Page 125 of Bailey

“Who’s having bacon cheese fries?” Cecily demanded, and Jerry grinned at her.

“OJ,” he managed to say out of the corner of his mouth. “Secret.”

OJ looked between Cecily and Jerry, his eyes getting rounder and rounder with every passing moment. “Um.”

Cecily put her hands on her hips. “I’m sure your grandfather wasn’t trying to get you to get him some bacon cheese fries.” She gave Jerry a slight glare, her expression changing on a dime when she looked at OJ.

“Nope,” OJ said. “He asked, and I said yes. There was no trying, Grams. He did it.”

Jerry laughed right out loud, and he raised his eyebrows at his wife. “Where’s my crown?” he asked. “I should at least get to have one thing I like at this party.” He grinned at her. “It might be my last one.”

“Oh, you.” Cecily extended the paper crown toward him, and Jerry nodded to it as he looked at OJ.

The teen took it and made it into a circle for Jerry, who then put it around the crown of his cowboy hat.

“I’m all out of crowns,” Cecily said, turning to survey the group. “I hope I got everyone.”

“I’m sure you did, dear,” Jerry said, because Cecily didn’t miss details like that. “Who’s that with Boston and Cora?” He spotted them a few lanes down.

“That’s her sister and her husband and their kids,” Cecily said. “Her mother is coming too.”

“No crowns for them?” Jerry moved to his wife’s side, where he’d been for so long—and where he always wanted to be.

“Besides you, I gave my last one to Kassie for Savvy.”

“I’m sure you got them all, hon.” Jerry looked over to her, something soft and lovely moving between them.

He made it to lane seven, and he grinned as Joey and Adam moved out of the way to reveal a big, golden throne. Stickers of all kinds covered it, and OJ put his fingers between his lips and whistled.

“Young cousins!” he yelled. “It’s time! Get on over here!”

“Don’t move, Daddy,” Mav said.

Jerry did what he said, because his family had clearly prepared something for him, and he wasn’t about to ruin it.

Everyone swarmed toward the throne, gathering in groups around it. Jerry watched as littles got grabbed by the bigger cousins or their parents, and then, everyone had assembled, their eyes all shining and looking at him

“All right, now,” OJ said, moving to stand nearly in front of Jerry. “Gramps is gonna be eighty years old next week. Eighty, you guys!”

The smiles on the faces in front of him grew, and he chuckled as he lifted one arm and put it around OJ’s shoulders.

“I can’t even begin to imagine being that old, and⁠—”

“OJ,” Otis coughed out the name, and the boy fell silent. He looked up at Jerry, who smiled benignly down at him.

“We’re gonna sing him happy birthday, and then, he gets to sit in the throne we decorated for him.” OJ took a step forward, and Jerry dropped his hand back to the walker. “Now, he’ll want to see all of us bowl, so you’ll come to lane seven—this one right here—when someone comes and gets you. Gramps will have a treat for you when you do, and Grams wants a picture of everyone with the throne, Gramps, and all of it. Okay?”

“Okay,” a smattering of children echoed back to him.

“Okay,” Cecily called out to the group. “Let’s sing, and then we can do presents for Grandpa, and then the crowned people have gifts on the gift table too!” She looked at OJ, and both of them raised their hands.

“Happy birthday to you,” they sang slowly, conducting the huge, wonderful, extended Young family with their four arms.

Jerry stood there and basked in the goodness of a life well-lived. No, it hadn’t always been easy. Nine sons? There had been plenty of fighting, tons of heartache, a plethora of distress, where Jerry had no idea how to help his boys, support his wife, or call them all back to him.

As it turned out, that hadn’t been his job. God had done that for him, and as the song finished and cowboy yeehaws, cheers, whistles, and applause filled the bowling alley, Jerry could die right then and there and have the biggest heart full of love in the whole world.

FORTY-SIX