The big barbeque.

I had given the boys a riding lesson this afternoon. Now, they're playing a card game with Jamaal. I haven't really spoken or seen Britney today. It's like she's avoiding me. Frances went to the company after lunch, her assistant has called her with an emergency. I'm missing her, though I know I will see her very soon again. I never had this before, this need to be with someone. I never would have thought, not even when I was young, that my feelings for her goes this deep. No one ever told me anything about true love. Mom always said that true love just happens when you least expect it, and that someone will know when it's true love. But how do I know if it's true love?

I inhale deeply and drink some lemonade as I look at dad trying to fix the gate. I had asked him if he needed help, but he told me to enjoy myself instead. I see him panting. I start to frown. I'm getting worried about him. I put the glass down and walk to him. He looks up when I'm close by. I watch him trying to push a pole into its place. "You need help, pa?" "No, son, I'll be fine." "You don't look fine. Don't you think you need a break?" He stops pushing and stands straight. "I said, I'm fine." He points at me. I sigh deeply and as stubborn as I am, just like him, I went to help him. The pole is on its place and I look at him again.

"You really need a break, pa, I can do the rest." I watch him panting. "I don't need a break, son." "I think you do, and I think it's your sugar level again." "What do you want to say?" "That you need to start taking those pills, they will help you and you'll feel much better with them." Dad sighs and wipes the sweat off his forehead with his sleeve. "Go inside and drink some lemonade, it makes you feel better." "I'm not thirsty." "It's not about being thirsty, believe me, you should start listening to Baby." Dad looks at my face. I see his serious expression. "You're as stubborn as I am, son, do you know that?"

I keep watching his face, and after a moment we start to chuckle. "I don't have it from a stranger, pa. Now go and drink some lemonade and call Baby for those pills. I'll finish it up here." I say as I point at the house. Dad looks at me as I turn and start fixing the gate. "You sure you don't need a hand?" I look at him and smile. "No, I'm fine. Go." Dad sighs. He turns and walks to the house. Mom came outside and sees him coming. "Is everything alright?" He looks at her and smiles. He leans in to give her a kiss. "Our youngest has send me here to drink some lemonade and to call Baby." Mom looks at me working on the gate. "Why calling Baby?" "He wants me to tell her that I want those damn pills."

Mom looks back at his face. He sees she's starting to smile. He chuckles and gives her a kiss again. "He always knows how to play you, honey." Dad chuckles and went inside. Britney came outside and sits down on the bench. Mom sees her shaking and frowns. "Are you alright?" Britney looks at her. "Don't worry about me, I'll be fine." Britney looks at the field and sighs, holding her phone in her hand. It's like she's waiting for a message. Mom doesn't give her any attention anymore and went back inside. "So, you've got those pills around?" She hears dad asking, she smiles and watches him sipping some lemonade.

"Really?" He looks at her and smiles. "Of course, you can bring them here. I'll need your car anyway." He nods. "Tell me about the details when you get here, okay? I'm drinking some lemonade now." Mom gets herself some lemonade as well. She sits down at the table as she watches him. "Who told me that? Your lover, who else? You don't see my other kids telling me to take the pills, except for my youngest." Mom could hear Frances giggle. She chuckles about it and he looks at her face with a smile. "Thanks, Baby, I'll see you in a bit." He lays the horn down and sighs deeply. Mom keeps looking at him with a smile as he takes another sip.

"I'm happy you're going to take the pills." He looks at her and takes her hand. "You know…" He starts. "I never would've considered taken them if our youngest wasn't so persistent." "I'm happy he's back home, he always could influence you." Dad only smiles. "He's just like you, I hope you know that." "I know, and that's exactly what I've always been scared about." Mom stands up and gives him a sweet kiss. "Well, if you can overlook the drama that's going on, you can say that he has done pretty good so far in his life." Mom says. Dad thinks and only gives her a little smile. "When will Baby be here?" "In a few, she needed to prepare herself and get the pills from the pharmacy."

I take the shovel and make sure the pole can't move anymore. I stomp on the ground around it and take the wire that's attached to another pole and bind it on the pole. Jamaal came to me with a grin. "What do I see?" I look up and see his face. I chuckle. "Almost done." Jamaal helps me. "Where's pa?" "He's inside the house, taking a break and drinking some lemonade." "Really?" "Yeah, and I hope he has called Baby for those pills." "You know he's very stubborn when it comes to that." "I know, but I'm stubborn too." Jamaal chuckles about it. "Can you give me the hammer?" Jamaal turns to look for the hammer.

Frances arrives at the ranch and steps out. She looks at the field and sees Jamaal and I working. She smiles but walks to the house. She sees the boys playing a card game, they're talking as well. "Hey, son, Bryan. Having fun?" She asks as she steps onto the porch. Britney looks up at her as she's still shaking. "Yes, when will we go to the event room for the dancing?" "In a bit." Frances turns and sees Britney sitting on the bench. She starts to frown. "Are you okay?" Britney looks at her and snorts. "I'm fine, don't you need to be somewhere?" Frances' doctor's instincts kicks in and she steps closer to Britney. "Leave me alone please."

