Page 31 of A Little Thankful

“I’ll get it,” Gram said, and I put the tea kettle back on, and started a pot of coffee. I thought we could at least be adult about the whole thing, and drink accordingly. No wine or beer will be served. Just coffee, tea or water, and our cookies, which sat ona pretty sky-blue platter in the middle of the table. I assembled Mom’s tea pot and matching cups, poured half-and-half into a creamer, and added a honey bear, a sugar bowl and white napkins.

That was when Dr. Charles walked into the kitchen.

She came right over to me and gave me a quick hug. “Relax. This is on them. You’ve already done the hard part, but I think they already know that.”

“Thanks,” I told her coming out of the hug. “I can offer tea and coffee, and homemade cookies. What would you like?”

“Love some green tea if you have it. Been a long day.” She looked around. “Are we sitting at the table?”

“Ummm, yes,” I mumbled and stuttered. I was so nervous it showed. “The, umm, table. Let’s sit around the table.”

But Dr. Charles was already heading that way.

“So how’s your visit going so far? Or did you move back here? This town could sure use your expertise. I love to hike and ski and repel down mountains, and I would love it if you could organize more group activities like that. I know a lot of folks around here who enjoy that kind of stuff, even rafting down our river in the spring for example, but there isn’t any one organization that coordinates those kinds of adventures for us. Especially the mindset you need for those kinds of activities. I was afraid to do all that shit at first, until I watched one of your Zoom lectures on the adventure/sports mindset a few years ago. Really helpful, but damn it would’ve been so much better if that person, a Jami Something…”

“Jami Albright,” I said.

The more she spoke the more something lit up inside of me. Like a fire wanted to start but I kept blowing out the flame. Once again, Dr. Charles made perfect sense.

“Yeah, that’s her. It would be so nice if she could come here to Cricket to give a lecture on the subject. That wouldbe awesome. Is that something you and your parents might consider doing?”

“To be honest, I hadn’t thought about that before, but you make perfect sense. There’s no reason why Jami and all the other speakers we hire couldn’t speak right here in Cricket. And Moon Hall is the perfect place to set up a bank of Zoom monitors for exactly that. Not only could they speak to a room full of real people, but we could hold world-wide Zoom meetings right from Cricket.”

“Moon Hall might be a little small, and I don’t know if the owners would let you set up monitors like that. However, I know the old lumber warehouse is for sale. That place is huge. Think about what you could do with all that space.”

“Wasn’t there a lot of flood damage to that building?”

“I think that’s all been cleared up through Dragonfly. You should check it out while you’re here. It might be exactly the kind of venue you and your parents are looking for.”

My mind raced with all sorts of ideas, but this time, except for maybe a business loan from my parents, or better still, if they made me a full partner, this would be my venture.

Not theirs.

I wanted to check out the lumber warehouse like right now, but I knew I couldn’t go anywhere until this whole paternity thing got resolved.

But holy shit, she lit a fire under me, that had turned into a bonfire, and was quickly moving into an inferno. I could actually pull something like this off. I could be my own boss. Run my own show, and do it all from right here in Cricket where I had a family to love me and three amazing life partners who said they loved me.

What the hell?

This time when the doorbell rang, there were no butterflies in my stomach. I didn’t feel sick, and I definitely was no longerafraid. This time, I had a potential plan, and whenever I had even a glimmer of a goal or a plan, my whole world changed for the better.

“They’re here,” my grandmother said as she walked back into the kitchen with Hunter, Forrest and Mace trailing right behind her.

They looked so serious I didn’t recognize those faces. They greeted Dr. Charles, and even she noticed their somber temperaments.

“Are you sure you folks are ready for these results? We can put this off for another time if you want me to. It’s totally up to you.”

“I’d like to put it off forever,” Mace mumbled.

“Is that just your opinion or do all three of you share that thought?” she asked.

Hunter pulled out a chair, then leaned on the table as he took his seat. “I’d like to think that all three of us are her dads.”

“Sounds good to me,” Mace said.

Dr. Charles gazed over at me. “What do you want to do, Mom?”

“I want to contact the agent who’s handling the old lumber warehouse that’s for sale,” I said. “If the guys don’t want to know which of them is Autumn’s father, then what are we doing here?”

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