The Tentative Knock by Kelly Capriotti Burton

Author:Kelly Capriotti Burton
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kell of a Story

Chapter Sixteen

It had only been months before, after his very high-school-esque year at our local tech college, that we finally sent David off to college at USC, less than three hours away in Columbia. But it had been momentous, and Randall and I shared much of Labor Day weekend with Paul and Leah, attending a Journey tribute concert at the House of Blues Friday night, doing a 5K with some other friends from church on Saturday, and then actually hanging out at the beach for much of Sunday afternoon before heading to the Marshwalk for a perfectly beachy dinner.

“Here’s to the empty nest,” Leah had cheered, raising her glass and laughing. She had told me that time would start passing at light speed, but that she had absolutely loved the past six years or so of having all the kids grown, even with the setbacks that were usually brought on by Katy (hotheaded unicorn!). “There’s one in every family,” I’d murmured, knowing I had been the one in mine (teenage, unwed mother!) and David was likely to be the one in ours (unfocused baby of four!).

“What’s next, then?” Paul asked boisterously, as though we’d never talked about it before. Everyone at the table already knew that Deep as the C – our curriculum balancing act of creativity and Christian worldviews in literature, history, education, and even parenting – was winding down, and probably knew that I personally had no clue what I would do after.

“Hopefully more grandkids and some annual passes to Disney World,” Randall said, giving my knee a squeeze. I smiled grandly at him. Disney was just the top of a long list of travel plans we’d been making.

“Yeah. I’m going to try to get hired to play the Fairy Godmother at Cinderella’s Castle,” I quipped. “And I’m totally hoping there’s a baby in the family soon. I bet you can’t wait until Danielle’s is born!”

We sailed off into easy chatter, babies, kids, travel. The guys started talking about football season and which of our friends would be allowed to come over for the Carolina/Clemson game. But quite unusually, the conversation circled back to me.

“Jesse won’t spend all her time with grandkids,” Paul said, peering at me. “You’ll keep writing, won’t you?”

“Geez Paul, you’re not her guidance counselor,” Leah told him. “Maybe she’s going to collect seashells and read in her hammock. Leave her alone.”

Leah herself had given up her real estate license a few years ago and was focusing on property management (a duty Paul shared) and home staging, meeting her sisters on the regular at a timeshare in Hilton Head, and occasionally, getting Paul to go shagging. She also loved taking little Christian to the children’s art museum and out for crepes. She did freezer cooking with Danielle, and she road-tripped up to Katy’s with Julie or by herself every few weeks. No one was telling Leah how to live her “second act” or third act or whatever it was supposed to be. She was having fun figuring every bit of it out herself.

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