The Kids Grow Up, Trish Hanan [books you need to read .txt] 📗

be great.
Harry delivered the bread the next day and even took a loaf to his mothers and Barb gushed over it while Kate glared at him. Harry laughed and hugged Barb and blew a kiss at Kate who stuck her tongue out at him. Sarek seemed very pleased with his bread and laughed when he was told of the meeting and said, of course, that’s exactly what he told them.
“You would think after eighteen years some of these people would know me better but I guess greed takes over,” Harry told him sadly. Sarek nodded.
“Your problem, my friend, is that you are too generous and people have taken advantage of that and expect it. Now, when you don’t give in to them, they call you selfish and greedy when they are the ones who are greedy,” he said. Harry sighed and went on with his deliveries.
The harvest came and all the wheat was fine and everyone breathed a sigh of relief. All of the unused bread mixes went back into the bins and the bins went back on the hill. Harry told Jake that from now on he wasn’t taking anymore packaged goods out of his houses for anyone, from now one they were on their own. Jake smiled and hugged him.
“I don’t blame you, babe, these selfish bastards don’t appreciate what you do for them, let them go without potato chips and crackers for a couple of years and then see how they like it,” he said and Harry smiled and kissed him. They took their kids and Fran out to some bins and went through them and sorted out lots of great stuff and the kids had a ball grabbing all kinds of cereal and cookies and crackers. Fran loved it too, it was her first time and she found sodas that she hadn’t had in a long time.
“This is great, boss and we don’t have to share with anyone, I like this,” she declared and everyone laughed. They took all the goodies home and stocked up their basement storage and pantry and no one said a word to anyone. It was just another family outing.
For Halloween all of the kids wanted to be different things and Harry made seven different costumes and a family tradition was over but he was happy. The together routine was getting old and trite anyway and he enjoyed making the different costumes. Emma and Cassie wanted to be fairy princesses and Jackson wanted to be a doctor so Harry made little green surgical scrubs for him. Adam went as Abe Lincoln with beard and stovetop hat and Sean and Ryan went as clowns which suited them perfect. Danny insisted he wanted to be a fagola again so Harry put him in Ryan’s costume from last year only this year he added rainbow glitter and fairy wings that sparkled and Danny loved that. Harry and Jake went as monks with brown robes and rope belts and Fran went as the wicked witch and was quite scary.
“Oh, thank God, no more theme costumes,” Linda exclaimed when she saw the family walk into the Center. Harry rolled his eyes and started to set up the bar.
“The kids all wanted to be something different this year,” he told her and smiled. She nodded and reached for the vodka. She frowned.
“Hey, where are the olives?” she asked. Harry shook his head.
“Unless we can find some olive trees on one of the Greek Islands we’re out of olives,” he told her and she sighed.
“You couldn’t find anymore in your bins?” she whined. Harry shook his head. He had a whole case at home but he wasn’t giving out anymore to these people, everything he took out of the bins was for his family from now on.
He took his food to his table and set it up and Jake helped. He had a big vegetable platter, cookies, brownies and little sandwiches as well as mini crab cakes and egg plant strips and fried zucchini that the kids loved. He set up the punch bowl and poured the punch and all the kids started dancing. DJ blasted the music and the strobe lights began to flash. Harry grinned and pulled Emma into his arms and she giggled.
“Dance with your old man, darling,” he asked and she nodded and they danced. Then she saw Stephie and ran off and he was left to dance with Danny until he saw Cameron and then Harry was left with Jake who grinned and pulled him into his arms.
“Looks like you’ve been deserted, babe,” he said and Harry grinned.
“I guess I can’t compete with Frankenstein,” he said and they both laughed. Danny came back running back with his buddy Noah.
“Fly us, Daddy,” he begged so Harry flew them over the crowd and everyone pretended to be scared of the flying monsters and the little boys giggled and made scary noises.
“Hey, look, it’s a flying fagola,” Max said to Charles and they both laughed. Of course a few people heard them and the comment got back to Harry who rolled his eyes.
“Yeah, those two are lucky if they’re going to see another saltine cracker,” Harry muttered under his breath. He smiled and laughed and talked with everyone but he didn’t know why but all of a sudden he hated them all, every single one of them except for Sarek and Myla, these two he considered his true friends. They were the only ones who didn’t want something from him or expected him to give them something for nothing. He went outside to walk in the cool night air and cried. He didn’t notice Danny following him until he felt him hugging him and then surprised he looked down.
