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

Miata convertible can I still have the red Jeep for winter driving?” Emma asked and her dads grinned. Harry nodded.
“Of course, you can, Emma, your fathers own the dealership, you can have two cars,” he informed her and she jumped up and hugged him. Stephanie frowned. He nodded to her and she jumped up and hugged him too. Kathleen giggled.
“Harry, you spoil them,” she said and he laughed.
“If you can’t spoil children, who can you spoil?” he teased and they all laughed. All the boys picked macho Jeeps so they only got one car, but he let them have a shopping spree so that satisfied them and made everyone happy.
They had to build an extra garage on the house for all the extra cars they were soon going to be having, seven kids meant at least nine or ten extra cars. Jake laughed.
“We should have just built a damned castle, babe,” he remarked and Harry giggled.
“Isn’t that what we’re living in?” he teased and it was almost true, it was the biggest house on the planet but it was home and they loved it. Jan and Joy’s house was big but their house was bigger and grander. They dreaded next year though when Emma and Jackson turned sixteen and moved out, but all the kids were moving out when they turned sixteen so they expected theirs to. All the other parents in town were waiting for that day so they could all laugh at the high and mighty Harry Talbert.
Now their kids were the fifteen year-olds who hung out at the clubhouse and Harry and Jake were fine with that. They knew all the kids were doing was sitting around complaining about their parents, having a little sex, eating, drinking sodas and playing video games and maybe watching a dirty movie they scored from an older sibling, what else was there for them to do on this boring planet. But they also went skating and bowling and played putt-putt and played softball and basketball and did a lot more other things so it was okay for them to take off in their cars and take their younger siblings with them. They gave them a generous curfew and let them have some freedom and the kids appreciated it and didn’t give them any trouble and never came home drunk or late too often.
“Emma, you come home late one more time this week and you’re losing your car for a week,” Harry told her one night in July as they were eating dinner. Emma looked scared and nodded. Jackson grinned; he had been on time the night before. Emma made a face at him.
“Okay, Dad, it’s just that,” she began and Harry shook his head.
“No excuse, baby girl, you’re old enough to drive and you know your curfew, so next time make sure you have enough time to drop everyone off and get home in time,” he said sternly and she nodded.
“Okay,” she said and looked down at her plate. They finished dinner and thankfully it was Cassie and Adam’s turn to clean up and she escaped to her bedroom to phone her friends.
“Oh, man, my dad laid down the law, if I’m late one more night I lose my car for a week,” she whined to May who giggled.
“I’ve already lost mine for two weeks. My dad blew a casket when I got home last night and he took away my keys and I’m grounded for a week so I have to sneak out tonight. Can you pick me up by the butcher shop?” she asked.
“Sure, I’ll wait for you,” Emma said and they agreed to meet in ten minutes. Emma called everyone and found everyone had lost their car except for her so maybe her dad wasn’t that bad after all. And she made sure she was on time that night so she didn’t miss curfew.
“Did you girls have fun tonight, darling?” Harry asked when she walked in the door. Emma grinned, flopped on the couch next to him and grabbed one of his cookies.
“It was okay, stupid Ronald and Donald were there and acting like fools but it was fun,” she said. He grinned.
“May is in big trouble. I wouldn’t expect her to join you any time soon. April found out she sneaked out tonight and they’re waiting for her to sneak back in her bedroom,” he told her and Emma groaned.
“Oh, man, I told her not to do it on the first night, I said to wait until the second or third night,” she said. Harry giggled.
“That’s what I would have done, you know your parents are going to check the first night, she deserves to be caught for being so foolish,” he said and she grinned.
“You never caught me when I sneaked out,” she bragged. He shrugged.
“You never knew I caught you, Emma, but I always knew. I just didn’t make a big stink about it. You’ve got to pick your battles and you sneaking out to the woods with May and Stephie to be witches wasn’t a big deal,” he told her and she gasped.
“You knew about that,” Emma asked with disbelief and he hugged her.
“Of course I did, darling, I know almost everything that happens in this house, I’m the dad,” he teased and she giggled.
“Well, the hex didn’t work, old Max and Charles didn’t grow warts on their noses,” she said and made a face. Harry laughed.
“Why did you want to grow warts on their noses?” he asked. She shrugged.
“Because they call all the boys fagolas,” Emma said as if he should have known that. Harry nodded.
“Yeah, I’d love to put a wart on their ass for that,” he admitted and she giggled.
“Goodnight, Dad,” she said and kissed him. He hugged her and said goodnight. He went laughing to his room; all of his children were safe in the house now.
