Chapter 10

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Brian was lounging on a chaise in the sun porch. He appeared to be reading a fiscal report; in reality he was indulging in one of his favorite pastimes, Sunshine watching. Justin was at his easels busily painting away. Soft music was playing in the background; Justin's hips were gently swaying with the rhythm as his brush caressed the canvas. Brian adjusted himself.

"Pop?"

"Yeah, Gus."

"I'm going to take the kids to the play house."

"Do you need some snacks?"

"Got'em. Uncle Bobby packed up a cooler for us."

"Okay, Sonny Boy, keep an eye on the little ones."

"No, problem, Pop." Brian looked up from his report. "Gus, wait a minute." Brian beckoned his son to where he was sitting. "Do you mind looking after the kids? It must be boring."

"It's fine, Dad. Cynthia emailed me some material about my job and about the history of Kinnetik. The kids will be in the play house and I'll sit out on the little porch and read. And I have a book with me in my bag. I won't get bored."

"You're sure."

"Yes, Pop, I'm sure."

"Okay and thanks, Gus."

"No prob. Later, Pop."

"Later."

Gus called for the kids, picked up the cooler and out they went.

Brian continued to peruse his report, highlighting the parts he needed to re-read or consult with Ted on later, then he settled back to continue his study of Justin and his rhythmic ass.

"Gus," Briana came out of the Wendy house to show her big brother a picture she drew.

"What is it, Squirt?"

"Look what I draw." Bree climbed onto her brother's lap to show him her picture. There were obviously flowers and several big green blobs.

"What's this?" Gus asked pointing to one especially big green blob.

"Frog!" Brother and sister started to giggled.

"You're a little devil, you know that?'

"I know." Bree wasn't quite sure what a devil was but it couldn't be too bad 'cause her brother would never say anything bad. "Can we look for frogs?"

"We really shouldn't. You know Dada doesn't like them."

"Just look, please, Gus." Bree blinked her little blue eyes at her older brother like she saw her Daddy blink at her Dada. It worked, and Gus knew it too. He rolled his eyes then called for Patrick and JR.

"Hey guys, let's go hunting for frogs."

"YAY!" the kids shouted then followed Gus and Bree down to the stream.

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Back in the sun porch, Brian's ass gazing was interrupted by his cell phone ringing.

"Kinney."

"Brian, Simon here."

"Simon! How the hell are you?"

"We're good, Brian. I just want to confirm for the July fourth weekend."

"We're good to go on our end. Are you able to stay the whole week following?"

"Yup. Now, are you sure you don't mind putting us up? We can be a noisy bunch."

"Not at all, we're looking forward to it."

"Then we'll see you on the third."

"I'll be in touch with the directions."

"Great! Enjoy the rest of your day."

"You too, Simon." They cut the connection. Justin put down his brush and walked to the other side of the porch. Moving Brian's report to one side, Justin climbed onto Brian's lap.

"They're coming, aren't they?"

"Done deal, Sunshine."

"It'll be good to see them again. I can't wait to meet their boys."

"You'll like them, they're good kids."

"Like ours?" Justin wriggled around so that he was resting between Brian's legs and leaning back on Brian's chest.

"Just like ours." Brian wrapped his arms around Justin, and soon they began to doze.

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"Dad! DAD!" Gus came running into the porch carrying a crying Briana. JR and Patrick had followed close behind. Brian and Justin were startled awake and jumped up from the chaise. John and Bobby hearing the shouting, came through their end of the cottage.

"What!? What is it?" Brian shouted. Justin scrubbed the sleep from his eyes.

"Bree fell and I think she has a splinter, I can't get it out and she won't hold still. I'm sorry, Pop."

"It's okay. Let me take her." Brian took Briana from Gus' arms and strode quickly to the bathroom. Not wanting to make more of a scene or make Gus feel any worse than he already did, Justin quietly asked for an explanation. While Gus was busy explaining the circumstances surrounding Briana's supposed grave injury, Brian was making everything all right in his daughter's world.

"Hurt, Dada, hurt." Brian washed Bree's hands then fished tweezers from the medicine cabinet. He cleaned the tweezers with antiseptic then firmly took hold of the child's finger.

"I know it hurts, little one but we're going to chase the hurt away."

"Chase it away?"

