Robert, page 6
“It’s all right. I’m all right now. I hate to see children die. The little boy that came into the department had been ill for a long time. I think that his parents knew this was the last time for him, but it was still difficult for them to let him go.” She cried a little more. Robert held her tightly in his arms. “Let’s take your mom to dinner, then go home and have crazy wild sex all over the place.”
“You’ve got a deal.” Mom didn’t want to go with them; she had jam ready to be sealed up. The two didn’t want to drive much to eat, so they settled on a pizza and sodas for dinner and ate it in their kitchen. Nothing much was in there yet, but they did talk about the extra room they now had.
Chapter 3
Elizabeth loved that they could be so happy together, standing in the kitchen at a makeshift counter having a pizza. The pop was all right, but since the refrigerator hadn’t arrived yet, they didn’t have any ice-cold water. Robert told her he’d not had a pop in about ten years.
“I don’t think I’ve missed anything by not drinking it. When mom decided she didn’t care for sweet tea anymore and cut out the caffeine, we all did the same. Not for solidarity but because since she didn’t make it for us when we came over, we didn’t either.” Robert laughed, and she had to smile. “The first time I had tea at a nice restaurant, it was so bad that I thought I would be sick. Since I felt I needed something to drink with dinner, I ended up with water. The restaurant charged me seven bucks for a glass of water that I’m sure they got out of the taps in the kitchen.”
Making their way up to the bedroom that Elizabeth had been using since moving in with him, the two talked again about the furniture for the other room and their plans for their own space. He wanted it to be whatever she wanted. However, she told him that he was to have an opinion or he might well end up sleeping on the sofa in the living room again. Laughing, he asked her please don’t do that to him.
“I would love a bedroom set that has a history. Not bad things; however, I’m not sure we could find anything old that didn’t have some nasty business. Also, I’d like to have plenty of room in the bedroom. We can walk around with lots of space without falling over each other.” She said she liked that as well. “A large bathroom too. One with a tub and shower, not in the same place. Two commodes on either side of it so that we could have a little privacy. I want hardwood floors in here. I know that floors can be cold when we get up, but the feeling of the nice warm wood would be a comfort to me too.”
“I love all those ideas. We can make that happen because it’s still early in the renovations.” While she didn’t know how to make it happen, Elizabeth was sure that her grandda would help him to make his granddaughter as happy as Robert wanted her. “I want to make love to you. All night long.”
“I’d like that as well.” She moved toward him, telling him everything she wanted to do to his body. “Touching you is a priority to me. Feeling your flesh beneath my fingers. Massaging your muscles until they’re soft.”
Pulling her to him, he kissed her as he unbuttoned her blouse. Pulling it off her and dropping it to the floor, he pulled back enough to see that she wasn’t wearing a bra. She wanted him to see her as a woman in love. More than that, she wanted him to love her forever and a day because she loved him that much.
“I want to see you. All of you.” He asked her if she was going to take his clothing off. “No. If I started on that, I’d never get to finish. I’d be too distracted by what I uncover.”
“Thank you.” He unbuttoned his shirt and tossed it over his shoulder. “Why don’t you take off your things too? I’d like to see if the real you even come close to what I have been thinking about for so long.”
She obliged him by stripping off her pants and panties simultaneously. Since she’d removed her shoes earlier, she was naked for him. Robert seemed to be distracted for a moment. He was staring at her like she was something that he’d feast on. There wasn’t a place on her body that she didn’t want him to explore and taste. When she reminded him, none too gently, by poking him in the ribs that he wasn’t naked with her, he nearly killed himself, tearing his pants off before taking off his belt. Elizabeth laughed at him when he had to take several breaths to calm himself before trying again.
When she stepped toward him, wrapping her hand around his cock, she knew he was as close to coming as she was. Dropping to her knees before him, she took him into her mouth and swallowed his thick head beyond the tightness of her throat. Christ, she would come soon if she didn’t pace herself.
“Christ, Elizabeth. I’m coming.” His cock filled her mouth repeatedly as he fucked her this way. Feeling his cum splash down her throat had her coming as well. Crying out with his cock still inside her mouth, she held onto his legs so that she’d not miss anything of him if she fell back on her butt.
Robert pulled from her mouth, picked her up from the floor, and put her on the bed. He was between her thighs and eating her pussy as she tried to get her bearings. She came three times hard enough to make her eyes roll to the back of her head. Even begging him to stop so that she could catch her breath hadn’t stopped him from making her come again.
She could only marvel at his size and girth when he stood up between her legs. His cock was full again, the crown of him dark with need. Reaching out to touch him, take the little bit of precum that was there for her to taste, he moved back.
“You touch me now, and I won’t be able to be inside you when I come. I need to fill you, love.” She nodded and moved further on the bed as he asked her to do. “You looked like every dream I’ve had of you since I met you. You’re so beautiful.”
“Fuck me, Robert.” He nearly pounced on her when she commanded him to take her. As soon as he was over her, his cock at her entrance, she pulled him down to her mouth for a kiss. The moment he entered her, hard and fast, she came three times before he moved. If they made love like this all the time, she’d be nothing but dust by the end of the week.
