Page 98 of Dr. CEO (The Doctors)

I clasp her hand in mine. “You do. Every day. Just by being you.”

A few weeks after that

Kate

We all stand looking at Carole and John’s house from the driveway.

I keep glancing up at the heavy, gray clouds threatening above. I give it four minutes until it starts bucketing down.

“We’ve got to have at least four more bedrooms,” Carole says.

“Four?” John shrieks. “Do you have a bunch of secret children I don’t know about?”

“And a bigger dining room,” Carole says.

“We can’t just make the dining room bigger,” John says.

“Which is why I’m thinking it might just be better to pull the entire house down and build something new. What do you think?”

“What do I think?” John says, his face getting redder by the second. “I think—”

“I didn’t mean you, I meant Vincent. And Jacob. Extend or demolish?”

“Nathan has a house just down the road. We don’t all need to stay with you every time we visit.”

Carole reaches around her back and unties her apron with pictures of Jacob on it. “This is just what I was afraid of. If you all have houses nearby, no one is going to want to stay. And I love it when we eat together, and sit around the firepit and then fall into bed.” She screws the apron up in a ball and throws in on the ground. “I want my grandchildren crawling into my bed in the mornings and I want to tuck them up at night.”

John sidles up to her and rubs her back. “Hey. Our boys aren’t going anywhere, as much as I’d like them to.”

I stifle a laugh and shoot a glance at Sutton. John’s comment doesn’t even register with Vincent and Jacob.

“I have an idea,” Vincent says and I squeeze his hand, wanting him to know I agree with whatever he’s going to say. “Why don’t you add a new house at the front here? You have plenty of space. Then connect it to the old house and convert the old house into a bedroom block that can be used when we’re all here. The rest of the time, you can use the new house, which we can make sure has a huge dining room.”

“A bedroom block?” John asks. “We’re not turning the place into a youth hostel.”

“It’s a good idea,” Carole says. “Because the grandchildren have started arriving and they need space.”

“Good grief,” John says. “There’s never any peace.”

“Why don’t you go and look at your beans, John? Leave this to me and the boys,” Carole says.

John tuts. “Typical. Dismissed from discussing my own house.” He doesn’t argue and I imagine he’s secretly pleased he doesn’t have to be involved with whatever it is Carole wants to do with the house. John loves his sons just as much as Carole does. He just has a different way of showing it. “Dog,” he screams. “You better not have found any fox shit or I’ll skin you alive.”

“Don’t kill the dog, Dad,” Jacob says.

“I’ll do what I damn well please,” he replies. “This is my house—” Dog rounds the corner from the side of the house and shoots toward us. “Come on. Let’s check the beans.” John heads toward his vegetable patch, leaving the five of us staring at the house.

“We’re always going to come and visit, Mum,” Jacob says. “I don’t think Sutton would have married me if it hadn’t been for the family. You’re part of the package.”

“It’s true,” Sutton says. “There’s no way we’ll stop visiting.”

“But when you all have babies, we’ll need more space,” Carole says. “They’re small things, but they take up a lot of room. You’ll find out.”

“Yes we will,” Jacob says. “In about seven and a half months.”

I gasp, and Carole snaps her head to look at Jacob.

Vincent slaps Jacob on the back. “Congratulations.”

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