Published: 11 Apr 2019
Dinner couldn’t have gone better, Dylan and Joe fit right in with the boys and they all pitched in to get the table set and dinner on the table. After dinner, we told the boys to check their homework and then settle in the family room for some TV, that we had business to discuss with our guests in the office.
We asked how they were getting along and they related how their visit with baby Janet went that afternoon and what a cute kid she was, even at such a young age. I then asked if they had done anything about applying at the junior college and what courses they planned on taking. Their response was encouraging, they both had applied and both had been accepted, but they hadn’t yet flipped a coin to decide who went on to college first and who would get a job since an apartment would have to be paid for. They had both wanted to do the business administration course which would earn them associates degrees, Riley and I smiled at that, another test passed.
Riley took over the inquisition and asked what they would think about coming to work for us at the stable that they had groomed their horses in, just two hours ago. The jobs would include a good paycheck, they could do the barn chores before their classes and after, and we’d provide a house for them to live in, right next door, the brown ranch house we had ridden by that afternoon. During the summer we would like them to also care for about ten other horses and ponies we were going to house at the shed style stable on the other property, and maybe care for any boarded horses they might sign up and run trail rides on the weekends and during the week at vacation times.
He explained that eventually, they would be responsible for renting out the fields on both properties and that we wouldn’t be charging any rent on the house, but they would have to pay their own utilities, anything else we could discuss as it came up. I broke in there, telling them we would expect both of them to attend the junior college and if they wanted further courses we could arrange for a scholarship for them to be able to do that also. We’d expect them to take some of their meals with us, but we would understand when they needed time for themselves, or to visit with baby Janet.
They were both stunned and when the implications of what we were proposing hit them, only a second or two difference in time apart, they hugged each other sobbing, not exactly what we had expected, but soon they were laughing and crying at the same time and they both got up and hugged us where we sat. After they returned to their seats I asked if that was a yes and they both nodded and said that was a big YES! They’d love to come work for us. They explained that no one had treated them like this, especially their parents who they thought had their backs until they came out to them as a couple, and then had taken away their college funds.
I perked up at that, as did Riley and I asked if their names were on the passbooks for their accounts and they both nodded. I asked if the accounts were at the same bank and had they themselves made any deposits in them and they again nodded, I guess one answering one part of the question and the other the other part, but I got the name of the bank, the one Riley and I used. We discussed them starting in April so they could work alongside David and Jeff and learn their responsibilities before the older couple had to start their apprenticeship in June and when the high school seniors were officially out of classes they could move into the ranch house. They thanked us profusely and after they had said their goodnights to the boys they went to their homes, but probably not before sitting and talking about their very good luck somewhere along their way.
In the morning I called one of the vice presidents of the bank we did business at and asked if he’d look up the education accounts in Dylan and Joe’s names and he reported that the accounts had been closed and the money transferred into their parent’s accounts. I asked if there was a signed withdrawal slip for each account and he informed me that yes, he had one on file for each and I told him to check his security tapes if he still had them from the withdrawal date, I thought there was some hanky-panky going on, since neither boy had closed their individual accounts. He thanked me for the tip and told me he’d get back to me shortly, or at least before the bank branch closed at 3 PM.
I guess being the largest individual account holder helped in a matter like this, because when he called me back about 1 PM he reported that the security disc showed the adult fathers of the boys doing the account closing and balance transfers, not the teens. Their funds had been restored and there was over seven thousand dollars in each of the boy’s accounts and an additional three thousand was being added as a penalty paid for by the bank itself and that the records were all available if the boys wished to press charges against the parents. I told him to please hold on to the records, that we didn’t know yet what the outcome of this was going to be, but he’d be notified one way or the other.
When Riley returned home he had a big smile on his handsome face and he told me how happy Joe and Dylan had been today at school and I asked him if we had a way to contact them without calling them on their house phones. He said he had both their cell numbers and their email addresses so I told him about what I had learned from the bank and what had already been done and he called first Dylan and then Joe and asked if they could come over before dinner, but to not say where they were going if they could help it.
When they arrived, not two minutes apart they both had worried looks about them, but when I told them that their college funds had been restored they both lit up. I told them that since their names were first on the accounts they were considered the primaries on the accounts and their parents were the secondary. Only the primary account holder can close or transfer the accounts and that because of the bank’s error in all this they were paying them each three thousand dollars into their accounts so they each now had ten thousand dollars in their accounts. But the problem now was, their fathers had been the ones to take their money out of their accounts, and they’d have to deal with this at home. We told them that if they needed to they could both move in with us if life at home was going to be hell. We’d help them file for emancipation if they needed to be able to move out early.
So it was arranged with our lawyer that evening and by the end of a very nervous week he had filed for both boys petitions for emancipation and a hearing was arranged for the following week when our lawyer informed the court that the fathers had already tried to steal the money from the boys individual accounts, we had proof of that and the bank would provide testimony. It all was very traumatic for the boys, but staying with us helped, the boys all doted on their older friends and helped them shop for things they’d need for their house after the hearing was settled. The judge was willing to combine the two cases since the boys were related as were their cases and their fathers. He made short work of the proceedings and within an hour the boys were emancipated minors, living under our supervision.