Two days after Christmas they had seven birthday cakes and all of his kids turned a year older. Emma and Jackson were now sixteen and remarkably adult looking. Jackson was tall like Jake and stood an amazing five foot ten inches and a hundred and sixty pounds of lean muscle. Emma was tall also and stood five feet seven inches and looked very beautiful with her long blonde hair and clear blue eyes. Harry hated looking at them because he knew both of them enjoyed a very active sex life. He laughed at the thought.
Cassie and Adam were both fifteen and couldn’t wait until the spring when they got their cars and Adam had already picked out his black Jeep, he was just like Jake and taller than his brother. Ryan was fourteen and Sean was thirteen and his precious baby Danny was twelve. Harry felt old just looking at his stunning family.
Of course, all of the grandparents came to the party and for once David and Gloria came and Emma was nice to them, she, like all of Harry’s kids had delightful manners and gushed over the diamond earrings that Gloria gave her. She didn’t know of course that Emma already had a whole collection of precious gemstone earrings in her jewelry box but she was nice to the woman who had given birth to her.
“Can you believe she gave me quarter caret earrings, how cheap can you get,” Emma giggled to her sister later and Cassie laughed. Emma put them in her drawer and forgot about them. All of her earrings in her box were half caret or higher, she would never wear quarter caret; that was for a baby for Christ’s sake. Emma looked at the deed for the Jewelry Mart and the key-card that her fathers had given her for her birthday.
“Wow, I can’t believe the dads gave you the jewelry store for your birthday,” Cassie gushed and Emma sighed.
“I know, all of those diamonds are mine, I can wear anything I want, tomorrow, let’s go out and I’ll let you have anything you want,” she told her and Cassie grinned.
“Okay; that sounds great to me, can I have an emerald ring?” she asked and Emma nodded.
“Sure, you can have anything, let’s take all the girls and I’ll let everyone have something they want, just one thing but whatever they want,” she said as generous as her father. Cassie grinned.
“They’ll love that,” she predicted. Emma giggled.
“Oh, yeah, I’m pretty sure they will,” she declared and they laughed.
The next day the nine girls drove out to the Jewelry Mart and Emma used the key-card to let them in and turned on the lights and off the alarm with the code her dad had given her and all the girls were impressed.
“Oh, my God, Emma, I can’t believe you own this store, look at all the diamonds,” May gushed. She hugged her friend and they all giggled. Emma twirled around.
“My dads are so wonderful, they said when I was younger that I could have this store but I really didn’t believe it,” she said. Cassie grinned.
“Our dads would never lie, silly goose,” she told her and everyone nodded. They spent four hours looking over everything and finally everyone decided on rings. Emma wouldn’t let them get engagement rings though, she insisted that they had to wait until they got engaged for those but they all picked out nice and very expensive precious stones and were very happy and drove home. Harry grinned at them at dinner.
“Did you two have fun shopping today?” he teased and they both giggled and showed their rings. Jake smiled.
“You didn’t let anyone get an engagement ring did you, baby girl?” he asked and Emma shook her head.
“No, Dad said those were special rings like wedding bands and only for getting married,” she told him and Jake smiled at his husband and waved his fork.
“I should have known you’d tell her that,” he said and everyone laughed.
“I set Emma up with a computer program so she could become an expert gemologist, and she’s going to learn how to cut gemstones,” Harry said proudly and Emma beamed. Jake nodded.
“That’s wonderful, Emma, I’m very proud of you, that’s more than Gloria knows how to do and get your dad to teach you how to pierce ears so you can do that, people will come to your store instead of hers if you know how to do that,” he told her and she nodded.
“I still want the toy store,” Danny informed them and Harry nodded.
“That’s fine, you can have the toy store and the toy factory,” he said and Danny grinned.
“Well, we still want the Coke plant,” Sean said and Ryan nodded. Jake grinned.
“That’s great, you boys will always have a job, everyone loves Coke and you can start charging for it when you take it over,” he said and they grinned. Harry giggled.
“Oh, people are going to love that,” he declared and they all laughed. Cassie sighed.
“Well, I know Adam wants the Liquor Mart and he’ll take the wine factory but I have no idea what I want,” she complained. Harry shrugged.
“We have a lot of stores and factories, why not take a couple and see what you like best,” he suggested and she grinned.
“Can I have Macys?” she teased and he made a face.
“Yeah, right,” he teased and everyone laughed.
“Okay, I’ll take Nabisco and Bed, Bath