Robert nibbled at her breasts. He suckled at her nipples. Just as she was ready to come again, he’d moved over her body in a way that made her see stars and rainbows. He massaged her muscles, making her want to come again. A simple finger at her throat had her breath catch, and her body wanted more.
“I need to come. Please, Robert. Give me what I need.” He moved. That was all; he just rolled his hips in a way that had her screaming out his name. The climax—a tame word for such a glorious earth-shattering moment—ripped through her soul and made it Roberts.
She hadn’t realized that she had fainted until she opened her eyes. The room was dark, so it told her that it was, hopefully, the same night. Getting up to go to the bathroom, she realized she was alone in the big bed. Reaching for her cell phone to call Robert to ask where he was, she was startled to hear it ringing. Picking it up when Robert’s face showed her it was him, Elizabeth smiled. It soon fell when he started talking to her.
“Your grandda has had a stroke and was in a car accident. I’m with him in the hospital now. When he was first found, they didn’t know who he was until my brother went to see his injuries. He had the heart attack while driving back to our place for the evening.” She asked him if he was all right. “I’m not sure how to answer that. He seems fine. A few cuts and bruises are being stitched up. Before you ask why I didn’t tell you what happened, I had to identify him. I wouldn’t have mentioned it if it hadn’t been your grandda.”
“I’m on my way,” Robert told her to wait as Del was going there to get her. “I can drive, Robert. I need to see my grandda.”
“It was your car that he totaled. You don’t have a car there right now.” She told him she was sorry. “No need to be. It’s a very stressful situation. He’s in surgery right now to clean up some wounds on his head. Also, he has a broken arm and sprained ankle. They’re keeping an eye on his heart, as you can imagine, so he doesn’t have another one. As you can imagine, being around him all your life, he’s making a fuss because everyone else is.”
“Yes, I can see him doing that. He’d be more upset about that than him being injured.” She thought for a moment. “Robert, is he all right? I mean, he’s not gone, is he? I don’t think I could handle finding out that he’s not well and already gone.”
“I would never lie to you about that, honey. I promise you he’s doing well, considering. He was awake when I was called in, telling me how sorry he was for wrecking your car.” Wiping at the tears, she told Robert that she loved him. “And I love you too. When you get here, I’ll be on the second floor in the surgery department. Del said he’d pick up something for me to eat when he arrived. Make sure you get something as well. All right?”
“Yes. I will. I’ll be there as soon as I can. And if Del doesn’t get the lead out of his ass and make sure we get there in a reasonable time, I’m going to murder him.” He laughed, which made her feel so much better. “I’m hopping in the shower now and then dressing. I’ll be on my way as soon as Del gets here.” Going down after her quick shower, the doorbell rang. Opening it up with her shoes in her hand and her bag over her shoulder, she was good to go.
The hospital wasn’t that busy, but there were a lot of police around. She didn’t know what had them all there but ignored them in favor of going up to the surgery floor. Robert met her at the elevator as she and Del, along with Merce, got off on the same floor. As soon as she was in Roberts’s arms, she felt so much better. It was going to be a long wait, but with him there, she thought it wouldn’t be so bad.
After two more hours, the doctor came to talk to them. He was smiling, which made her feel so much better. Asking her if she minded if the others heard what he had to say, he began by telling her what everyone seemed to know already. Grandda was a pistol.
“He’s doing very well, considering his age. However, I will point out that your grandda is in much better shape than men half his age. I don’t think you have to worry about him having any long-term issues with the stroke that they think he had.” Robert asked if he thought that he’d not had a stroke. “We took him to surgery to get his noggin taken care of and will need to run more tests to make that a certainty. I believe that he fell asleep at the wheel and nothing more. However, as I said, he will need to have more tests. A better diet too. I understand that he had some dessert after every meal. Even a snack. He should be cutting back on his sugar. At least cut him down to one dessert a day and not all of them. That might make him mad, but he’s not getting any younger.”
“I’ve tried that with him before. All it did was make him go elsewhere for his dessert. I’ll make it work this time. I’ll have to think of something he wants and see if that works.” Robert laughed and said that a baby might help. “Yes, there is that. Do you know someone that is giving one away?”
They all laughed, and she felt a great deal of weight be lifted off her shoulders. Her grandda was all right, and that was all that mattered to her now. As they waited at the hospital for her to be able to see him, the rest of the Archers showed up. Katie brought them some water and things like carrot sticks and celery. She didn’t much care for celery but figured that if she was going to make her grandda start eating better, she needed to as well. But after taking one bite of the nasty stringy stuff, she spat it out and ate the carrots. No amount of dressing was going to make that shit taste any better, and she decided that she’d never make her kids or anyone else eat that stuff if they didn’t want to.
~*~
Bingo wasn’t sure what all the fuss was about, but he undoubtedly was enjoying it. The nurses treated him like a king, and his granddaughter was there every day when she wasn’t working. Even then, she’d come up to see him. However, he thought she needed to get on with her own life and not hang around an older man to whom she just happened to be related. Smiling at her when she came into his room, he thought her the prettiest doctor around town. As soon as she sat down, he took her hand into his.
