Page 26 of For the Love of the Lawyer

"Hello, my darling.” Jon hugged her and kissed her cheek. She'd come with the house when his parents purchased it, and she'd been good to him as a kid growing up. He loved her like a grandmother.

"Hello, you rascal. It's been too long since you've been here. How about a cup of coffee and we catch up while my stock simmers?" she offered with a bright smile.

Ursula Pendergrass was in her mid-sixties, but she loved her job with his family. She only worked on the weekends when they were in Dillwyn, and if it was a huge party, his mother hired additional help and had Ursula supervise. He was thrilled to see her again.

"That sounds lovely, but why don't you take a seat and allow me to fetch the coffee. How are the boys?" She had sons older than him but not by much if he remembered correctly.

Ursula was proud of them, and when he was younger, she'd have them come around and tend the lawn and the flower beds where Allison loved to tinker. He remembered they didn't like the work much, but they would tolerate Jon hanging around, and he thought they were cool. They cussed and smoked, and they talked about sex, with girls, and they didn't not talk about it because he was there. It was likely the best sex education he ever received.

"Well, Frank was promoted to senior account manager at the bank, and he and Brandy just enrolled Frankie in a prep school. His grades are very good, and he plays lacrosse, so they think he has the potential for a scholarship. They're supposed to come down over the summer for a visit. They live in Boston if you recall.

"Now, Vance is still working on his doctoral degree in archaeology. He's actually on a dig at a ruins' site in—well, I can't exactly remember the place, but it's in South America. Something about an ancient burial ground of some tribe or something. I only understand about half of what he writes in his email letters, mind you, but it's nice to hear from him. How about you, dear? Anything new going on in your life?" Ursula sipped her coffee.

Jon was stunned to realize he knew very little about the woman’s family, and she knew everything about his. He vaguely remembered Frank was in finance, and he damn well didn't recall Vance was still getting his PhD. Hell, he'd been at it for almost ten years if memory served. Jon felt ashamed of himself because he was becoming… or he’d become… a very self-centered person.

"Ursula, that's great. Now, how about you and Roy? You're both well?" he asked.

The look on her face made his stomach sink. "Oh, I suppose your mother or father didn't relay the fact I lost Roy a year ago. He had a stroke, and I had to put him in a home. He hated it so much, but his mind was so damaged, he didn't recognize anyone in the family when we went to visit. He caught pneumonia and passed away a year ago in February. I still miss him every day. He was my great love.” She reached up to dry a tear. He couldn't have felt worse if he'd kicked a newborn puppy.

"I'm sure Mom or Pop told me, but I just forgot, Ursula. I'm so sorry. I wish… Well, I hate it for you. How's your health, dear?" he asked.

She smiled at him and finished drying her eyes. "I'm healthy as a horse. It'll be a while before I get to see Roy again, but he's looking out for me and the boys, I know. How about you, Jon? Anyone special?" she asked him.

I wish, Jon thought. "Not really. I just can't seem to find the right person, I guess. I've done a lot of looking, trust me, but I think I'm just set in my ways," he explained as he sipped his coffee. He didn't know for sure, because Ursula was kind to ever ask outright, but he was pretty sure she knew he was gay. As he thought about it, he wondered how his parentscouldn'tknow.

Ursula laughed quietly and slapped the top of his hand resting on the kitchen table. "Now, you're not opening your heart to possibilities. If you recall, Frank and Vance aren't my biological children. Roy's first wife passed when they were very young, and I worked for Roy as a cook and babysitter. I fell in love with Roy, even though in the beginning, I believed he wasn't the right type of man for me. Of course, in the end I never regretted it for a minute.

"I'd just graduated culinary school in New York and was on my way to Miami to try out for job when I got mugged in theRichmond bus station. Stole everything I had, they did. I lived in a rundown motel for a week until I answered an ad for an after-school babysitter. I needed money and Roy needed someone to cook and watch the boys for him. He was the prosecutor back then, and he was desperate for help.

“I figured if I worked for him for six months, I'd have enough money to get to Miami. I never left Richmond until Roy decided to quit working for the district attorney and we moved here for him to open a small, private practice. That's how we met your family and how I came to work here.”

Of course, it was like new information for Jon, and it reminded him what a selfish bastard he'd been his whole life, not just recently. As he thought about it, he realized he'd never really listened to people's stories. He was so fucking caught up in his own shit, he'd stopped engaging, down to the tricks he'd dragged home. There was never any emotion aside from the physiological need to achieve sexual gratification, but after he came, he forgot everything—including their names.

"Can I ask you something? How hard was it for you and Roy to carve out a romantic relationship? I mean you were an aspiring chef, and he was a lawyer. Did you have anything in common?" he asked.

Ursula smiled and toyed with the bone china cup in front of her for a minute before she spoke. There was a wisdom in her eyes that Jon wished he had. "At first glance, I suppose most people would have said Roy and I had nothing in common. He was fifteen years older than me and in a profession that I didn't understand in the least, but if one listens to the things people say… and I mean really listens… there's always common ground.

“We're all on the earth together in a certain space and time, and there are events that shape us all. ‘Where were you when the Twin Towers fell?’will be the conversation you'll have many times in your life, I suspect. Mine is 'Do you remember whenJFK was shot?' Your parents might be 'Do you remember the first Iraq war? Do you think we left too soon?'

"After those generation-defining questions are answered, we all find we have things in common. I think you're struggling with believing you have nothing to talk about with someone specific, and let me tell you, Jonathon, if you ask enough questions, and you listen to the answers they give you? You’ll find your sought-after shared interests," she offered as the screen door slammed.

Jon heard familiar voices laughing on the back porch, and when it was quiet, he looked at Ursula, seeing a smile. "There are many ways to find something in common if you look hard enough, Jon. Always remember that." The woman then went back to her stockpot.

After listening for a moment to his parents talking, Jon left the kitchen and walked onto the porch, happy to see them both smiling.

"Well, Miss Allison, I'm here as ordered.” His mother was pulling the muck boots from his father's feet. His dad, always the pussy hound, was busy staring at her ass, and Jon couldn't hold the laugh.

"Pop, you keep studying it, and you'll explode.”

His father's head snapped up and a slow smile appeared. "Hey, if you find one like that, you'll never take your eyes off it until the day you die. Glad you came. Your mother had me in the barn hammering shit. I barely knew how to put together that IKEA crap you bought when you went to college. She's under the illusion I've developed skills that are helpful on a farm, when we all know I haven’t." Ham’s smirk made Jon laugh. He did love his parents.

“Oh, Ham, it’s just so I can imagine you as a construction worker with the hammer in hand and a sexy leather belt around your waist, darling. It’s very attractive seeing younailingthingsat the barn.” Allison tickled Jon’s father’s stomach, making him flinch.

Jon laughed at their playfulness after so many years of marriage. "Well, apparently you were good at nailing something," he joked as he swept his mother into his arms. Allison Granger Wells was a stunning woman, and she'd be the only woman Jon ever loved unconditionally. He loved Audrey Langley like a sister, but the love he held for his mother was unquantifiable.

Ham Wells had an immense laugh, and it was always contagious. Jon and Allison laughed hard as they watched Ham trying to toe-off the other boot. Finally, Jon extracted himself from his mother's embrace and walked over to his father. "Tell me your feet aren't still growing. You wear a thirteen or some shit, right?" Jon pulled on the dirty boot, finally freeing it from his father's foot.

"No, my feet aren't still growing, thankfully. Oh, I got hair comin' out of places I never imagined, but that's another story. I accidentally pulled on Clyde's boots.

---