Page 11 of Waylon

Jamie and Amy’s mother had an unhealthy obsession with her son. She thought, even though she was in her late fifties at the time, that she was going to marry her son and have his perfect children. And that they’d be in the White House forever. She’d been killed just recently when she killed two guards while trying to get to her son because she felt that he wasn’t getting her messages about being with him. She was a sick individual.

When the family started showing up he was thrilled to see that they brought him little Allen. He loved that little boy more than he could explain to someone and was happiest when he could hold him and feed him his bottle. The little tyke looked at him, too, like he knew that the two of them were going to be up to no good before too much longer.

There was food aplenty, too. Sherman loved pizza. His favorite thing of all time was one of them calzone meatball subs. He could nearly eat an entire one all by himself. Of course, he didn’t, having to share with the rest of the family, but he was happy when there were leftovers. A cold meatball sammich was about the best there was over a hot one.

Jamie, true to his word, had to have him remind him of the things they’d talked about. Shermanloved having to be the one that kept the younger man in line. It did his heart good, too, to see him getting along with his family, too. The man even changed a nasty diaper like it was nothing to him. He supposed it was.

After all the food mess was cleaned up, he was given another bottle to feed young Allen. Since he’d already heard about the things that Jamie had to say, he was content to sit in the library and rock his great-grandson to sleep. He might well have dozed off a few times as well, but he was forever careful that he didn’t get too deep in sleep so he’d not drop the little man.

Londyn came into the room just as Allen was fussing about his diaper and he asked her if she had any practice in changing him. After telling him that she did, she had his diaper off and a clean one on him before he could put up a fuss about taking the little baby away.

“I have something I’d like to ask you.” He figured that she’d want to talk to one of the others, telling her that he was an old man and that he didn’t know all that much anymore. “I don’t think that’s the slightest bit true. I think, no, I know you can run circles around everyone in this house and they’d not know what happened if you were to put your mind to something. But this is important to me.”

“All right, darling, you go on ahead and tell me, and between the two of us, we’ll get it all worked out.” She paced a bit, and he let her. Jayden came in to get the baby and while he was sorry to see him go, he was kind of glad for it. He was going to get to be the knight for Londyn so he wanted to pay attention to what she had to say to him. “Are you sure you want to ask me?”

“I’m sure. I have some money now. A lot more than I ever expected to have in my lifetime. But I lost my family in order to get it.” He nodded, hearing about how her family were all killed in a landslide. “I want your help in setting up a fund to help people get the kind of information that I should have used for my own family. Like how to find out where their insurance records might be. What kind of things need to be put in a will. Getting cemetery and services paid for in advance. I don’t want to do that sort of work. I think that might be something later down the road, but that’s something that I think everyone could use.”

“I didn’t have mine worked out until a few years ago. We were going to be buried in the same church cemetery that we got married in. A nice bit of land out there that has a pretty little cherry tree by it. I’d love to be there, looking up at the blooms and think of the day we got married. That’s what I was thinking. Now we’re all going to be living forever, and I don’t know that I’ll ever be put into that hole and swallowed up.” He looked up at her. “You’d come and visit me, wouldn’t you, darling? I sure would like that.”

“I don’t want to think about you being swallowed up, thank you. You’re my grandda since I have none to claim as my own. And I would surely visit you if it came to that. You’re the glue that holds this family together. Did you know that? I’ve heard them all say that they’re going to go to Grandpa Sherman for advice at least a dozen times in the last week or so.”

“Oh, go on with you. Glue? Well, I do try and keep the peace.” He didn’t, and she was sure that they both knew that. He loved to pick at the boys just to get them going on each other. It made his day to have them get all huffy with their brothers. “I tell you what. I’ll put together a list of things, and you and I will work on it. Yes, sir. That’s something that I’d love to do with my favorite granddaughter.”

“We’re all your favorites, and you know it.” When she kissed him on the forehead, he felt blessed. For a man to have so many people loving him, Sherman thought that he was about as lucky as anyone could be right now.

Chapter 5

Trying not to overwhelm her, Waylon let his gorilla reach out and touch her gently. He’d never had a relationship with his other half like his brothers. They said they controlled him. But Waylon’s gorilla seemed to know when he was in his place that he was in control. He could ask him to be easy, but usually, he did what he wanted.

