Chapter 41: Expansion

The kids were back and forth a few times over the summer. But by midsummer, Marilyn, Hayden, and I had moved into the almost luxurious suite upstairs that had been Brian’s.

“Why?” Marilyn asked as she stood behind our new king-size bed. The delivery men had cursed the entire time they were moving the pieces up the narrow staircase. We tucked the sheets in and stared at each other across the expanse. “Why did we ever give this suite to our son? We should have been living in this luxury for the past three years!”

“It was an effort to contain the hordes,” Hayden said as he stepped out of the massive bathroom. “Don’t forget we only installed this bathroom last summer.”

“At the insistence of the girls who took up residence,” I laughed. “Hayden, you were so good to them.”

“Honestly, the first time I saw Sora streak naked down the stairs and into the bathroom, I knew that if I didn’t want another heart incident, I needed to do something right away. And your daughters were no better. Both Jennifer and Courtney share your proclivity to run around naked.”

“Do you object, lover?”

“Hardly,” he laughed as he caught me in his arms. Marilyn rolled across the bed and popped up next to me. We wrapped her in our hug. “I’m just happy not to have any other distractions from my women around. I love you. I love you.”

“We have a new bed,” Marilyn said. “We should test the springs.”

We visited the casa for dinner the night Brian and Hannah hosted the University Media Department Chair along with Harvey and Miss Polly. What a beautiful job they’d done on the renovation. And you could see how proud the kids were of their new home and studio. Three months earlier I had no hope they’d be able to stay together. I was so proud of them I could burst. They’d even thought ahead to provide a guestroom in what had been one of the horse stalls. They’d kept the overall rustic look, but everything had been refurbished and modernized. The kitchen where they would produce their show was spectacular and Brian gave a wonderful cooking demonstration before we sat to dinner.

When the other guests had gone and it was just the three of us with the casa, I had another little surprise for the group.

“I’m so proud of you, Brian,” I said. “All of you. You did such a remarkable job of making a showplace out of this old barn. We have some champagne that we brought and I’d like you each to have a glass so we can propose our own toast.” Hayden opened three bottles of champagne and Josh and Brian helped serve it.

“Everyone come over to the fireplace. It’s too hot to actually light one, but I’m sure you will share this around your own fire when we’ve gone home tomorrow,” Hayden said.

“You all took a huge risk when you decided to remodel the barn,” I said. “I had a long conference with the other parents and it was their faith in you, as much as my own, that convinced me that you could do this. And look at this beautiful space you have created. I just can’t say how incredibly proud I am of you all. And the whole clan. But this involves just those of you who call yourselves Casa del Fuego.” I looked around at them. Mostly eighteen with one younger and a couple older. They’d done such an incredible job. “Yesterday, we received an offer of settlement from the insurance company. We could have refused and probably have gotten twice what they were ready to pay rather than be sued. But what they were willing to pay was already much more than what it will cost to replace the original farmhouse. So, we accepted the settlement.”

“Yay!” The cheering accompanied a first clink of glasses and a deep swig from the champagne glasses. I had a feeling there would be some tipsy loving going on that night.

“That has two implications. First, we will be able to rebuild. We’ll start construction on a new house next summer. I’m looking over all the drawings that Rhiannon created and we’ll be talking to Nappanee Manufactured Housing about creating the new house. I’ll give you all first rights to the new house if you want it, and you can use this space strictly as a production facility.” There were a few wrinkled brows as they considered moving out of the home they’d just completed but they didn’t need to make any big decisions tonight. “You don’t have to move. If you decide this is where you want your home to be, then you can stay here as long as you want to. We’ll probably rent out the new house, maybe to the next generation coming down here to go to school. But there is another implication that I know you are not expecting. Since I am receiving such a generous compensation for the house, I have decided to retire your entire $75,000 indebtedness on the remodel of the barn into this beautiful home. You deserve this and I am a richer woman by far because of it.” I raised my glass again and they joined me in open-mouthed silence. “To your future,” I said.

We all drank and then everyone tried to hug the three of us at once. More champagne was poured and there was a lot of crying. Not the least of it was from me.

From that point, our visits were somewhat less frequent. Even the horses had moved to the ranch. At Thanksgiving the girls and Brian came to visit us. Bill and Crystal joined us as well and it was like we were one big family at the table. Then they all left. The casa had scheduled their Thanksgiving in the evening. But we went to the ranch for Christmas. And on Christmas Eve we saw Samantha, Hannah, and Brian become handfasted as a single family unit. We’d all known this was coming since the day Hannah returned to the clan a year ago. The joy was palpable.

