Coming Home to the Mountain: Complete Edition

11. Reuben

CHAPTER 11

Reuben

" Y ou invited her entire family over to Sunday dinner?" Mom asks.

We're standing in the kitchen of the homestead. Dad is eating a ham and cheese sandwich on a bar stool at the kitchen counter. And Mom is making crusts for chicken pot pies that we'll have later tonight.

Thankfully, Plum is upstairs in Fig's bedroom, trying on her jewelry and high heels. I can hear her clunking around two floors above my head, since Fig is in the attic.

"The thing is, she's special," I say. "Meadow, she's not like anyone I've ever met."

"A week ago, you told me you weren't interested in dating, and now you're telling me you fell in love?" Mom asks, flabbergasted. She closes her eyes and presses her fingertips to her temples. "Look, it's not that I don't want you to be happy. We want you to be happy." She looks over at Dad when she says this. "But, Reuben, think of Plum. Think of..."

"You don't think I'm thinking about Plum? I think about her every second of the day, Mom. My whole world revolves around Plum. And it's not that I don't want to keep her in the forefront of my decision-making, but Mom, you've got to trust me. You do trust me, don't you?"

She sets the rolling pin down and walks over to the kitchen sink to wash her hands. I can see her shoulders fall as she takes a deep breath, her back to me. When she turns around, there are tears in her eyes. "You've been through so much, Reuben," she says. "And I know you're not my youngest. And I know you have a good head on your shoulders and are all grown up. But the last four years, they've been rough, sweetheart. I don't want to see your heart get broken. I don't want to see Plum get attached. I don't..."

"I don't want those things either," I say. "Just meet her. Just spend one dinner getting to know her and then tell me what you think because that's all it took for me to know."

Dad's eyes soften. "You really love her?"

"You can't tell me it's not possible. Not after Lemon, Rye, and Bartlett fell in love so damn fast earlier this year. You're saying I can't do the same?"

"I'm not saying that, son," Dad says. "But I don't want you to rush into anything."

"Why?" I say. "Why not rush in? Why not give my heart over to something? God knows I've had a hard enough go at it already. Why not let the good in now when I've got it? When I’ve found it?"

Just then, Fig and Plum walk into the kitchen. "What are you guys talking about?" Fig asks, reaching for an apple in the fruit basket. Plum walks over to her grandpa and pulls out a stool next to him. He helps her sit up on it and Mom shakes her head. "Nothing big. We're just..."

Fig smirks. "I heard what you guys were talking about when we were coming downstairs." She looks over at Plum. “We both did. So, Meadow and her family are coming over for dinner?"

I nod. "I invited them, at least. I assumed Mom and Dad wouldn't have a problem with it, but..."

"Of course, they can come over," Mom said. "I'm never going to turn anybody away from family dinner, but how many mouths are we feeding?"

At this, I look down sheepishly. "Nine."

"Nine?" Mom says. "That's as big as our family."

"Well, one of them is the daughter-in-law, so..."

"You're telling me this girl of yours comes from a family of six kids?" Dad asks.

I nod. "Yeah, she's the second oldest."

"And they all live together in some traveling circus?"

"Not circus," I say, thinking of Bartlett's wife, Abby. She really did grow up in a traveling circus. "They're in a traveling band."

"Is that better?" Mom asks. "It's equally as crazy."

"It's way better," I say. "Abby grew up in a really hard situation. It's not like that for Meadow. Her parents love her, want the best for her. They play music together, and she had pretty much an idyllic childhood."

Plum grins. "Meadow plays music?"

"Yeah," I say. "She sings and plays the guitar."

"Maybe she can play a song for us tonight," she says with a grin.

"Well, I suppose if Plum and Fig already met this girl, I might as well as meet her too," Mom says, giving me a smile, finally.

"Thank you," I say. "It means a lot. I wrap my mom in a hug and give her a kiss on the cheek. "And thanks for watching Plum. I'm glad you guys had a good night together."

At that, Plum claps her hands. "Ooh, you didn't even see the costume we made." She jumps off the stool and runs back upstairs all the way to the attic.

Fig looks at me. "You know, she couldn't stop talking about Meadow yesterday."

"Really?" I say. "You guys only met her for a minute or two."

"I know, but she's five," Fig says. "I think she gets attached. She keeps talking about her being a princess like Rapunzel."

“Yeah. She's a little fixated on that, isn't she?" I say.

Fig nods, "Yeah. Just..."

"What? You too?"

She shrugs. "I'm not the romantic the rest of you are. I'm never getting married, and I'm never going to be swept off my feet. I'm sensible. I'm practical."

