Chapter 30: A little Rain

Cade and his family fell into a routine. Cade went to work every day, and Callie stayed home with the kids, and worked on the billing for Jameson Plumbing. Callie also took some of the money she earned from working and bought school clothes for the kids. School would soon be starting, and instead of buying everything from Goodwill this time, she went to some cheap chain stores to buy the kids some clothes. She wasn't sure if Cade would care that she was doing things that way, so she chose not to discuss it with him.

Cade felt some of the burdens he had been carrying lighten. It helped that Callie wanted to be independent and do things on her own. All he cared about was that she was buying clothes for the kids, and he didn't care where she got them, as long as she stayed within the cash limits he set for her.

It was frustrating for Callie that they didn't have their own washer and dryer yet. She still had to travel to the Laundromat all the time. In his spare time, Cade worked to prepare the hookups for the appliances. They would sit out on the back porch, and Cade intended to enclose the screened porch when he got the chance, so that in the winter it wouldn't be cold.

The kids were enjoying the summer. They couldn't recall a summer as carefree as this one. The property they lived on was large and spacious and they had plenty of room to roam. Callie provided constant supervision for them, and although she had a short temper, most of the time she was reasonable. They had friends living nearby, and life was good.

Now that the tax increase was behind them, they began to focus on other things, and then early on a Friday evening near the end of August, after they had just finished dinner, they were watching television when they heard a familiar vehicle pull into the driveway.

Ashley sat straight up with alarm. There are certain sounds that are unforgettable, and the sound of that particular vehicle was one of them. Callie got up and looked out the window. "Oh Lord," she said in a tired voice.

Harley froze, as did Jessica, while Cade went to see for himself what was going on. There was an old beat up truck in the driveway, and Seth, Annie, and their son, Quinn, were getting out. Cade's blood ran cold. Seth was unshaved and filthy looking as always and Annie appeared to be in a daze as usual. She was likely on some sort of drug. Quinn had a very devious smile. Cade decided to go out and greet them rather than waiting for them to come to the door, so he rushed outside, and everyone followed.

"Well I'll be damned," Seth said when he saw Cade, and he cast his eyes around at the property. "You got a whole ranch here."

"What in the hell are you doing here?" Cade asked.

"Is that any way to greet your Pop and Mom?" Seth asked with raised eyebrows.

"You're not my Pop," Cade said with a tight jaw. He was irritated and didn't notice Ashley shrinking. Harley stood strong the way he always did, attempting to be brave. Jessica fidgeted and then stuck her thumb in her mouth. Callie stood paralyzed. One thing they were grateful for was that Cade was there to fight this battle against Seth and they huddled behind him.

"I raised you boy," Seth said with disdain. Annie felt she had betrayed her son by telling Seth where to find Cade, but she hadn't been able to help herself. Seth was formidable when he wanted something.

"Get off my property," Cade said in a very cold voice.

"Oh Cade don't be this way," Annie began to cry and rushed to her son and threw her arms around his neck. His mother had dark circles under her eyes, matted hair, and barely an ounce of flesh on her bones. As Cade hugged her, there was a part of him deep down inside, that wanted to cry for her.

"Sure is a nice place," Quinn mused.

Seth slapped Quinn upside the head, "I'll do the talking."

Quinn shrugged off the blow as if it were nothing, and began staring at Ashley, who was staring at the ground, unable to make eye contact with anyone. She wanted to disappear.

"I asked why you came here?" Cade reiterated.

"We came to see our grandchildren," Seth said with a smirk. "Come over and give your old Granddaddy a hug," he said and opened his arms wide. None of the children could move at first, and then finally Ashley, who was conditioned, stepped forward and hugged her smelly step-grandpa. Jessica followed her sister's lead, but Harley would not move. He was frozen.

"What's the matter boy," Seth looked at Harley sharply.

"I'm not hugging you," Harley said boldly. "You're not even my grandpa."

Seth's face grew dark and he began to unbuckle his belt, "Just like your daddy," he said as the belt slipped through the loops of his pants. Cade stepped forward and grabbed Seth's arms. "If you so much as touch my son with that belt, it will be the last thing you do."

Seth glared at Cade and realized that Cade was no longer the scared little boy he had once been and was twice as strong as Seth was. Seth eased up on the belt and refastened it around his waist. "Fine job you're doing with raising these children," he scoffed. "They need to learn some respect."

Cade gritted his teeth and looked down at his son, "Harley, give your grandpa Seth a hug."

Harley frowned, but he slowly moved forward and gave a quick hug to his Grandpa. "He is your step-grandpa," Cade said quietly to his son, "You owe him some respect." After the hug, Harley backed away from Seth in disgust.

