Franklin took one last peek at his granddaughter now fast asleep in her tiny bed covered in Disney blankets and sheets. A lightly audible puff noise came from the brown-haired devil. It had taken him almost the past hour to get her to fall asleep. Little Rachel at five had much of her father in her. He remembered the days of getting little Ricky to bed at that age. It almost always needed some sort of trick to get that kid to sleep, and Rachel was no different.
He turned the bedroom doorknob before he closed the door, so the click didn't wake his sleeping precious little girl. His feet tiptoed back down the hall and then down the stairs of his Daughter-in-law's house. It was only eight, and he figured that he had at least an hour or two before she came home if at all. The snow was coming down far harder than even the weather reports had predicted, so she might get stuck. The light on the front porch showed Franklin the seven or eight inches now on the lawn as he looked out the window of the door at the bottom of the steps.
Some Valentine's day Franklin thought to himself as he made his way to the kitchen. Serena had asked him to watch Maddy while so she could go out with some guy from work. She had been out with him a few times now, but Franklin wasn't sure how serious it was yet. It wasn't his place to ask no matter how tempted he found it to be. The photo of Serena, his son Jamie, and baby Rachel still hung in the living room, so Franklin figured she hadn't let him in the house yet. She had been a widow now for three years, and even he told her she should take down the photo or at least move it, especially if she wanted to date again. That was not going to score her points with any guy she might bring home.
In a few minutes, Franklin figured he would snow blow the driveway again before Serena got home. First, he was going to make a cup of tea to warm up before braving that cold. Franklin turned the burner on the kettle but didn't push the whistle down for fear of waking his granddaughter. Serena kept his favorite green tea just for him as well as the blueberry-flavored honey he loved. Pouring the honey in the empty cup, there was a flash of lights out the side window. Before he could think about it, steam came off the spout of the kettle, so he poured in on top his tea bag and honey. The pleasant sound of his spoon rang lightly as he stirred the water in the mug.
As he took his first sip, a cold breeze and the sound of the side door in the kitchen hit him from behind. It was like a vacuum sucking all the heat out of the room into the snowy outdoors. When he turned around, Serena stood there flush from the cold, peeling her gloves off. Her make-up didn't look a lick out of place, which surprised him after the last time he watched Rachel. Serena came home with her lipstick worn off and bobbed dirty blonde hair disheveled. He had assumed that time she came back after a good time, but the look on her face tonight told a very different story. Serena's brown eyebrows crinkled, and her lips made that tightly closed thing did when she was about to lose her cool. Franklin had known her far too long to understand what that meant. She had given him and his son that look enough to fear it just a little. The petite woman had a temper that you would have expected from a man four times her size.
"That good?" Franklin asked as he took another sip watching as she hung winter garb on the rack by the door. The look she gave him spoke volumes.
"Well, that one is done," Serena said as she kicked off her red heels. She had gone out in a festive red dress with white hearts all over it in a pattern. The hem cut off just above the knee, which surprised Franklin with this weather.
"That bad," He remarked and gestured to the kettle. "Tea?"
"Only if you put a shot of whiskey in it," She stated as she sat at the small kitchen table and rubbed her foot.
"Wow, that is bad," Franklin said, knowing that Serena didn't drink much. That made her comment on alcohol an odd request. He grabbed her Chamomile tea and milk from the fridge. "I thought this one might be around a while. This would have made what, date five or six?"
"Yeah," Serena griped. "He turned out to be a douchebag like the last one."
"The last one only got one date."
"He was upfront with his assholeness, so we didn't get very far. This one strung me along for a few dates. As soon as I talked about Rachel at dinner, I could see he wasn't interested. Instead, he tried changing the topic to sex."
"Oohhh," Franklin said, knowing what pigs men could be. "He was expecting some action tonight, was he?" He asked, passing her a cup of tea.
"I think so," Serena admitted as she took a sip of the hot liquid. "I told him that wasn't on the agenda if we went out tonight. Just because it was Valentine's day didn't mean I was offering."
"Some guys are just pigs," he shrugged.
"Thank you again for watching Rachel tonight," she told him solemnly. "I hope I didn't put you out. No ladies on the prowl?"
"Nah," Franklin said with a wave of his hand. "There are a few ladies making moves on me, but they are too old for me."
"Really?" she asked with one eyebrow raised between slurps of tea.
"Yeah," he said with an eye-roll. "I did some fixture installs for this lady in her seventies, and now she calls once a week trying to hire me back. Though this time, it's clear she doesn't want me to fix anything. Nothing against her, I just turned fifty-two not seventy-five."
"Hahahahaha," laughed Serena as she fought to not cough up her tea. "Seriously, I am surprised you don't get more calls like that."
"Don't joke about that," Franklin said with a laugh. "Next thing you know, I will be an early fifties gigolo with seventy and eighty-year-old women fighting over me."
"Would that really be a bad thing?" She asked with a serious look on her face. "I mean, at least they would appreciate you, unlike Alice."
Franklin frowned at the mention of his ex-wife. They were on okay terms, but there was still a lot of bad blood between them. Alice never got over Ricky's passing. She had blamed Franklin for not talking the boy out of the Army. In her opinion, it was as if Franklin had shot their son himself. The idea was ludicrous and made no sense to Franklin what so ever.
"You talked to Alice?" Serena asked seeing the look on his face
"No," Franklin said with sadness in his eyes. "Not since she told me she was moving out west. I appreciated her telling me. I mean, we're divorced now, she didn't have to tell me shit. Have you talked to her?"
"Not since Christmas," she said with a frown. "Called to talk to Rachel but didn't say much. She has changed."
"Yeah," he said, looking at the snow coming down in the window. "Sometimes, people are not who you thought they were."
"I am finding that out," Serena said as she stood up again. She stood on her tiptoes with her hand way above her head. Her back popped as she stretched.
"Jesus," Franklin said with a slight giggle in his voice. "If I did that, you would have to call an ambulance. I'd be in traction for the next month."
"Oh shut up," She told him and playfully kicked him in the shin. "You are not that old. They say fifty is the new thirty. You need to get out more and live a little. It ain't easy, but I have been trying too."
"I know," Franklin said, standing up too. "More tea?"
"Yeah," Serena said as she walked away towards her bedroom. "I am going to get out of this dress and into PJs."
"Okay," he said, pausing to watch her go. "I hope you don't mind, but I made up the spare room for tonight. I didn't want to drive home with this weather."
"You're always welcome here," she called from down the hall. "You know that. I will grab you one of Ricky's old pair of sweats to sleep in."