I snort. "Says the girl with 53 dresses made out of tulle and a collection of high heels that could rival a Kardashian’s."

Fig rolls her eyes. "Regardless of my wardrobe frivolities, I'm not that way with my heart. And I don't want to see yours get snapped in two."

"I don't want that either," I say.

"All right," she says. "I'm not going to say any more. Just be ready because the rest of the family, they're going to have opinions. Right, Mom? Dad?"

My dad takes his empty plate over to the kitchen sink and rinses it off. "Your sister's right. I suggest you call your brothers and sister before dinner and let them know what's going on. It wasn't just you that lost Beth, you know. We all did. And the idea of someone else..." Dad sighs. "Reuben, we love you, okay? That doesn't change with this conversation. But what I hope does change is you realizing that bringing a girl into this house is going to affect everybody differently."

"Right," I say. "I get that." I sigh as Plum bounds back into the kitchen, twirling in a dress made of tulle. I laugh. "Let me guess. Your aunt insisted on that skirt."

Plum says, "I love it too. In fact, it makes me look just like a princess."

"Well, my darling," I say, taking her hand and bowing. "May I take Her Royal Highness home?"

Plum giggles. "Oh, Daddy. You're a silly goose."

Later, I call my brothers and sister while Plum takes an afternoon nap. I expect it to go poorly. And, for the most part, I'm right. Rye thinks I'm being ridiculous bringing someone I just met home. Bartlett says I'm a grown-ass man who can make my own choices but if I do anything to hurt Plum... Lemon, she just sighs. "Fig told me about this," she says.

Mac and Graham have few words, which I suppose shouldn't be a surprise either. The two of them have never fallen in love. And they were just teenagers when Beth died. Still, I am surprised when Mac tells me he wants me to be happy.

"You deserve it more than anybody I know. If this girl's special, hell, of course I want to meet her," he says. "You're my brother, Reuben. My brother who's been to hell and back. This girl makes you smile? I already know she's special."

"Thanks, Mac," I say, his words meaning more than he could know. But I'm sure as hell not going to start expressing myself over the phone because I've cried already more in the last 24 hours than I've cried in a year.

I admit to taking my time getting ready. It's not just my parents and siblings I wanted to prepare for tonight. I want to put a good foot forward when I get to know Meadow's family too.

When Plum is up from her nap, she tells me I look very handsome. "Did you shave?" she asks.

I laugh. "My neck. I'm not going to shave this beard."

"What should I wear, Daddy, if I'm going to meet Meadow's whole family?"

"Everything you have looks great," I tell her. "But if you need fashion advice, you're going to have to ask your Auntie Fig. I'm not the one to give it."

"I know, but Daddy, I want you to pick what I should wear."

I walk to her closet and I pull out the dress she made last night with her aunt and her grandma. "You've got to wear the princess dress," I say. "It's the prettiest thing I've ever seen you in."

She beams up at me. "Thanks, Daddy. I didn't know if you would let me wear something so fancy."

"It's family dinner, baby. If you can't wear your pretty clothes there, where can you wear them?"

When we get to Mom and Dad's, I'm feeling nervous. I haven't had this kind of feeling in my whole life. Beth didn't have a family. She was a foster kid, so when she died there wasn't another set of grandparents or aunts and uncles to fill in the gap. I never had to go and meet her dad and ask for her hand in marriage because Beth was a girl who'd been blown in the wind.

Now, with her gone, I'm having to put myself out there in ways I never anticipated doing in my whole damn life.

"Are you okay?" Mac asks when he sees me.

"I'm all right," I admit, "just a little nervous."

"You really like her?"

"Just wait till you meet her," I say. "She's special."

"She must be if you're willing to bring her here, with her whole family?" He gives a low whistle. "Damn, you two are kind of crazy."

"You guys aren't that bad," I say. "At least, you didn't give Anchor too hard of a time."

He chuckles. "Are you kidding me? Remember that day at the lake house, walking in on him and Lemon?" Mac cracks up. "Damn, that was something else."

"Please don't remind me," I say with a chuckle as a van pulls up on the property, along with a Jeep. They hitch a vehicle to the back of each of their RVs when they travel and now I can see why – they need more than one car to travel in town.

"Their family's so big, they need two cars to get anywhere."

"Like we should talk," I say. "Our family's no better."

Dad walks over and gives me a pat on the back. "I don't think you're the only nervous one. Your mom's in the house in a tizzy. She's fussing over the food like she doesn't do except on Thanksgiving morning."

I laugh. "Well, at least that means she's taking it seriously."

Dad looks at me. "You're really serious about all this?"

"Yeah. I'm going to marry that girl."