“Do you have a name for him?” No one had ever asked him that before, and he was surprised that she understood that they were two different people. After telling her what he called himself, she laughed. “I guess that he feels like he could be called anything that he liked, but that’s perfect. Hello Brutis. My name is Londyn Dixon.”

“Tell her that I know her name.”Waylon laughed when his beast sounded like a petulant child.“I’m not a child either.”

“I can understand him.” They both looked at Londyn, and he thought that his beast was more surprised than he was. “You’re very handsome, aren’t you? And bigger than I thought you’d be.”

“I am his beast. I care for him when he needs it.”The voice in his head was strong, and it occurred to him that he didn’t know what language he was speaking in, nor for that matter if he was talking a language that only he could understand with Londyn and his beast.

“Why do you call him that? Or yourself? Why do you call yourself beast when you seem like any other gorilla, with the exception of size, something that sounds so terrifying?” It was Burtis who answered her. “I guess I can see that. If people think that you refer to him as that then they’ll think twice about attacking. Have you hurt anyone in order to protect Waylon?”

“I have only harmed those that think to harm him.”She seemed to be satisfied with that answer. As she walked around him, touching his great other half, he began to look around to see what other things he might have missed being a man. “Our mate is very strong, isn’t she? And smart.”

“I believe that she’s both of those things, yes. She’s looking for a job. I worry about that because I can’t be with her all the time. I fear that she’ll be hurt while I’m too far away to come and help her.”Brutis laughed and told him that he shouldn’t fear that she couldn’t protect herself.“Do you think that she’ll be able to defend herself all the time? Against all odds?”

“Nay. What I think is that she won’t allow herself to get into a situation that is that far over her boundaries. She is very self-aware. Just look at how she is looking at us and also the surrounding area. She will not allow any of us to be harmed if she can help it. Also, I believe that she will be a good mother to your children. Protective, of course, but she will teach them to be strong and smart as well.”Now that it was pointed out to him, he could see that she wasn’t just looking at his other half, but just as he’d been told, she was keeping track of her surroundings. It was just one more thing to love about her.

They hung out in the yard for another hour. When Brutis laid down on the soft grass, she curled up into his body and fell asleep. Brutis and he both thought that they could live with her right there for the rest of their long lives. It was comforting to them both that she trusted them completely.

When she woke up, he’d been trying to move out from under her when he got a leg cramp. She looked up at him. With her smile, brightening up the world it seemed looking at him, Waylon realized that he loved her more than he did yesterday and would love her all the more tomorrow.

It wasn’t a surprise to him that she was sleeping a great deal of the time. They were up most of the night making love and enjoying being together. Just this morning, he’d joined her in the shower to have a nice little romp in the water, and both of them had to stagger their way to the bed again for a quick nap. If they kept this up, they were going to be worn to a nubbin. Whatever the hell that was. Just thinking about her had him hard. And when he shifted back to himself, his human side, he was thrilled that she was as hungry as he was in needing some dinner.

They’d been so busy with other things going on, he was gearing up for the holidays in the hardware store with extras coming in, and she was busy establishing herself as an attorney who worked solely for the family.

He and Berny, his employee, were working to get most of the truck put away when the younger man came to find him. They were nearly finished with it but still had some of the end of summer things to put on clearance. The herbs that he’d sold this summer had been a big hit, and he was going to do that again next year. Maybe bring in a few trees to help with the refurbishing of the trees that had been damaged when the summer storms came through earlier in the year.

“Mr. Waylon? I was wondering if you have the Thanksgiving schedule fixed up yet. I know it’s a few months away but my mom is biting at the bit in trying to gather all of us up for the holiday. I have five brothers and three sisters and most of them have their own families. I’d rather work, to be honest, but my mom would have a fit if I had to.” He told him that he could have off any day that he needed to be with his family. “Gee, thanks. I’ll tell her.”

Waylon found himself laughing throughout the day when he thought about how Berny had seemed to be dejected about Thanksgiving with his family. It got him to thinking about his own plans for this year now that he had a mate. He checked his pocket again for the ring that he’d gotten her yesterday and had it sized so that he could pick it up today. He was as excited about giving it to her as Berney wasn’t about his own family plans.

---