet sitting in the middle of the table. The only thing left on it was a puddle of sauce from the ribs that had been there earlier. I was full, I knew that, but I still wanted more. I looked around the table and noticed my plate wasn’t the only one empty, aside from a pile of bones. Grandma still had one perfectly intact, meaty bone left, and she caught me eyeing it.

For a second, I thought she was going to pull her plate closer to her as if to protect it from my advances. I would have if it were mine. Instead, she gave me a curious look and just watched me as I stared longingly at her plate.

“Do you need something, Sam?” Grandma asked.

“He needs something alright,” Grandpa laughed and was quickly joined by snickers and chuckles from Sheila and Jeff.

“Don’t you think you’ve had enough?” Grandma questioned. “Everyone else only got four ribs and you—” she pointed at the stack of bones on my plate. “Got six!”

“Don’t tell me you aren’t loving this!” Sheila, shaking her head and rolling her eyes as she replied to Grandma’s question. “The boy is drooling all over himself. Let him have the last one.”

“His dad was the same way,” Grandpa smirked.

“Fine, fine!” Grandma huffed as she threw up her hands, like she was put out or something.

I reached over and snatched the rib before she could change her mind and immediately stuffed it into my mouth.

“For God’s sake, chew your food!” Grandma barked, leaning back from my sudden movement in case I somehow got some of that amazing sauce on her. “I wouldn’t have finished it anyway,” she hedged.

From the way everyone looked at me as I devoured the last rib, I probably should have been embarrassed. I was too lost in the moment and the perfection of the tender, juicy, fall-off-the-bone meat that was Grandma’s ribs, to even think about how I looked at that moment.

When I dropped the seventh and last bone on my plate and leaned back in my chair feeling full beyond full and completely satisfied, I finally looked around the table. Everyone was watching me.

I grinned, guiltily.

“Oh, for Pete’s sake,” Grandma guffawed. “Wipe your face—” I used the back of my hand to do just that. “Not with your hand! I know your mom and dad taught you better than that. Use your paper towel!”

I blushed and frantically started looking for my paper towel that had somehow vanished from sight.

“Here, take mine,” Sheila extended her arm, reaching across the table with a perfectly clean, unused white paper towel in her hand.

“Go clean yourself up,” Grandma commanded. “Jeff and Sheila need to talk to us for a bit.”

I was about to reply with my mouth full but the look on my grandmother’s face screamed that it was a horrible idea and I just nodded instead.

I looked around the table as I got up. I grabbed my plate and offered to take everyone else’s. I didn’t have to say anything, everyone just knew what I was doing and slid their plates of bones in my direction. Jeff and Sheila had guilty looks on their faces as they passed theirs to me. It was as if they felt bad that I was being told to leave so they could talk to my grandparents.

I honestly didn’t think much of it, not at least in the moment. I was more focused on getting inside and cleaning myself up. Just looking down at my chest told me I had made a far bigger mess than I had thought and at minimum, I was going to need a shower to get all of the sauce cleaned up.

I lingered in the shower longer than usual. There was no rhyme or reason for it, I just did. I washed up the remnants of dinner from my chest and face quickly. As I stood there, the hot water felt really good as it fell on my shoulders. I turned and leaned against the wall and closed my eyes just standing there, my hands against the wall right below the shower head. My head bowed beneath it as the water pounded down on me.

The hot water was relaxing muscles I hadn’t known were tight and I sighed heavily. It was at that exact moment I decided I wanted to go sit in the hot tub. Sure, I had just taken a hot shower, but the water from the hot spring sounded so much better all of a sudden.

I shut off the water and stepped out of the shower. I grabbed the towel I had hung over the curtain rod and quickly dried off. I wanted to get into the hot tubs and the quicker I could do that, the better. I didn’t even bother drying my hair, just a quick rub down of my arms, legs, and stomach before I ran the towel over my head for a second before hanging it back up to dry.

I headed out of the bathroom and marched for the front door. When I made it to the living room, I glanced to my left and saw everyone still sitting and talking around the patio table. I waved even though I was sure no one saw me, but I was shocked when Grandpa, who was positioned so he could look into the house, waved back at me.

With him watching, I headed out the front door and started making my way to the relaxing waters of the hot tub. I didn’t make it ten steps before my plan was interrupted.

“Sam!” I heard a young girl’s voice call out. It could only be one person, Stephanie. I turned and sure enough, I saw Stephanie walking in my direction. She wasn’t alone, Shawn was walking next to her, and a third person, Michaela, was just off to the side, but following, nonetheless.