“Hey, look, its Harry’s buddy, how you doing, buddy?” he asked and Danny grinned. He bent down and picked him up.
“Don’t cry, Dad, its going to be alright,” Danny whispered. Harry nodded.
“I know, darling, I’m just feeling sorry for myself. That’s what I get for being such a pushover. When you let people shove you around all the time, sometimes they knock you down and wipe their feet on you and that’s not much fun,” he said. Danny nodded.
“Let’s go inside and get a kiss from Dad, that’ll make us feel better,” he told him and Harry laughed and kissed his cheek.
“You’re absolutely right, that’ll make everything all better,” he said and they went back inside. Jake saw them coming in and looked at them. He saw Harry had been crying and kissed him.
“You okay, babe?” he asked. Harry nodded.
“Okay now, my buddy said a kiss from you would make it all better and he was right,” he said and Jake smiled at his son.
“You said that, Harry’s buddy?” he teased and kissed his son who giggled. “You’re a clever little buddy,” he told him and Danny laughed and decided it was time to eat.
It was a fun party and Meri won for best costume and it was a joke because her costume was a rented one from Kathleen’s shop and Harry laughed and said who cares, he didn’t, he never cared about the stupid award, he made the costumes for his kids. And he let them play in them for the rest of the year afterwards so they had a great time with them. He and Jake had a great time pretending to be monks on a secret mission and ended up in the back yard and then in the green house which was nice and spooky and it was fantastic sex. Harry had trouble sitting down the next day and giggled all day. Fran laughed at him and swore one of these days the two of them were going to explode.
The turkey hunt came and all the kids went so Harry went too and five of them had their own rifles and Dr. Jackson thought that was strange.
“Where did you get all those rifles?” he asked and Jake smiled.
“I told you last year, Dad, the people who owned our house had a rifle collection,” he told him. His dad snorted.
“But those are little rifles for kids, you mean to tell me he had all those little rifles too,” he snapped. Jake nodded.
“Yes, I told you Adam and Trisha were planning on have a lot of kids,” he said and Dr. Jackson sighed.
“I like my golf shop, but damned I really thought I clicked the gun shop and not that stupid camera store,” he muttered and Jake patted his back.
“I know, Dad, that’s a damned shame,” he said and winked at Harry.
Thanks to Harry and Jake all the boys who wanted to hunt had rifles appropriate to their age and got turkeys and had a blast. Emma and Cassie who thought it would be gross and disgusting loved to hunt turkeys and they went several times a year and found the dumb birds in the same spot every time which made them all laugh.
And, of course, dinner was the same as usual. Dr. Jackson over-ate, Sissy gushed about how wonderful family was, Kate whined about the recipe and Jake offered to take the some of the kids skating and everyone had a great time. They all cleaned up the Center together and left happy and smiling. Afterwards at home there were plenty of leftovers and all the kids got together for a football game and it was fun.
New Year’s Eve was another family party and David and Gloria were bored out of their minds. Violet was too.
“Why the hell do they have to bring all the damned kids with them, couldn’t they leave them home,” she snapped. Mike looked at her like she was crazy.
“Why would they leave them at home, this is their New Year’s too,” he said. She sighed.
“A New Year’s Eve party is supposed to be for adults, with alcohol and food and party favors, not with little kids running around blowing those stupid horns and making a lot of noise,” she told him. He shrugged.
“I like the kids, it would be boring without them,” he said and walked away. She sighed. There went her chances of getting laid tonight. She looked across the room at Harry and Jake who were surrounded by kids as usual. They were all dressed up in fancy dresses and suits and looked very handsome and the two little girls looked very pretty. She noticed Gloria staring at Emma and grinned. Yeah, she thought, I bet you’re sorry you gave that away.
Everyone was old enough to stay awake so they all danced and sat at the table and had a great time until Max made the countdown and then Harry let them all have a little glass of champagne and all the kids giggled at the bubbles tickling their noses and made faces at the taste of the wine.
“This is gross,” Emma declared and spit it back into her glass. Harry laughed and handed her a soda. She drank that gratefully. Jackson sipped his champagne and made a face. He reached for his soda and sipped that instead.
“No offense, Dad, but that sucks,” he said and Jake laughed.
“You’ll like it when you get older,” he told him. Jackson nodded. Adam was the only one who actually liked it.
“This is good, I like it,” he said