I'm 51

I would have gotten up but she clung to me tightly. "I'll leave tomorrow."

I never saw the slap coming, but it was a doozy. Lights flashed and my jaw stung. "You will not! What I'm trying to tell you is that I've changed. You have more power over me right now than anyone in my whole life. Your smile, your touch, the way you light up when you've done something special for me and see I like it, the way you almost glow when Heather brings the kids by, I've started living for that. So then, in the clumsiest way ever, I'm telling you if you asked a certain question, you might like the answer this time."

I could see her holding her breath in her mind and I shrugged. "Let me think about it. I'll get back to you tomorrow, Monday at the latest."

She went rigid and I heard her deep breath. I rolled back over as quickly as I could and smothered her with kisses. When I let her up for breath, I jumped out of bed. "Stay right here!"

It's a good thing Heather and the kids weren't there or they might have seen me by the light of the full moon as I streaked by the window naked. I charged into the garden shed and fumbled around until I found the box behind a bag of bone meal. I knew if I hid it there, she would never find it. Angie was scared to death of spiders, saw a writing spider on the wall once, and wouldn't set foot in the building again unless I was with her.

She was up, sitting in bed with her knees up and her arms wrapped around them. She looked like a teen, not like a woman with two grandchildren.

I slid up to the bed and jumped her, rolling her in the covers. Then I kissed her until she calmed down. "Honey, I have something for you. There's a secret word you have to say to get it. Would you like to see it?"

She nodded and I grinned, showing her the box and opening it. I knew she would never have picked that particular ring out, but I thought it was perfect and she wasn't paying for it anyway. Her eyes got huge and she tried to get out from under the covers.

"You don't want it? I thought you would like it. I can always take it back."

By then she had her left hand out and was thumping on my chest. "Give it to me!"

"No, no, you haven't said the magic word. Wanna try again?"

"You suck at this! Yes. All right? Yes, with all my heart I'm ready to be Mrs. Reginald Wilkes. That being said, I believe you have something that belongs to me, something that I will cherish for the rest of my days. Now give!"

I made her kiss me first, then I gently slid the symbol of my love on her dainty little finger. She sighed. Then she held me and cried. I held her and cried. When we were done crying, we started kissing. After about five minutes of that she jumped out of bed and grabbed her phone. "I need to call Heather! And Vicky, Barb, Alice, and..."

I eased the phone out of her hands. "You can't."

"Why?"

"Because it's 1:30 in the morning. They will all be thrilled to find out, but not as much as you'd think if you called them now. Let's go back to bed."

This time she was the one that knocked me to the bed. I laughed. "State GILF Of The Year, two years running and still undefeated!" It went through my mind as she grabbed me. By then, I was 48 and she was 54 (She was only 6 &1/2 years older, she sometimes reminded me), but you would have thought there were two teenagers in bed that night. We didn't wake up until nine, when Heather came by.

Angie stumbled out of bed, yanked the door open and instead of talking she just stuck her hand in Heather's face. Then Heather screamed, which triggered Angie so I got up and made coffee. I was halfway through making breakfast before they calmed down enough for coherent conversation. As soon as they ate, their phones came out. I beat a hasty retreat, called Ben, and we took the boat out.

I told him about the night before as we fished off the platform designed just for that, and after he reeled in a bass he grinned and held his hand out. "Congratulations, you won a hell of a woman. However, if you ever treat her the way I did, well, I can't kick your ass but I'm a damn good shot."

"Keep your guns in the safe. I think I can handle it."

He called from the boat to wish her the best. He hung up laughing. "I'm to be your best man, Heather and Vicky will be bridesmaids, and while they're a little old for it, Jere and Lynnie will be the ringbearer and flower girl. Think you can get away with moving out until after the wedding?"

"I'll grit my teeth and deal with it."

