“I like that tradition. I’m a fairly good cook. It was one of the things my mother taught me, and it made for great mother-daughter time together.”
“It absolutely does!” Chelsea sighed. “When I was young and learning to cook, and again as a young bride when there were so very many occasions to spend time with my mother, Sarah, and my mother-in-law, Amanda, I was grateful for that. We often tackled the heavier domestic chores as a team.”
“Like the quilting bees my mother used to tell me about?”
“We had a few of those, as well. We also got together to make jam and to can some of the autumn harvest. That’s something we still do each year, though, of course, no longer at an outdoor fire. When I was younger, most of us had carpets in our living rooms, and each spring, we’d go from house to house and get those heavy rugs spread out for a good dose of beating, airing, and sunshine.”
Pamela enjoyed hearing about the family traditions these women had shared. “Our farm is in a more rural area of Maryland, and while there were a few neighbors I recall from my childhood, there wasn’t much of a sense of community there. It sounds like there’s a very good sense of community here.”
“Your mother passed fairly recently, didn’t she?” Maria asked.
“Yes, just under a year ago. It was so sudden. We found out she was sick, and then just a few short months later, she was gone. It was really hard on my dad.”
“And on you,” Maria said. “As you were the only daughter. My mother died not long before I got married, too. But fortunately, my mother-in-law became a second mother to me. I hope I can be that for you.”
“That would be wonderful.” Pamela had been nervous about meeting Maria Sanchez Jessop for that very reason. A part of her hoped she and her new mother-in-law would hit it off. Pamela was a woman fully grown, but she really missed her mother, and that good woman’s wise counsel.
“It seems as if my grandsons are just like my fathers-in-law,” Chelsea said. “They rushed you into marriage so that they could bring you home with them. Back before the turn of the century, Adam and Warren had no intention of letting their Amanda get on that train and head back to Virginia, leaving them behind.”
Pamela felt her face heat. “Our wedding was a bit rushed, yes. And a bit of a surprise. I’d known I’d fallen for both Adam and James, but I had no indication from them whatsoever they felt the same way about me.”
“Well, good heavens, how did they get you to marry them, then?” Maria and Grandmother Chelsea both appeared curious.
Pamela shrugged. “They asked me. They told me they’d intended to ask that night anyway. It was the twenty-first of March, and they would be leaving to come home in two weeks. Of course, when they heard what I’d just learned from my father…” Pamela shook her head. Perhaps for a moment she considered keeping her own counsel. But these two women were so accepting, and so motherly, she almost couldn’t help herself.
“What bad news did your father give you, child?” Chelsea asked.
Pamela explained how the medical expenses incurred during her mother’s illness had been heavy, but her father had paid them by adding to the mortgage. She explained that she’d moved back home to do her part by preparing the meals, doing other household chores, and yes, contributing financially by paying rent because that was what family did.
She soldiered on, explaining how her father, in his need to “fix” the mess things had become, had been duped out of a lot of money and had suddenly stood to lose the farm.
And she explained how Adam had proposed, telling her that he and James would fix the problem her father had created, that she didn’t need to worry about him. Certainly, the solution he’d come up with, she’d believed, had been not only very generous but crafted to make it easier for her father to accept.
“I didn’t tell them what was troubling me to get their help. I hope you both believe that. And I did tell them what they proposed was too much money for two new doctors to invest, but they assured me everything would be fine. Adam and James know me well enough to understand that I’d never leave my family home if I thought my father needed me.”
“Do you mean to tell me they tied their investment into your family farm to your acceptance of their proposal of marriage?” Maria had asked that question very carefully.
Pamela knew she was treading on tricky ground, but she couldn’t do anything but tell the truth. “To be honest? I can’t say yes or no to that. I was still trying to recover from finding out what my dad had done. I really would have said yes, regardless. I might have pleaded for a little time so I could help dad figure a way out of the mess he was in. But I would have said yes to their proposal.” Might as well make this a total embarrassment. “Mainly because I was in love with them both and worried about having to choose between them. I was so happy and relieved to find out I didn’t have to choose, so of course, I had to say yes.”
“Did they mention the family tradition of a commitment ceremony?” Grandmother Chelsea asked.
“They did, but they assured me, many times, that I could wait until I was ready for that step.” She looked down at her hands. When she thought of that moment, the wonder she’d felt in that moment came flooding back to her. “I love them both. I thought there was something wrong with me because I did love them both. And then…when Adam proposed and asked me to marry them…that I could marry both of them, I knew my only dream—my greatest wish—was about to come true.”
“I think I have a pretty clear picture of exactly what happened.” Maria shook her head and looked over at Chelsea. “Mother, are you thinking what I’m thinking?”
“That your sons—my grandsons—need a good boot in the butt? Oh, yes indeed.”
“Because they helped my father?” Pamela didn’t know what to think—until Maria reached for her hands and looked at her with the most loving expression she’d seen on a woman’s face since her mother died.
“No, hija, because whether they intended to or not, they looked on that help as a way to buy your acceptance of their proposal. I’m sure they stressed that you could have as much time as you liked before having the commitment ceremony. Likely something like, ‘when you feel you’re ready.’”
