I hadn’t been back to the town I grew up in well over two decades but I’d heard a few cousins of mine had either overdosed or ended up in jail for some horrific crimes committed while trying to get their next fix.

“I left Beattyville just before my senior year of high school, to complete my high school education in a different town, and never looked back, mainly because my mother had told me if I ever did come back she would kick my ass.”

“Seriously?” Michelle blurted out.

I looked her in the eyes and nodded. “She wasn’t kidding either. My mother worked her fingers to the bone to make a better life for me. Both of my parents had but only she’d lived to see it through.”

I sighed, my heart aching as it always did when I thought about my parents. Looking down into the big, bright eyes of my youngest granddaughter had me realizing, not for the first time, that their sacrifices had been worth it.

I didn’t have time to get too lost in my thoughts when the guys piled back in to inform us that the computers were all set up. The ladies and I would be staying around for another couple of hours to get things like scheduling and administrative tasks figured out, but the men were headed home to the kids.

“You’re thinking about home,” Robert’s deep vocal chords drowned out my thoughts.

I turned to him, smiling. “Now, I’m thinking about you,” I responded as he wrapped his arms around my waist, pulling me into him.

“Kiss me.”

I raised my lips to meet his and he didn’t disappoint.

“I’m proud as hell of you. You know that, right?”

I did but it still felt great to hear him say it.

I lifted my arms to his shoulders. “When I get home, I’ll show you precisely what your words mean to me,” I purred just before pulling him in for another kiss.

“Here they go again,” I heard Carter say.

“I’m going to kick his ass,” Robert growled.

I giggled. He was always threatening one of our boys’ lives.

“Leave him alone. Besides …” I jutted my head in Carter’s direction. Our eldest had already lost interest in us as he whispered something in Michelle’s ear, making her blush.

“Chip off the old block,” Robert stated proudly.

Once the men left, the ladies and I had our planning session. Patience and I would be the close to full-timers while Kayla, Destiny, and Michelle would put in a few hours at the shelter given they still had full-time jobs, in addition to their very full homelives.

“This all looks great, ladies,” I stated, standing up from my chair and stretching. “I think I need to get to my yoga class in the morning.”

“I’ll join you, if you don’t mind,” Kayla inserted.

“I’d love that.”

It wasn’t unusual to attend a yoga or some other workout class with one or more of my daughters-in-law.