Chapter 15

Sixteen years later, Angie and I, along with Ben and Vickie, watched with pride as Lynette was awarded her Master's in Construction Management and Engineering, a double major earned at the same time. Her thesis for the management degree was entitled "Building A Box." She used part of her thesis for her commencement speech.

She explained her progress from the time when she was nine and built her own keepsake box, complete with hinges and a handle. She still had it. She went on to describe how she built a birdhouse, then a doghouse, then a playhouse, a few small sheds, and then oversaw and built a vacation bungalow she had been designing in her spare time. It was built for the family to use.

"My Grandfather Wilkes taught me building, guiding me through the progress from keepsake box to bungalow. He taught me anything one built was basically a box, they just got bigger and more complicated, so you needed to build the best box you could.

"Then my Grandfather Ben Bassett Sr. taught me how to build business relationships, how to always deal fairly and honor your word, and if you did that you would always be successful whether you made money or not. I've found the same to hold true in relationships of any kind. You build a strong box and repair any weaknesses or flaws you discover. My grandfathers, my grandmothers, and my mother always made sure my box was strong. When I marry and start my life with another, you can rest assured a box will be built around our love, and there will be no weaknesses in it."

It was very moving. So why didn't she thank her dad in the speech? He had moved back in a few months after he came for the cookout, and it took another month before they slept together. I made him a lead man because he deserved it and by the time a year had passed, I thought they were over their problems.

One day he just disappeared. No warning, he just missed work, packed his stuff in his truck, and left. He did leave a brief note, saying he was going back to California, that he was sorry, and he'd send support for the kids.

Heather was devastated again. We had to get her and the children into therapy to deal with the abandonment. Ben and I stepped up to try and fill the void and it worked, a little.

Of course, we put detectives on his trail and they found him two months later. He was working with a construction company as a subcontractor on a major apartment contract, and was living with one of his old girlfriends. It seemed she was the reason he wanted to get back to the West Coast. She moved on and married when he came home. It didn't last a year. They had stayed in touch by email, emails on an account Heather didn't know he had, and when she told him she was single again and really missed him, he was gone the next day.

Heather mourned him for a little, then got on with her life. She didn't have the luxury of riding off into the sunset and leaving the children behind. She filed for divorce three months after he left and had him served on his jobsite. In the paperwork was a provision for child support, but she gave him an out. Sign over parental rights and he was free. His new woman was not happy about having to give up that much of his income and pressured him until he signed.

Two years later, Heather was assistant head of Payroll and HR, and had to deal with every employee in one capacity or another. I had sent her to school to finish her degree, letting her work half days so she could attend classes. She returned to full time with a vengeance, storming into my office and jumping into my lap. "Why are you being so good to me?"

"I never told you, but my first wife was a selfish b... person and lied to me about being able to have children. She fought me on adoption, and after we separated it came out she'd had her tubes tied to avoid pregnancy. I was destined to be a dead end, biologically, dying unloved and unmoored, and then I met Angie. I knew we could never have children, but her love was worth it to me. Then you came along and gave me a do over. You and the kids were in my heart from the first weekend, and my feelings just kept getting stronger. Heather, you're the closest I'll ever have to a daughter, so I've decided to adopt you. Not in the legal sense, you're too old for that, but in the emotional sense. And as my child, that automatically makes you my heir. It's why I pushed you to get your degree. When I retire my part of the business goes to you. I've talked to Sarah and David, and they think it a good idea to keep it in the family. The paperwork has already been done and all you have to do is step up when I step down."

She got so emotional I had to call Angie to help calm her down. She petted her until she stopped snuffling and smiled. "Did you really not see this coming? You've been his pride and joy since you arrived. Honor his love and do a good job. You've got about ten to twelve years to be prepared."

Then David's son came by to do some insurance paperwork and met Heather. Sparks flew and fifteen months later I had the honor of giving her away. Talk about keeping it in the family! Sarah was David's sister, and her son was a career military man, so Heather and DJ, David Jr, were going to get it all. They were in their mid-thirties by then, and no one was surprised when they had a son they named David Reginald. Heather had to warn us. "Mine! You got the two older ones almost all the time now, let me have this one."