"Yup." Brian found the end of the splinter then gently tugged it out. Fortunately it came out clean. "Bye, bye, hurt," Brian said as he re-washed Bree's hands, dried them then took out special band-aids with smiley faces on them. He daubed a little of the antiseptic on his daughter's finger then covered it with the band-aid. Brian gave his brave little girl a hug and a kiss then wiped away her tear stains.

"Now, little lady, we need to go see Gus because right now he thinks he's a bad brother."

"No bad, Gus good brother. He take us frog hunting," Briana said with innocence. All the tears were gone.

"He did, did he?"

"Uh huh," Briana said nodding her little head. "Gus good brother, he save me from bad splinner."

"I agree, Gus is a very good brother. Now let's go tell him that."

"Okay, Dada." Brian took his brave little girl out to the porch.

"Dad! Is Bree okay? I'm sorry I should have watched them more carefully. I'm so sorry, Bree."

Before Brian could say anything, Briana was squirming out of her father's arms to get to Gus.

"Gus good brother, save me from bad splinner." Bree showed her bandaged finger to Gus. "I love you, Gus." Gus sat on the floor to hug his sister.

"Love you too, Squirt." As brother and sister sat hugging, the adults, Patrick and JR went into the kitchen to prepare dinner.

"Uncle Brian?" JR said as she picked up the knives and forks ready to carry them out to the sun porch. Gus was still playing with Bree who seemed to have forgotten about her splinter.

"Yes?"

"Why doesn't my mommy like you?" JR had finally decided that she wanted some answers. She wasn't as afraid of her uncle now as she was when she first arrived.

"We … um … we have a mutual understanding," Brian said trying to keep from saying something ugly about JR's mother.

JR went and deposited the cutlery on the table in the sun porch as she thought about what her uncle had said. "What's a mutual understanding?" JR asked as she came back into the kitchen.

"It means they are trying to get along," Justin contributed, giving Brian the eye.

"Oh," JR said with a frown. That didn't really explain much, and it didn't really answer her question. "I'm going to tell her that you let me sleep in the brass bed, and that you were really nice to me."

"Don't waste your breath," Brian mumbled to himself.

"That would be lovely," Justin said glaring at Brian.

"Yeah, lovely," Brian snarked.

JR watched her Uncle Brian cutting vegetables for a salad. She seemed to have made him mad, and all she was doing was trying to help. "I don't understand grown-ups," she said in frustration as she gathered up the napkins to carry them out too.

"That makes two of us," Brian replied as he continued to chop.

"Grown-ups are totally weird," Gus said as he carried Bree piggyback into the kitchen.

"We're weird?" John asked.

"Yup," Gus said confidently.

"Care to explain," Bobby demanded.

"I don't know if I can explain," Gus said bouncing his sister on his shoulders. "Things just get so complicated when you grow up. Stuff that's simple when you're young becomes such a big deal. I think it's all the emotional stuff and hormones and … other crap."

"I hate to break this to you, Sonny Boy," Brian smirked. "But any day now you are going to fall into the grown-up category."

"I know, Pop, but I'm going to enjoy every minute of the time before that happens. Right, Bree?" He gave Bree a huge buck on his back and she squealed with glee. "Let's go for a run." He took off down the hall running with Bree holding onto his hair. She giggled and laughed as he ran back to the kitchen and out into the sun porch.

JR stood and watched them. She wished she was still little enough to have Gus do that with her. She would have loved the feeling of speed and excitement if he ran with her on his back. There were so many things she would have liked to do.

"You okay, little lady?" John asked.

"Yeah," JR replied.

"They're having fun, aren't they?" he asked her, watching her watch her brother.

"Yeah."

"Did you have fun in the play house today?"

"Yeah."

"What did you do?" John persisted. He had always found JR rather hard to talk to, if he could get her to talk at all. Sometimes he worried about how silent she was; that was, when he thought about her at all. He realized he should rectify that situation. When JR didn't answer, he asked, "Would you like a piggyback ride?"

She nodded. "But I'm too big."

"How about you come with me?" John asked. "We'll be back in a few minutes," he said to the others as he led JR out through the sun porch.

"Where do you suppose they're going?" Bobby asked staring after them.

"Don't know," Brian replied. "Maybe they'll tell us when they get back." He dumped his salad fixings into a big bowl.

John took JR outside and over towards their end of the house. There was a big tree that shaded the house and he led JR over there. "I just put this up a few days ago. I think Patrick's big enough to enjoy it by himself." He pointed to a swing hanging from an almost horizontal branch of the tree.

