Chapter 20

“Beat feet, lose seat,” Liz said when I re-entered the room. She had shifted to the chair I had vacated. They had switched to a different game but the three were still laughing and having fun. I put my hands back on her shoulders again and leaned forward to kiss her on top of the head. She didn’t dare take her hands off the controller so she tilted her head and rubbed her cheek against my hand.

When the game paused, she tilted her head backward and blew me a kiss.

“No mushy stuff!” Lucas declared.

“Yes, sir,” Liz replied. “But you’ll think differently in a few years. You’ll be saying, ‘More mushy stuff!’”

“Nuh-uh,” Lucas said as he shook his head firmly. “Girls are yucky.”

“I’m a girl,” Liz said. “Am I yucky?”

“No,” Lucas said.

“Your mom is a girl and so is your grandma,” she pointed out. “They’re not yucky either.”

“So?” Lucas replied with a logic known only to children.

“So some girls aren’t yucky at all,” Liz pointed out.

“Aunt Susan isn’t yucky either,” Brandon said helpfully.

“In a few years, you’ll find a girl that you don’t think is yucky,” Liz said with confidence. Lucas looked back at me for confirmation.

“She’s right,” I said as I bent down between where he sat and where Liz sat. “But for now, we’ll follow the no mushy stuff rule.”

“It’s only in this room,” Brandon pointed out.

“Well, good,” Liz said brightly. “I’m more interested in wiping the floor with you two than mushy stuff anyway.”

They were playing a wrestling game and Liz’s character was taking on the two characters the boys were playing.

“I have this one,” she said, looking over her head again. “And I’m good! When I toured with the band we would play on the bus. I kicked ... tail.”

She winked over her shoulder at me.

“I’ll show you some of my moves later if you want,” she said.

“Uncle Travis doesn’t have a console,” Lucas said as though the very thought of anyone without video games at his house was absurd.

“Huh?” Liz said. “Well, we’ll figure something out. I guess I know why he’s so bad at these.”

Brandon nodded his agreement. I sighed and rubbed Liz’s shoulders while her character performed a triple somersault and kicked both of her opponents in the head.

“Whoa!” Brandon said. He had thrown his arms up in the air, clearly impressed by the maneuver even though his character was now face down and unmoving. “I’ve tried that a thousand times and can’t do it. That was awesome.”

Liz grinned as she held her hands up and wiggled her fingers.

“I play guitar and piano,” she said. “It gives me really nimble fingers. Watch this!”

I had expected another high-flying assault on the screen and had shifted my gaze to the TV. I hadn’t expected Liz to pull me forward and start to tickle me. The two boys soon jumped aboard and all three were digging their fingers into my ribs.

“Boys!” Sarah said from the doorway. The two youngsters looked up at the sound of their mother’s voice.

“It was my fault,” Liz said. “I’m the hooligan this time.”

“I thought Uncle Travis was the hooligan,” Lucas said.

Sarah started to reply, faltered and then just threw her hands in the air and walked away.

“You didn’t tell me there was a no wrestling rule in the room,” Liz said.

“There isn’t,” I answered as I managed to sit up. “I think she was worried they’d mess up their hair.”

It was the first time I’d seen Brandon without a baseball cap in almost a year. He even wore one to school, even though he had to take it off before he entered the building. He put it back on when he left. Lucas hadn’t hit that phase yet. He just didn’t like to brush his hair.

“Yeah,” Brandon said with dejection. “She said if we got dirty before dinner she’d take away our tablets for a day.”

Liz put her arm around him and gave him a hug.

“I guess we’ll just have to wait until after dinner to get dirty,” she said. Brandon nodded his agreement quickly.

Lucas looked at her expectantly when she’d released his brother so she gave him a hug, too.

“Hey, no mushy stuff,” I said.

“You hugged them when you got here,” Liz pointed out. “I was just taking my turn.”

“Uncle Rick and Uncle Eric are here,” Marcie said from the doorway. The two boys jumped up and raced out of the room as their grandmother smiled.

“Now you can do mushy stuff if you want,” she said with a wink. I laughed as I got to my feet. I noticed Liz’s knees didn’t crack when she arose like mine had. Marcie had followed her grandsons to the front room to greet the new guests and I gestured for Liz to head that way, too.

“What about the mushy stuff?” she asked. “She said we could if we wanted! I want!”

I put my arm around her waist and gave her a soft kiss on the lips.

She sighed and smiled at me.

“I’m not a touchy-feely person,” she said softly. “I mean, I like being touched when I’m ... you know ... but I don’t hold hands or like people to put their arm around me or hug me.”

I pulled my arm away quickly.

“I didn’t know,” I said.

She caught my hand and moved it back around her waist. For good measure, she pushed it downward until it rested on her butt.

“I feel like I should be touching you at all times,” she said softly. “I liked sitting on the couch with your hand on my leg. I liked it when you put your hands on my shoulders while I sat on the floor with the boys. I like standing here with your hand on my ass.”

I offered a slight grope before moving it northward to her lower back.

“I’m ... really happy,” she said. “It scares me a little bit.”

I nodded.

“I just wanted to let you know that I’m not being proprietary if I hold your hand or put an arm around you,” she said. “I just really like being next to you. So you have my permission to touch me as often as you’d like.”

“Noted,” I said. “Please feel free to ... feel free.”

Liz laughed and started out the door. I waited until she hit the hallway before reaching down and grabbing her butt with both hands.

She jumped and spun around. I was doing my best to look innocent ... and failing miserably.

