Chapter 25

They did, as it turned out, get along. Within an hour Alice and Riley were chatting like old friends as Alice learned a little about Riley's past, and a lot about Curtis. Meanwhile Tom had wanted to look around outside, so Bob took him into the back yard. It looked like the mountains were about to fall on them and Tom looked up in awe.

"This is something," he said. "Brings back memories from when I was growing up."

"Yeah," said Bob. "See those woods? She owns forty-five acres of them. There are some trails in there. One of them takes you to this big boulder where you can stand and look out over the valley."

"I'd like to see that."

"We've only talked about it a little bit, but I want to build a new house there."

"What would you do with that?" asked Tom, pointing at the cabin with his thumb, over his shoulder.

"We could rent that out as a summer cabin, or whatever," said Bob.

"Be a nice place for us to stay when we come see you," said Tom.

"The house will be big enough you could stay with us," said Bob.

"You two going to have any kids?" asked Tom.

"Well sure," said Bob, thinking about the fact that he hadn't yet told his parents there was a baby on the way. Baby steps. Things were already in enough upheaval. Once his mother got used to the idea she was going to have a daughter-in-law, then he could tell her about the baby.

"I haven't been in the grandfather business for long," said Tom, "but I suspect I'm going to want to be able to take a nap without a little boy or a crying baby waking me up."

"Oh," said Bob. "I guess I never thought about that. Mom would probably like some peace and quiet too."

"Probably not," said Tom. "Once she gets used to the idea she's a grandma, she's going to pester you kids to give her a baby to cuddle. And then she's going to want to babysit for a couple of years straight. I've seen your mother with other women's babies."

"Really?" Bob grinned. "So if a baby came along pretty soon, she'd be okay with that?"

Tom heard something in his son's voice and looked at him sharply. "How soon is pretty soon?"

Bob looked out at the forest again. "I don't know if I'm allowed to tell you," he said.

"That soon, huh," said Tom. "Is this one a mistake, or on purpose?"

"We didn't plan it, but I don't think either of us is all that unhappy about it," admitted Bob.

"Well, I can't blame you. She's a pretty little filly." Tom examined the woods too. He thought it was interesting that there was less snow on the ground here, right under the mountain, than there was in Kansas, lower down. "Maybe we could walk out to that boulder. I might be able to help you come up with some ideas."

"I'd like that," said Bob. "Let me go check in with Riley."

Both men went back into the house where it became instantly clear that all reluctance at accepting Riley had vanished like smoke in the wind. The two women were thick as thieves. When Bob suggested he and his father were going to go for a walk, both women waved a hand at the men without looking at them, and Curtis ran to Bob and asked if he could go too.

"All they want to do is talk about you," he said.

"Then by all means, come with us," said Tom. "Us men have to stick together."

Curtis beamed at being included as one of the men.

Ten minutes later, Tom stood, only slightly winded, staring out at what would one day be the view from the picture window in Bob and Riley's living room.

"We may as well move to Colorado," he thought to himself. "Once my wife sees this and has a baby in her arms, she'll never want to leave."

Seven months later

Riley sat in the rocking chair that had been a wedding present from her mother and father-in-law. She rocked slowly, her hands playing circles over the soccer ball shaped bulge of her abdomen.

"I can't wait to meet you," she whispered to her unborn child. This pregnancy had been different than Curtis's in many ways. With Curtis, she'd been scared and alone. Chuck had been excited she was pregnant, up until having sex became difficult. He'd started spending more and more time at work after that. That should have been her first clue that things were going wrong. Her second should have been that his sex drive vanished. But she'd still been clueless when he'd disappeared and left her destitute and heavily gravid.

This time, though, she'd loved being pregnant. Bob was completely supportive, not to mention that her new in-laws had been there for her too.

Tom and Alice had only stayed long enough to be there for the very simple wedding, before going back to Iowa. Then, a month later they returned driving the motor home they normally only used in the summer. That was parked beside the cabin now. While Bob worked, and Riley tried to keep up with her own expanding projects, Tom kept a constant eye on the contractor(s) building the house, and Alice took care of the cabin and Curtis. Sometimes they spent the afternoon at Bessies, who was now one of Alice's new friends too.

With Alice cooking, Riley's diet had been better this time, and she had only stopped hiking when she approached within a week of her due date.

That date was two days hence, and while she loved sitting and rocking while she looked out the huge window, down at The Springs and the slopes of the mountains, she wished the baby would decide to be born.

She also couldn't wait to rock the baby while it nursed at her swollen breasts. She hadn't breast fed Curtis. She'd wanted to, but Chuck had forbade her, saying, "Don't plan on giving that little brat my titties. That's why they invented formula!" Even after he'd abandoned her, the force of his personality had lingered. She hadn't had the self confidence to breast feed, and formula had been so easy and quick, she'd just gone that way.

She'd been so young back then, and she'd learned a lot in the years since. If Chuck ever showed his face again, he might not survive the event with his balls intact. She hadn't had any idea how much he'd robbed her of, in her youth. Her mother hadn't set much of an example, either. Finding Bob had been something of a miracle in her opinion. That Alice came along with him was a gift so precious she couldn't imagine doing without a mother-in-law any more.

The odor of fresh paint still hung in the air, though Alice was trying her best to overcome those fumes by baking bread daily, not to mention the pot roast that had been simmering for six hours in the crock pot. Even the baby seemed to smell it, and was moving around more than usual.

Another blessing was that Curtis had decided he liked the idea of having a little brother. He already sat beside his mother while she worked, and dispensed advice to the baby, or told "him" stories. Curtis was sure the baby was going to be a boy.

"What's he going to look like?" Curtis had asked one night. "Will he look like me?"

"I don't know," said Riley. "I think he will just look like himself."

"I can't wait to see him," said Curtis.

"I know, baby," she said, hugging him. "I can't wait to see him either."

They had elected not to have the doctor tell them the sex of the baby, wanting that to be a surprise. But Curtis was so adamant, she was a little worried. If it turned out Curtis had a sister, she didn't know how Curtis would react.

She heard car tires on the gravel driveway that connected Ruxton Avenue to their new home. She glanced at the mantle clock, that someone named Jerry, from Bob's old job, had given them as a wedding present. It was a beautiful Seth Thomas piece that sounded chimes every fifteen minutes and struck the hour. She decided it must be Bob coming home from work for lunch. Tom didn't drive from the cabin to the house any more. Rather, Alice had become acclimated to the quarter mile walk, and didn't need her husband to drive her that distance any longer.