We celebrated as a family that night and then it was back to school for the crowd of boys and Riley the next day. It was on Valentine’s day the next month that Joe and Dylan shared their hopes of being wed after they graduated from high school and we told them that if they were really sure we would do everything possible to make their wish come true.
The boys didn’t graduate at the top of their class, but they did take the fourth and fifth spots. We were so proud of them, but even more so a few days later when they exchanged vows on our lawn below the pool under the arbor just as Ted and Ryan had. Dylan told us as we all worked out there getting everything ready the day before that there was just something about our place that made it seem so romantic to them and Carter and Evan chuckled and said it was love, that just breathing the air here made you feel loved. I couldn’t have said it better.
The ranch house had been furnished with their tag and house sale items the boys had all helped them find, but their bed Riley and I had bought them for their wedding present. The house was ready for them to spend their honeymoon in, as they didn’t want to go anywhere, although the offer had been made of our Key West home to them, and we knew that Yvonne and HEM had made them the offer of their home there as well, but all they really wanted was some time alone before taking over the caretaker positions at the beginning of the next week.
The reports from Mark had been encouraging, he and Paul came and spent three days with us, staying at our guesthouse but sharing meals with us. They thought the country was more relaxing and serene than they had expected, but they actually were more active here than they had been in Key West. The boys had them hiking the trails or out riding with them every day and by the time they left they were actually planning when they could come back. The new book was one of my adult fiction ones and again the same movie studio had bought the rights to it and that earned me another million and three quarters. The next book, which I had already started the notes on, was to be another group of adventures for the young teens in my previous YA book. They told us they had contracted with a surrogate to carry a child for them, as Paul was eager to become a stay at home dad for an infant, and Mark loved the idea so they had a mix of their sperm impregnated into the surrogate and they hoped for a healthy baby boy in about five months, around the first of November.
David and Jeff were getting along great with the older gentleman who had the only town based heating and cooling business in town and there was mention of the gentleman retiring in a year or so, and they were thinking of buying him out at that time.
Ted and Ryan were happy at the eye clinic and the two doctors they worked for. During their work they came across a case the doctors had taken on to treat a young boy from the DCFS. He had been diagnosed with Retinoschisis, a disease that causes shredding of the retina in either one or both eyes. Six-year-old Tyler had the juvenile type and he had experienced bright flares of light in one eye and “floaters” in his vision. These floaters were minuscule droplets of blood that floated in his vision, making it seem there were tiny gnats flying in front of him. The blood was from where the retina had become detached from the eye and laser surgery had been performed on him to reattach the retina, but there was no cure for the continued shredding of the retina itself, but the good news was it was an extremely slow moving disease and wouldn’t affect his vision for decades.
Simple precautions would have to be followed, like frequent vision tests, no contact sports, no deep diving, and no space travel. Avoiding pressure building up in the eyeball was paramount. Ted and Ryan were given Tyler’s case and before long they were taking the parenting courses at the DCFS and had already told Tyler’s caseworker that they’d like to foster him, with the intention of adopting after the permanent guardianship had been granted. I volunteered to drop Tyler off at kindergarten and pick him up after. The five days of the week he was to attend was necessary so he could acclimate to a classroom experience and to get used to being around other children in a learning environment.
Tyler and our two youngest, Darryl and Allen, got along like a house on fire, and there were sleepovers at both houses all summer long and those friendships continue on to this day. Carter and Evan were like the older brothers to Tyler as well as Darryl and Allen, and Dylan and Joe were always coming over to ride with all the boys when they weren’t studying or attending to their chores or classes.
Yes, things were going well for everyone and little Janet was spoiled rotten by all the boys, but she proved to be a tough little cookie and by the age of six she was riding ponies while most of the boys had graduated to horses and Riley and I were about to celebrate our 35th birthdays. We had Mark and Paul and their five and a half-year-old son join us for a weekend and we celebrated both our birthdays with a big family cookout, both our families present. The Spencers were so pleased to meet all the new people we had mentioned in our emails over the last couple of years and now they were meeting them all in person. Surprisingly the whole weekend went well and everyone got along great, our boys even got to take their grandparents on a trail ride and except for some sore bums they loved spending time with our growing boys.
Of course, the Morris family joined in our celebration and HEM and Yvonne brought young Janet along with their boys over for the cookout. Mark made a speech about how difficult it was being my agent and making so much money off of my work, and Riley then spoke about how we had met and forged our life together from that very first night, and then Ted rose up with Ryan at his side and told the crowd that he had felt different as soon as he had spent his first day working for us, that there was just something about the place, something in the air out here that made everything right, and all the boys yelled out, “It’s LOVE, love is in the air out here”! Everyone there agreed with them as Riley and I shared a birthday smooch.
THE END
Author’s Note: I couldn’t get that song out of my head and a story started forming on my computer, so to be sure about the legalities I emailed John Paul Young’s production office in Australia and asked for permission to use the title. Within four hours i received a return email with permission to use the title, and that one of the assistants was reading my stories, so thank you Paul, (and also James!) Art
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