It was really, really hard, but we restrained ourselves.

Jeremiah took after Benny, working summers and school breaks at the company while both grandparents mentored him. Lynette did the same at my firm; she even worked with the construction crews for two summers before going into the office to learn from her mother and Sarah. Jeremiah got his business degree and after two years, it was apparent he would be running the family business in a few years. His grandparents couldn't wait. By the time Lynette got her degrees, Angie was 70 and I was 64. Angie had retired three years earlier and this was my last year before Heather stepped up.

We planned to stay active, travel and watch over the next generation. Jeremiah had already married with a small son and had his second on the way. Lynnie wasn't ready to settle down just yet, but we knew it would only be a short time before she would be snatched up by someone who didn't deserve her.

Fourteen years after he left, we got notification that Benny Jr. had passed away due to a construction accident. He was trying to unload a full hack of fourteen by four and a half sheetrock, 32 sheets, with an electric winch. Safety protocols stated there had to be two winches used at the same time with a safety spotter present, but he was in a hurry. He had it nine feet into the air when the weight shifted and it came down on him. According to the accident report, it crushed him on impact.

We didn't get the notification until three weeks after the funeral, when the state was going through the paperwork looking for a next of kin. It seems his new wife had run off three years before and left him with two daughters to care for. The mother could not be found, and California wanted to know what to do with them. Ben, Vickie, Angie, and I all flew out right away.

The children were both girls, one eleven and the other nine, and they were the rudest, most disrespectful children I'd ever run across. The oldest snarled at us. "If you our grandparents, how come we never seen you, huh?"

"Because until a few days ago we never knew you existed. If we had you'd know a lot more about us now."

"I ain't going nowhere with any of you."

Angie and Vicky were tearing up so I took over. "If they can't find your mother, you might not have a choice. If it comes to wealthy grandparents taking you off the state's hands, of putting you in foster care and pay for raising you, the state is going to look out for themselves. I suggest that if you don't have anything important keeping you here, if they can't find your mother, you come back with us and check the situation out. Think about it."

The older one looked defiant, but the little one just looked scared so I targeted her. "How about it, Princess? New clothes, big house, an older brother and sister to help keep an eye on you if you need it, and rumor has it I can be a heck of a grandparent. I have references, if you're interested."

Benny echoed me, saying we sometimes competed to see who could spoil grandkids more, and then we backed off and let the ladies go after them. Angie finally got through to them when she started showing them pictures of their older siblings, remarking how similar they looked, and how we had plenty of room at either house, showing them pictures including the outdoor kitchen and pool, plus a few of our boats. Benny and Vicky bought themselves a streamlined runabout as a retirement present, but we still used the big boat, the third one, when everyone wanted to ride. The house Vicky had chosen was out in the country and had some acreage. They had an assortment of animals, including three horses.

We never felt any inclination to ride, but Jere and Lynnie loved to, so they were there as often as they were at our house. Despite the massive efforts to spoil them, we also tempered our excesses with life lessons, and they were a pretty well-balanced set of youngsters.

It hit a nerve with the little one, Vanessa. "I never been on a horse."

Vicky grinned. She was like me and never had kids, and this was a golden opportunity for her. "Come home with us, baby. I'll have you riding in no time."

Charlene was obsessed with the boats. "I've never been fishing."

"Well, if you come home with us you'll spend so much time on the water you'll feel like a duck."

We stayed two weeks while they finished their search for their mother. We took advantage and got permission to take them places, so we went to an amusement park, a 'dude ranch' where we took them riding for the first time, but mostly we just spent time with them, convincing them we weren't ogres who roasted children for breakfast.