“They did say almost those exact words, yes.”
“And I will bet they never asked you how you felt about any of it.”
“I told them I’d fallen for them both, and I said yes to marrying them both. That wasn’t my telling them how I felt?”
“Oh, well then, that’s even worse for them,” Grandmother Chelsea said. She shook her head. “Even with the examples of their fathers and my fathers, my two men needed a boot in the butt every once in a while, too.”
“I can see your confusion, Pamela. My sons, bless their male hearts, didn’t listen to you. They likely felt a little guilty offering you what they realized might be considered a ‘bribe’ to marry them. So then, to assuage their misplaced guilt, they likely decided to woo you as they should have been doing since they met you.”
“Oh.” Pamela was relieved her new mother-in-law wasn’t upset with her. But she didn’t want the woman upset with her sons. “I didn’t think they even really noticed me as a woman at first. I fell for them more and more as we spent time together, as I got to see their hearts. It was only in the last few weeks I began to feel they might actually be attracted to me, too.”
“Oh, querida, they had taken one look at you and were done for. Do you know, they called me the day you met? They were smitten—just like their fathers were that first moment we met.”
“The ‘love at first sight gene’ is strong in the families here,” Grandmother Chelsea said. “We were both wondering what was taking so long for them to move things along.”
“Oh.” And she thought of the wedding night yet to come, and she blushed. “They, um, only kissed me for the first time after I said yes.”
Maria’s eyes went wide, and she let loose a string of curses, in Spanish. Maybe I can learn to speak that language. Pamela figure
d it might be a way to know what her mother-in-law was saying.
She didn’t like being the reason Maria was upset with her sons. “I’ll tell them as soon as we get home that I love them both and I’m grateful to be their wife and that I’d like that commitment ceremony as soon as possible.”
“No, hija. That is not the way to handle Jessop men. I understand the need you feel to be open and honest with them. But if you set that example now, they will never learn to ask rather than to assume they think they know how you feel.”
“You need to make them work for your forgiveness,” Grandmother Chelsea said. “And then you can tell them your truth.”
“Exactly. You are not being dishonest, sweetheart. You are merely letting them have their way—until you decide they may have figured things out for themselves.” Then Maria giggled. “Of course, I am only speaking of the actual commitment ceremony.”
“No need to punish yourself by withholding your affection until that day,” Grandmother Chelsea agreed. There was a light of mischief—and maybe remembered passion—in her eyes. Then the older woman patted Pamela’s hand again. “I’m so very pleased you’re my granddaughter.”
Pamela felt a little like her head was spinning, but she was very glad of that fact, too.
Chapter Six
“Let me get this straight. You bribed the woman to marry you?”
Adam blinked and looked from his father Warren, whose incredulous sounding question still hung in the air, to his father Douglas, who wore outrage very well. Then he sent a pleading look to James.
“We don’t think it was like that at all,” James said.
“Well, obviously you don’t,” Douglas Jessop said. “The question is, does our poor Pamela agree with your assessment?”
“And the very next question we have to ask is,” Warren said, “does your mother know about this?”
“Or your grandmother?” Jeremy Kendall asked that one, and Adam began to get a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach.
I’ll explain, and then they’ll understand. “Well, we couldn’t very well let Pamela worry about her father,” Adam said. “Our woman was practically frantic. It was our job to ease her worry, wasn’t it? And we knew that as long as Reg Franklin was in jeopardy, she would never agree to leave her father, and…oh. Oh, shit.”
Adam knew he was wearing a shocked expression as he saw how the fathers and grandfathers had come to the conclusion that he and James had bribed their wife. He looked at his brother. James appeared just as shocked as he felt. Adam sank into the wooden kitchen chair that his grandfather Dalton, showing great timing, pushed under him.
“I do believe the lads have had their eyes opened.” Grandfather Dalton always did have a way of delivering the most revelatory statement in a droll manner.
“That wasn’t what we meant at all,” Adam said. “It never occurred to us that anyone would interpret our actions as bribery.”
“It absolutely was not,” James said. “We’d have made that investment in the Franklin farm, regardless.”
“We know that,” Warren said.
“But then, we’re men.” Douglas nodded. “It’s the Lord’s own truth that men and women are as different as night and day. Equal, of course, but different. We men don’t always see things the way our women do.”
“And you can take it from me, our women certainly don’t see things the way we men do.” Grandfather Jeremy nodded. “Boys, it appears that you’ve got your work cut out for you.”
“This won’t be a problem. As soon as we get home tonight, we’ll tell Pamela that we’ve had our eyes opened by our fathers and grandfathers and confess that we’d never even looked at the situation that way.”
“And we’ll tell her that we would have invested in her father’s farm whether she’d agreed to marry us, or not,” James said.
Adam nodded and looked to his fathers and grandfathers, expecting to see smiling approval on their faces.
“Why do y’all look so horrified?” James asked.
Grandfather Jeremy turned to Warren. “Is this how you raised them? Did we do such a piss-poor job of explaining the facts of life to you?”