“You need to stop coming here all the time. Didn’t they tell you I was just fine and dandy? I’m not going to get any better with you being here all the time and me worrying about how you’re treating that young man of yours.” She told him that Robert was doing just fine without her. “I doubt that. He’d do or say just about anything to make you smile, and if you wanted to be here with me, no matter what he wanted, he made sure you were here. Never seen a man so excited to make a woman smile like he is with you.”
“He loves me, and I love him.” He told her that was as plain as the nose on her face. “Perhaps you should stop telling me to go away and get better so I can have peace with you at home. I miss you hanging out with me when I’m not working.”
“I don’t miss you. Do you want to know why? Because you’re here all the time. Don’t you have a life, child? Something other than me to hang around with? I know you do. That poor Robert looks lost without you there with him.” She rolled her eyes at him. “Don’t be giving me that look, young lady. You know that I’m telling you the truth. Go on home and make a big dinner for—no, that won’t work. You can’t cook worth crap. Order some of that Chinese food that the two of you like so much and hang out on the couch for the rest of the night. I can’t think of another thing that would make me happier than to figure out you two weren’t pining away for me to come there.”
“You scared me, old man.” He said that he scared himself a bit. “I don’t know what I would have done if you’d been hurt badly. You have to stick around for me.”
“Honey, I don’t know if you’ve figured this out or not, but I’m not going to be living forever. I’m an old man. While I’m in good health, like they told you, I’m wearing down to the nubbin. It’s getting harder and harder for me to think about working with them younger men anymore.” She told him not to talk like that. “It’s a fact of life, Elizabeth. Old people, sometimes younger ones too, die. I’m on the other side of eighty as it is now. Won’t be long; come February, I’ll be hitting ninety years old. That’s a long time for someone hanging around young people.”
“You can’t leave me.” He only looked at her. “All right. I know you will, but I will be a mess when it happens. You know that, don’t you? I can’t imagine a life where you’re not in it. A time when I won’t be looking for you to help me with something. Grandda, you’re all the family that I have left.”
“Now that’s not true, and you know it. You have all the Archers there for you. And anyone else in town that has the sense to get out of the rain can see that you’re a good person. Your grannie, she sure did love you to pieces. I want to go and see her again.” She looked up at him with tears in her eyes. “Now, don’t you be crying about me leaving. It’s not going to happen today; I don’t think. I want you to be the happiest you can be. Even after I’m gone.”
“You make it sound like I’m going to roll you over the hill and forget about you. That’s not going to happen, so you know. I’ll think of you daily for the rest of my life.” He told her that wasn’t a bad way to have him sent off. She smacked him on the shoulder. “Don’t be that way. I’m not going to waste my energy pushing you over the hill. I’m just going to plant you in the backyard so I can go and tell you how much I don’t miss you all the time.”
“You be happy like you are right now, and I can die a pleased man. I might even come around sometime and see how you’re doing.” She said she’d like that. “I would too. However, you could have me a grandbaby before I up and die. That would be a good way for me to think about you too. A little girl just like you. Or even a boy that is the spitting image of Robert. He is a good man, that one.”
“He’s the best. All of the Archer men are. I hope I can raise my child as Katie did hers.” He told her that she’d do a fine job. “I hope so. I’d hate to raise a brat and have you come back to give me hell for it.” She stared at him for a moment before speaking. “What is your real name? I know that you weren’t named Bingo. I could never get grannie to tell me when she was alive. If I’m going to name my child after you, I should hope I have the correct grandda.”
“I’m only willing to tell you this because I know you’d name that baby of yours Bingo just for spite. The reason for the nickname isn’t as bad as you might think. My daddy had the same name as my grandda before him. As far back as I remember, firstborns were carrying the same name. It was easier to call me Bingo than to call out my name only to have ten people answering you.” He grinned. “My name is Parkland James Monroe the—let me think a minute here. Your daddy was the seventeenth, so that makes me the sixteenth. Parkland James Monroe the sixteenth. Can you believe that? My goodness. I wonder what other nicknames were used back along the line.”
Elizabeth sat up and stared at him. “You are the sixteenth? My goodness, Grandda, I had no idea. And since my dad didn’t have sons, there won’t be anyone else called that.” He nodded. “That’s about the saddest thing I’ve ever heard. The line ended with Dad.”
“Yes. However, it’s a long line of Monroe’s honey. A great deal longer line than most people ever have. Why I couldn’t believe it when we got to name your daddy; everyone thought we were having a little girl. I wouldn’t have minded at all. Not really. I was just so happy that he was healthy.” She asked him if he had missed him. “I do—every single day. If not for you living with us, I think it might have been harder on your grannie and me. She surely did hurt when your dad and mom passed. I’m so happy we got to keep you with us for as long as we did.”
“I am as well. There is no telling what might have happened to me had you not taken me in.” He took her hand into his and kissed the back of it. “That’s enough sadness today, thank you very much. I’m happy. You’re happy, and we’ll take what we can for the rest of our days. All right?”