Vanessa bonded with Benny and Vickie, and Charlie seemed to like us better. In the end they went home with us, and since Vanessa insisted, they lived with Benny and Vickie. Charlie went with them, as well. We were a little disappointed, but realized they were going to need breaks and we usually had them on weekends. It was a rough first year as we had to get them out of some pretty bad habits, but by the second year, they relaxed enough to feel safe and loved, and they calmed down and were integrated into the family.

Heather and her husband mentored them, and Jere wanted them to spend time with him and his wife, a woman he'd met through business. They dated for a year before he brought her to a cookout, scared to death because she was Indian. None of ever found out where that came from and welcomed her with open arms. She cemented her place in the family when she started bringing dishes for the cookouts. Once she brought an enormous pan of curry, and we emptied it, ignoring the steaks and chicken.

He told his little sisters they were going to use them as training tools for when theirs came along. They were so enthralled with Mary, her Americanized name, that they insisted on saris to wear to a wedding of one of her friends. The pictures hold a place of honor on our wall.

I think they kept us young. Angie made it to Vanessa's high school graduation but it was her last public appearance. She was two months shy of being 80 when she fell and shattered her hip, dying from complications two weeks later. It was sudden and left me desolate, but after I mourned her for six months, I came to realize we had a pretty good run. From the day we met we were never with anyone else. No dates, no flings, no other relationships, we just joined at the hip and never let go. Even for the second time around, that was unusual.

Every night I'd look at the plaque I'd gotten her a couple of years after we got married. It was an award plague that proudly proclaimed: "Hottest GILF," with the name of our state and the date in a little insert in the bottom. Every year I'd take it back to the award shop I got it from and have another insert added for the current year. When Lynette had her first child, I got a new plague that read "Hottest GGILF Of The Year" and started adding inserts. She'd giggle every time I added a year, and turned bright red when Vanessa asked her what a GILF was one day. I told it stood for Grandmother I'll Love Forever, which made her glow even brighter.

I had talked it over with Angie, and we agreed after we'd gone if Vanessa didn't already have a house, she would get ours. Benny and Vickie agreed that Charlie would get theirs.

The next year, Benny passed in his sleep. I held Vicky and made all the necessary arrangements; I developed a habit of keeping her at my house a couple of times a week just to make sure she was all right and a year later she moved in. We were never in a relationship, although we loved each other as friends, we were just two old people that didn't want to be alone. The kids all grinned, and I bet Angie and Benny were laughing their asses off.

Sometimes we'd sit on the veranda in rockers, watching the sunset as we talked about our departed loved ones, and we both agreed that no matter how we started out, our golden years were about as shiny as they get and we were damned lucky in who we chose to love. One night we talked until well past dark about everything, and when I got up to go in, she told me she wanted to sit a bit, to enjoy the coolness. I left her for about forty-five minutes, wondering about the tears in her eyes, and then decided to take her a blanket if she was going to stay, or help her inside if she was ready.

It seemed she would never need a blanket again. She had passed, still warm, and with a smile on her face. I'd be willing to bet that right about now she and Benny were hugging like crazy while Angie smiled.

I sat down beside her and waited for the ambulance, talking to her. "Vicky, it may have come a little late in your life, but you got your heart's desire. A good man to love, children to raise, surrounded by a big family that loved you for who you are. Not a lot of people that leave this life can say that. If you can hear me, I want you to give a message to Angie. You tell her I'll be along soon enough with a brand-new plaque. It'll say 'Hottest GGILF In Eternity" and will be the absolute truth."

The EMT's showed up and I kissed her cheek, wishing her a safe journey, before they gently laid her on the gurney. Sighing, I started the round of calls, knowing the house would be full shortly. I thought about the girls, who stopped calling her Grandmother in less than a year, and called her Mom. She told us that was the second biggest moment in her life, right behind marrying Benny. They would be devastated and we'd have to be strong for them. Honestly, I didn't know how much strength was left in me.

I looked up at the stars and smiled. "Soon, baby, soon."