“You said...” I offered.

“Travis!” she said in an eerily precise impression of Sarah. Then she grinned at me and laughed again. “Save that until we’re alone later.”

Rick and Eric were getting hugs from the boys when Chris and Susan arrived. Lucas and Brandon moved to the newcomers while Eric and Rick headed our way.

Liz gave them both firm hugs and then followed the boys to Susan and Chris.

“I feel slighted,” Marcie said. “I only got a handshake.”

“I was a little worried that the cougar claws might come out if I got closer,” Liz said with a wink.

“Busted!” Rick said.

“I don’t know why I put up with you boys,” Marcie said, shaking her head.

“We keep your life interesting,” I said as Liz gave Matt’s mother a belated hug.

“Wait until he tells you what he has planned after the neighbor girl ... what did you say?” Liz said. “Has a couple more ice cream seasons?”

“I’ve heard,” Marcie said, shaking her finger at me but laughing anyway.

“Ice cream?” Brandon asked.

“Liz said it so she’s buying,” Eric said.

“There are certain words that can’t be used in front of young ears,” Susan explained.

“I think Travis should buy since he didn’t fill me in on the rules,” Liz protested.

“I’m afraid that one of the rules is that newcomers have to learn on their own,” Chris said.

“Yeah, fine,” Liz said. The two boys exchanged high fives and I hated to put a damper on their enthusiasm.

“When dinner is over, I’ll drive you both down to the store and we’ll buy some to bring back here,” I said.

“Oh, yeah,” Rick said, looking at the others. “I guess we can’t just pick up and ... go.”

“Why not?” Lucas asked. We sometimes embarked en masse to a nearby ice cream stand. I leaned down so he didn’t have to crane his neck.

“Remember what you said when Aunt Liz first came in?” I asked. “You said that she was famous. Right?”

“Yeah,” Lucas said, nodding but still looking confused.

“Well, you were right,” I told him. “Liz is so famous that she can’t go anywhere in public without having a big group of policemen to protect her.”

“Like the president?” Brandon asked.

“Sort of,” Liz said with a nod. “I’m here visiting Travis but I sent my policemen to the next city I have to visit. I had to promise that I wouldn’t go out in public while they’re gone.”

“You’re leaving soon?” Lucas asked, clearly dejected at the prospect. He had just made friends with an adult that could play video games like a champ and he didn’t want to let that go without least a good pout.

“I’ll be gone for a few days but I plan to come back,” Liz said, looking at me out of the corner of her eye. “I have to get a few things figured out. I don’t live here. I live clear on the other side of the country.”

“Why?” Lucas asked.

“Well, a lot of reasons,” Liz said. “Living there makes doing my job easier. Have either of you heard of Nashville?”

Brandon’s eyes squinted.

“Capital of Tennessee,” he said.

“That’s right,” Liz said. She sounded very much like my mother as she praised the boy’s intelligence. He had already revealed more knowledge of Nashville than I could bring to mind off the top of my head. I consoled myself with the fact that I could probably point it out on a map and I doubted either the second grader or the kindergartner could.

“Tennessee is the Volunteer State,” Brandon added.

Now he was just showing off, I thought.

“You’re right,” Liz told him with a nod.

Lucas was looking mutinous because Liz had shifted her attention away. I decided there was another girl that was off the “yucky” list.

“So, now I work in Nashville,” Liz continued. “But in a few months I’m going to work in Los Angeles. Do you know about Los Angeles?”

“We went to Disneyland!” Lucas said, very excited not only about the park visit but about contributing to the conversation.

“Great!” Liz told him and his little face beamed. Sarah caught my eye and offered an “I told you so” look.

“So you know it isn’t very far from here,” Liz continued.

“It’s like a million miles away!” Lucas protested.

“Well, it’s not that far,” Liz corrected. “It is close enough that I can work there and still visit here a lot. By the time you’re out of school for the year, I’ll have more answers.”

The boys nodded and I saw Brandon’s mind working. He turned to me with an accusatory glare.

“Are you leaving, too, Uncle Travis?” he asked.

I looked like a deer in the headlights.

“No!” Lucas cried. He wrapped his arms around my leg.

“I’m not moving away,” I said as I picked him up and then hoisted his brother. “I’m going to work with Aunt Liz and I’ll be travelling some. But I’ll still live right down the street and you can still visit me all the time.”

Lucas had his arms around my neck but he pulled back to check my veracity.

“Promise?” he asked.

“Yeah, Buddy,” I promised.

“We’ll work everything out,” Liz said. “I don’t want to drag Travis away from the people he loves.”

The boys looked at me for a long moment before I put them back on the floor. I was going to have to on a lifting regimen if I planned to carry those two in another year.

“Can we put the top down when we go for ice cream?” Brandon asked.

“Uh,” I said. “I’m not driving my car tonight.”

Lucas provided the favorite question of children everywhere: “Why?”

“We don’t want anyone to know that Liz is here,” Sarah explained. “We have to protect her because her policemen aren’t around. So Uncle Travis changed cars and we’re staying in our neighborhood tonight. That’s enough with the questions.”

It might have been all the queries she was willing to permit from the boys but it opened up a fresh set of doubts in my head.

Dinner was an amazingly normal affair. We kept the conversation light and stayed away from work-related topics. Liz told us a couple of stories and the boys filled us in on their school. The following week was their Spring Break and they were talking about all the things they wanted to do. I glanced at Liz and cringed slightly.