We missed the kids terribly through the rest of winter and spring. We had jobs. The kids had school. I felt bad for them. They were all managing their full-time class loads while still producing a weekly television show. Hannah had negotiated a good working arrangement with the IU Media Department and they were so pleased they wanted to hold a production camp at the ranch over the summer. Apparently, Hannah had become a regular guest speaker in Lonnie Phillips’s classes.

The big news came a few days after Mother’s Day. Jennifer and Courtney had visited for the holiday, professing they had a lighter exam schedule than others and wouldn’t be missed if they didn’t attend commencement at IU. We couldn’t expect everyone to be able to go back and forth at the same time. They’d need a bus. Hannah, Sarah, Nikki, and Liz had been in town a few weeks earlier. Whenever they came to town we were happy to have as many as possible stay with us. There had regularly been seven to fifteen people at a time in the house the year before and the three of us rattled around.

When Brian and Doreen walked through the door on Wednesday, I knew she was pregnant. She just had that certain glow about her and Brian hovered over her like a mother hen. We arranged to have Doreen stay out of sight until Brian had served his parents cocktails after work.

“Mom, Dad, Anna. I knocked up my sister’s best friend. You’re going to be grandparents,” Brian said as he led Doreen into the room. Marilyn spit martini out her nose and dumped the rest on Hayden and me. She hugged Doreen fiercely and pointed a finger at Brian.

“You!” Tears sparkled in her eyes as Hayden and I joined her in hugging the happy couple. “You made me waste a perfectly good martini.”

If that wasn’t enough, though, when Marilyn called Betts to tell her the news, Betts announced that she was also pregnant with number two.

“You’re what?” Marilyn screeched into the phone. This time I caught her martini before she could dump it on us. “I am going to disown all of you! I’ll leave my fortune to The Salvation Army! You all planned this. You have to have been planning it for months! How am I supposed to be at both my grandbabies’ births when you live 2,000 miles apart? You’d better have that figured out before they are due, let me tell you!” Marilyn’s rant dissolved into laughter as she gave the phone to Hayden and leaned in to kiss me.

“I never thought about how you’d be at both births, Mom,” Brian said. “You have to choose ours. Betts has already had her first.”

“Don’t you look so smug,” Marilyn said, pointing her finger at me. “They’re your grandbabies, too. We might have to split the duties.”

“Oh, wouldn’t Betts love it if I showed up at her baby’s birth instead of you!” I laughed. “I’m surprised you didn’t figure it out when Brian served the martinis. I knew as soon as they walked through the door. I’ll even bet that none of those answers Doreen gave on the phone had anything to do with what Betts was saying.” Hayden handed me the phone. “Me? Hello, Betts.” I listened to Marilyn and Hayden’s eldest as she invited me to be with her at the birth of her next baby. I started crying. “She said she’d love to have me with her when her baby is born.”

“Sometimes that girl surprises even me,” Hayden said.

Well, Betts beat Doreen by two weeks and we were present for both Jonathon’s and Matthew’s birth. We didn’t pretend that I was as important at the birth of Betts’s baby as Marilyn was. It was enough that I was welcome and that Betts accepted me as a kind of second mother-in-law. And with three mothers standing around, I think she was just as happy when Marilyn and I returned to Indiana.

We were present for Matthew’s birth. We got the call early in the morning just after we got back to Mishawaka.

“Well, let’s go, love,” Marilyn said. “Our son is in labor.”

“You two drive carefully,” Hayden said. “Keep each other awake and alert. There are no prizes awarded for being there at the birth.”

“You are so smart,” Marilyn said. “I mean it, Hayden. Brian and Doreen have an entire clan surrounding them. Not only Casa del Fuego but also Casa del Agua. What do you suppose their baby will be?”

“Steam?” I suggested. We laughed and took enough time to pack a thermos of coffee before we left. It was after midnight and Marilyn and I talked all the way to Bloomington. I even slid to the center seat and buckled in so we could touch. That was for the first hundred miles. When we got to Kokomo, we switched and I drove.

“I’m too young to be a grandmother three times,” Marilyn sighed as she lay her head on my shoulder.

“You are getting them in multiples, not sequentially,” I laughed. “You can’t help that your children got pregnant while they were still in diapers.”

“Our,” she said, stroking my thigh as I drove. “Our children, Anna love. Even Betts, but especially Brian. You’ve been there during the hardest parts of life. It was you who kept him summers during his internship.”

“And gave you the excuse to spend weekends in Kokomo,” I laughed. “I figured if I held your son hostage, you would have to visit me.”