"A swing?" JR asked with a frown. "I've been on swings. I … wanted to race around on someone's back."

"Get on," John ordered holding the swing out to her.

JR reluctantly hopped onto the seat. She pushed back with her toes and started to pump her legs a little bit. "It's a pretty good swing," she admitted, but she didn't really see the point to this.

"Pretty good? It's great!" John stepped behind JR and gave her a big push.

JR squealed as she felt herself soar upwards almost into the branches of the tree.

"Don't worry, honey, I cleared all the branches out of the way that might interfere with your flight." He gave her another big push as she came back down.

"It does feel like flying," she said with wonder in her voice.

John kept pushing the swing each time it returned and JR continued to soar. She laughed out loud as she experienced the speed and the freedom and the joy of what was happening to her. This is what she had wanted to feel racing around on someone's back.

After a little while she realized that John was no longer pushing her. He was standing beside the swing with a big smile on his face. If she continued to pump her legs, she could almost maintain the height he had given her by pushing. He had started her off but she was doing this on her own now.

JR wasn't sure how long she continued to swing, when she heard someone calling them from the house. She stopped pumping her legs and let the swing slow down. Finally it came almost to a stop and she put her feet back on the earth.

"Did you enjoy your trip?" John asked with a smile.

"It was the best," she laughed jumping off the swing and throwing her arms around John to hug him. "Can we do that again?"

"Anytime, sweetheart, but right now, I think dinner's ready."

John felt JR's hand slide into his and they walked together back to the house.

After dinner, the family dispersed. John and Bobby went back to their home. Patrick and Briana were playing in Patrick's room. And Gus went to his room to look over the clothes he was going to wear for his first day as intern at Kinnetik. Justin was hit with inspiration so he went back to his easels. That left Brian and JR all alone in the kitchen. Brian put the kettle on for tea and set the coffee pot timer for the next morning. He then began arranging some cookies on a plate on a large tray for dessert. Brian offered a cookie to JR.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome, little lady."

"Uncle Brian, why do you and Uncle John call me that?"

"Call you what?"

"Little lady, I don't feel like a lady."

"You will soon."

"Oh, big girl stuff?"

Brian blanched but dealt with it as best he could. "Yeah, big girl stuff."

"Can I ask you something?"

"Wouldn't you rather ask your moms about stuff like that?"

"I know all about THAT stuff. I wanted to ask you something else."

"Okay."

"I know you love mom, but you don't love mommy. I don't think you hate her but sometimes I know she hates you. Why?"

Brian hesitated, how could he explain years of foolish animosity he and Mel shared without making Melanie's child feel bad. Brian set a glass of milk on the counter for JR then sat next to her. He toyed with a small piece of cookie before putting it in his mouth.

"JR, your mommy and me are a lot alike. We both worked hard to get the things we want and sometimes we hurt people along the way. Not intentionally, but it happens. We get so caught up in what we think is right that we forget other people have feelings too. Your mommy is a good person; she helps a lot of people. I don't always approve of her methods and I know she doesn't like mine. And as much as I may not like her sometimes, I do respect her. She tries to do the right thing and I know she loves you and Gus very much. It's hard to share."

"Share what?"

"Your mommy. Mel has to share Gus with me and she shares Lindsay too. And because she knows you miss Gus when he stays here, she has to share you too. Sometimes adults have trouble sharing. We get jealous very easily."

"You do?" JR thought only kids got jealous.

"We do. I've known Lindsay a lot longer than Mel has."

"Is that why she gets jealous?"

"It's a part of it. She knows how much I love Lindz."

"But mommy Lindsay isn't jealous of daddy."

"No, because mommy Mel doesn't love Michael in the same way."

"It's so hard to understand. How can you love somebody one way and someone else another?"

"I don't have the answers for you. Just that with different people we love differently. I love Uncle Justin so much, it hurts some times. But I also love your mom." Brian picked up another piece of cookie. "Maybe think of love as flavors. Most people like cookies. I like oatmeal while Justin likes chocolate chip. Cookies are cookies but with different flavors. We like them differently. I don't hate chocolate chip I just like oatmeal better. Same thing with people."

"Oh. Uncle Bri?"

"Hmm?"

"I love oatmeal cookies!"

"Me too, little lady, me too," Brian said as he gave Melanie's daughter a big hug. "Come on, let's go share our cookies."

"Okay!" Brian and JR brought the huge tray of cookies and milk out to the porch to share with the family.