“No, sir,” Warren answered. “I think there’s a disconnect between their brains and their mouths. It’s likely the result of too much medical knowledge being crammed into so small a place as their brains have available for that purpose. Some men can’t handle the volume of learning and still function properly. Saw it in med school many times myself. Never once dreamed my own sons would be affected that way.”
Douglas grabbed a chair and turned it around, straddling it.
“Listen and learn, you two. A man has to be very careful of the way he treats his woman,” Douglas said. “The truth is they’re very clever and very quick. And as a bonus, they have a wonderful emotional filter that, I must confess, at different certain times of the month operates with varying degrees of prime efficiency.”
“What does that mean?” Adam asked.
“It means, basically, when you fuck up—and boys, I’m sorry, but you have really fucked up—you need to bow and scrape and grovel. In other words, you need to make amends.”
“Copious amends,” Warren said.
“Heavy emphasis on the word ‘copious,’” Grandfather Jeremy said.
“Okay, we can do that. What do we do to fix this?” James asked.
“Well, what were the things she enjoyed the most while you were courting her?”
Adam understood an important tenet after about thirty seconds of dead silence, during which he and James looked at each other. They were trying to come up with the right words to explain that they’d intended to start courting her but they’d run out of time. Apparently, they had indeed fucked up to an unbelievable degree.
“If it turns out that you become the first, since the founding of Lusty, to divorce, I declare here and now that we’ll keep Pamela. She, at least, appears to be a sensible, kind, and intelligent woman.” Warren sounded really disappointed in his sons.
That got Adam’s back up. “We love her. We’re sure as hell are not letting her go, not ever.”
“And she loves us, too,” James said.
“So at least you’ve made and received those declarations. So, it’s not as bad as all that.”
Adam quickly looked down so none of the others would know they hadn’t done that, either. A quick glance told him James had been inspired to do the same.
“We’ll woo her,” James said.
“We will. You don’t have to worry about the details of that—or about Pamela.” Adam got to his feet. “Worrying about our wife is our job. Oh, look, the coffee’s ready. James, grab the cream and sugar for Pamela. We’ll just take this out to the women and be right back to help y’all to finish up in here.”
He made quick work of grabbing the pot off the stove—his mother still preferred a stove top percolator so that was what his folks had. He was hoping, between the kitchen and the dining room, that there’d be the opportunity for a quick private word with James.
“Was that laughter I just heard from the kitchen as we left?” James whispered his question as they paused in the hallway between the rooms, out of sight of anyone.
“Nice of the old men to be amused with our predicament,” Adam said.
“We’ll handle it. We do love her, and I know to my soul that she loves us, too.”
“Then let’s see what we can do to hurry this evening along so we can take our Pamela home. The first thing we have to do is show her one of the greatest benefits of being married to two Jessops.”
The look in James’s eyes told Adam he didn’t have to elaborate. Just the idea that their woman could be miffed with them made him feel sick inside. It was way past time for them to hold her and make love to her so she could have no doubt whatsoever how they felt about her.
She was their very heart—and they wouldn’t, either of them, have had it any other way.
* * * *
“I enjoyed meeting your fami
ly.” Since it had only been a few blocks between their house and where her in-laws lived, they’d chosen to walk. Adam had taken her left hand. James had reached for her right. Yes, this is what I need. She’d also needed to be in a setting where she could see with her own eyes that there were indeed other families living this…this ménage lifestyle.
Pamela would have to think about what Maria and Grandmother Chelsea had said as to how to handle her husbands—but later. Right this moment was for spending time with her men. She had no idea how to go about making love to two men, but she guessed they did. Beyond the level of whatever personal experience they might have had, Pamela couldn’t imagine their fathers and grandfathers wouldn’t have departed crucial “how to” information to them.
“I know they enjoyed meeting you,” Adam said. “You have four champions in our fathers and grandfathers, we can tell you that.”
“I do?” What an odd thing for Adam to have said. But that was how he was at times. Whenever he felt a little unsure of himself, he’d sometimes say things that another person might take the wrong way.
James chuckled. “You certainly do. We were given the Spanish Inquisition, and nothing would do but they assure themselves we were taking proper care of you.” James met her gaze. “It’s one of the oldest of family traditions, here in Lusty. We were raised to understand that our woman comes first. That means a man’s fathers are his champions, until there’s a daughter-in-law.”
“One thing I did learn tonight was where you get your kindness from. I was thinking that earlier as I watched the way your grandfathers behaved toward your grandmother—and the way your fathers paid attention to your mother. They were taking care of their wives. You’ve been that way with me already.” She had an image of walking through an outdoor art festival, each of her hands captured by a Jessop man. “I think you’ve been doing that since the beginning, and at the time I just didn’t see your behavior for what it was.”
“Have we?” Adam asked. “I know we’re both a bit awkward. I guess we were worried you might…I don’t know, maybe misinterpret the things we’ve said, or might say. As I believe I already mentioned, smooth of tongue we are not.”
One Thanksgiving in Lusty, Texas Page 6