"Now that's more like it." Seth smiled with satisfaction.

Cade looked at his children, "All of you go wait inside," he instructed. They scrambled into the house and plopped on the couch, wondering what was going to happen next.

"Get off my property," Cade said in an angry voice after the children were inside the house.

"Is that any way to treat the man who raised you?" Seth spat a wad of chew in the dirt.

Cade had plenty of time to think about what he owed Seth for raising him, and he concluded that he owed him nothing. "All you did was beat the shit out of me," Cade said bitterly, "That's not how you raise a kid."

Seth frowned, "I was teaching you respect and obedience."

Cade shook his head, "Is that what you call it?"

Seth shuffled his feet a little, and finally Annie came out of her stupor. "Cade, we just came to visit you for awhile, that's all."

Cade's heart melted as he looked at his mother, even though she had been nothing but a disappointment to him all of his life, he still cared about her. "Ma, we don't have room for all of you to stay here."

"Looks to me like you do," Quinn piped up.

Callie asked to speak to Cade alone. They walked away from Seth and the others, and Callie whispered in Cade's ear. She expressed fears that they might have lice or any number of other issues, and she didn't want them in the house. "You can't stay here," Cade said, after speaking with Callie.

Seth glared at Callie and she blushed. "What did that little slut say to you?"

"Don't refer to my wife as a slut. She reminded me that you could have lice or God knows what, and we can't expose the kids to that."

"Lice," Seth scoffed, and just the mention of it made him want to scratch his head. "We don't have lice."

"Then you won't mind if Callie checks," Cade said. Callie looked at Cade with a frown, and upon his insistence, she stepped forward to search their heads for lice. They were filthy, and she couldn't tell for sure, but she didn't see any lice. The light was dim and their hair grossed her out, so she wasn't very thorough.

"Let us go inside now," Seth demanded.

"You can sleep out here," Cade said, and he stood in Seth's way so that he couldn't get to the house.

Seth began to seethe. "I refuse to sleep outside."

"If that's the case, then one of you at a time can take a shower and change into clean clothes," Cade suggested. "We run a clean home, and we expect you to respect that."

Seth looked as if he were about to kill Cade for humiliating the three of them like this. "You're treating me like trash," he said angrily. Cade was supposed to have enough respect for them not to make these types of demands. "Sure no problem, we need a bath anyway," Annie finally said. Seth tightened his jaw and said nothing.

Callie thought she was going to die. She could not cope with this. For one thing, it meant more work for her, and she already had enough to do. Cade escorted Quinn inside first and showed him the bathroom. He gave Quinn some clean clothes and instructed him to put his dirty ones in a bag. It turned out that Quinn, Seth, and Annie had no clean clothing, so Cade had to loan them some of his and Callie's clothes. Cade knew Callie wasn't going to like it when he made her go to the Laundromat tomorrow to help them wash their clothes.

Once Quinn was out of the shower, Callie rechecked him for lice. She was paranoid about lice because she had battled it so often as a child. Cade wasn't sure how they could accommodate them at first, and then he finally ended up taking Quinn out to the garage and they retrieved two old mattresses that he had saved, one was a double one, and one was a single. They vacuumed the mattresses off and covered them with sheets and blankets. Callie was beside herself because they barely had enough sheets for the beds they had, let alone extra ones. She began to panic inside and fumble as she put the sheets on the mattresses. Quinn's mattress was in Harley's room on the floor. "How come Harley gets to sleep on a bed and I have to sleep on the floor, I'm older," Quinn said bitterly.

"You're damn lucky I'm giving you a place to sleep at all," Cade said sternly, and Quinn knew to shut up. "This door stays open," Cade said on his way out of the room.

Quinn was exhausted and he lay on the mattress as Harley climbed in the bed, a little afraid to go to sleep with Quinn in his room. He didn't trust Quinn. Annie took a shower next. They managed to set up the double mattress on the back porch. It was where the washer and dryer would go when they finally got one. Annie felt the mattress was more than sufficient. She kept thanking Cade and was happy as she drifted off to sleep.

Seth was less cooperative, even though he realized he was not on his own turf anymore, but ultimately he knew he didn't have a choice, and he didn't enjoy being at the mercy of Cade. Cade gave Seth some clean clothes after his shower and then everyone went to bed. Cade closed the door to Ashley and Jessie's room and instructed Ashley to put a chair against the door and only open the door if she heard his voice or Callie's and no one else's. She did as she was told, hugging her dad as he left, for helping to make her feel safe.