Timothy - 96. Chapter 96

That evening in bed, "Tim, some of those comments were horrible. I feel sorry for Bruce's family, and to know what people thought of him must hurt."

'It's hard for me to understand how his parents were not aware of some of this. If he brought his conquests home, certainly they suspected something. I certainly would if my son brought a girl home and took her to his bedroom. His mother must be suffering."

"Do you think he cared what his parents thought?"

"From what I know and have read in those comments, both printed and those Rich sent over, I think he was too egotistical to care about anyone except himself."

"I wonder how he would react if he knew what those people wrote in their comments."

"He would probably laugh and make some comment about how they were lucky to have been selected by him."

"Let him go. As far as I'm concerned, it's over, and I'll focus on our vacation and our family."

With a snuggle and a kiss, I fell asleep. Sometime during the night, Donnie came and told me he would arrange our vacation. Then I heard his giggle, and it was quiet.

Waking in the morning, lying in bed next to Stephen, "Donnie came last night and said he would arrange our vacation. Then he giggled and disappeared. I don't mind him arranging our vacation, but his giggle bothered me. When he was alive, he would giggle every time he had a surprise for me, and sometimes that surprise was good and not so good. I remember he wanted to race me to the other side of the creek behind his farm one time. He said he had rocks planted so that we could step on them. He started, giggling. He had one rock that would tip when you stepped on it. He took off running and laughing. He was stepping on every other rock, I wasn't, and when I stepped on the one rock he rigged, I fell into the creek. He giggled when he went to help me up, and I pulled him in. The two of us sitting in this creek laughing and soaking wet."

"It seems like harmless jokes."

"It was. He never did anything that would hurt me. I'm just curious about the kind of vacation he will devise for us."

"Let's shower. We need to stop at the farm and spend some time there. I want to get home as soon as possible, and I don't want to spend any more time here than we have to. Your mom and dad can come to visit us, and I think that will do them some good to get away as well. I'll speak to Randy about coming up with Aunt Clara. They need to get away as well."

We showered, packed our suitcases, and took them downstairs. Mom had breakfast ready, and Dad was seated at the table drinking a cup of coffee talking to Eva and John. I was surprised to see them, and they said Mom invited them over. I looked for Stephen, I thought he was behind me. There he was, walking in with Eva Marie in his arms. My thoughts went to Donnie, 'Donnie, we need to move on creating our family.'

"I should have known where you went." He smiled as he kissed Eva Marie's cheek. "She said she is hungry and wants her bottle."

We laughed as Eva went and got her bottle ready.

I expected our breakfast talk to be about Bruce and the comments in the paper, but to my surprise, it wasn't. I was glad, and I wanted to put this behind me.

Eva wanted to know when we were going to start building our family. Stephen answered, "We will have our first child within a year, and Tim has two odd ends to tie up, and then we will be ready to build our family."

I looked at Stephen, he smiled at me and winked. We will have a discussion on the way home.

When breakfast was over, Eva went to help Mom clean up, Stephen had Eva Marie to entertain, Dad, John, and I went outside. I had our luggage to put in the trunk of our car; When I opened the trunk, there were Randy's vegetables. That was a mistake. Dad took some tomatoes and beans, John watched. "John, help yourself." I had half a bushel left when they had all they wanted.

"Tim, where do you get these vegetables?"

"Randy grows them on the farm. When I'm in town, I stop, and he gives me a bushel of whatever is ready for the picking. I pay him a few dollars, it's his spending money."

I saw the look in Dad's eye, and I knew Randy had a new customer.

We left for the farm in time to arrive for lunch. Randy was excited to see us, and his girlfriend was there. As usual, Stephen blew the horn as we pulled into the driveway. I saw Randy coming around the corner of the house, but I didn't notice the pretty girl following him. Randy's girlfriend must have been helping him.

Aunt Clara came out, standing on the porch, she invited us in for vegetable soup and coffee.