"Let me look at you." Britney shakes her head no. "No need, like I said, I'm fine." "No, you're not fine. You look like you're kicking off from drugs." Britney snorts and turns her head away. Frances puts her hand in her pocket and takes the bottle out. "You want this?" Britney looks back at Frances and sees the bottle. She jumps up and tries to grab the bottle. Frances takes a step back. "They're my pills, give them to me." The boys look up. Mom stands in the doorway, looking at the situation. I walk with Jamaal to the house and see the situation. I stand still, so did Jamaal. "What's going on?" He asks. "I've got no idea."

"Give them to me!" Britney says through locked jaws. "Only when you let me look at you." "Fine!" Britney sits down again and crosses her arms. "And that you tell me why you drugged Johnny with these pills." Britney's head shot up again. She notices me coming closer. I stand still next to Frances, but I keep looking at Britney. Mom gasps and lays her hands over her mouth. "I didn't drug him." "You did because he had all the signs of a bad trip that morning, and you know that. So, you're gonna tell me why you did this?" Britney looks at everyone for a second and then back at Frances. I can see she wants those pills so bad. Why didn't I know that she's addicted to medication?

"I thought it would be fun." I frown. "What do you mean, fun?" I ask. She looks at me. "I thought that it might be fun to have some drugs, you were drinking, so I thought why not having a pill as well and then we be having some fun together." Frances puts the bottle back in her pocket and went closer to Britney. "There's nothing fun about using drugs, Brit, you know how much I hate drugs." I'm feeling disgusted. I'm getting really angry now, but more with myself than with her somehow. "You could've killed me. Do you know that?" I see her looking away. "You don't die from Oxy." Frances snorts. "Any sort of medication can kill a person who can be allergic to it or having a bad trip from it. Overdose is a real thing."

Britney didn't react. Frances checks on her pulse and her eyes. "Yeah, you're definitely kicking off. Why are you taking them?" Britney sighs and looks away. "I had breast cancer five years ago. The doctor prescribed them for me because of the pain from the chemo." "And you got addicted, you play it smart to keep getting them." "That's not really hard as being an ex-cancer patient." "Why you never told me about this, Brit?" Britney looks at me again. "Because I didn't think it mattered. I don't need some charity loving or something." I sigh deeply. I wonder how much I actually know about her. Frances takes the bottle back out of her pocket and gives it to Britney. I wish she didn't, but I guess it's better to do that before Britney would go totally insane. We watch Britney quickly taking one.

"It's better for you if you stay here this evening. Your body is too tired to dance." Frances says as she stands up. Britney makes little eyes at her and then looks at me as she stands up. "Listen to the doctor." I say as I see her face. Bryan frowns in deep concern. Mom moves away and we watch Britney going inside. I let the air go out slowly. Jamaal and Bryan look at me. "Dad?" I look at my son and see his concern. "I'm fine, son, don't you worry." "You need to send her away." "It's not the right time now to do that, there ain't going a plane to LA this evening, and she's in a worse state." Frances replies. Bryan looks at her. "We'll be doing that tomorrow, son, together."

I grab him into a hug, and he hugs me tightly. "How in the world did she gave you that pill, son?" Mom came to me. She grabs my face and I look at her. I see her concern. I give her a hug as well. I look at Frances and see her thinking. "Ask Baby, she can tell you her thoughts about that." Mom let me go and turns her head. "Let's talk about this later, okay? We've got an event to attend." Frances says and went inside to dad. He sees her coming. Frances sees he's not smiling. He has heard everything. "You're feeling better now?" "I do, thanks to my youngest." Frances starts to smile and lays the little bag on the table that she was holding the whole time.

"Why were you so nice to her?" "I'm a doctor, I do what I need to do when I see something like that." "I want her gone, and my son and grandson to be far away from her." "She will be." He turns his head to me and sees me standing in the doorway. "When?" I went closer to him. I put my hands in my pockets. Dad stands up as he keeps looking at my face. "Tomorrow, I'll be bringing her to the airport with my son. I'll end everything there." I wait for him to say something, but it didn't came. I inhale deeply and then he grabs me in a tight hug. I grab him tightly as well as I close my eyes. "I love you, son." I start to smile. "I love you too, pa."

He let me go and sits down again. I look from him to Frances with a smile. She smiles and takes my hand. "You think she'll be asleep?" I ask. "Oh, believe me, her body is so tired that she'll sleep through the whole evening and night." "You really think?" Dad asks. "I'm sure, your son found the bottle a few days ago. So, she hadn't had a pill since, she was kicking off really hard." Dad looks at me and I only nod. "I'm glad you're okay, son." I see his face softening up. "And I'm sorry for my reaction yesterday." I lay my hand on his shoulder and squeezed softly. "I understand why you reacted like that, pa." Dad pats my hand and smiles.

Mom is inside with the boys as well. Jamaal went to the fridge to get something to drink. "I'm glad everything will be good from tomorrow on." We look at mom who smiles. Bella came inside and barks. I look at her and let Frances' hand go. I turn and lift Bella on my arms. She tries to lick my face. "She must be hungry. I've been forgetting about her." I whisper as I caress her little head. Bryan came closer and Bella licks his hand. "You have, son, but we haven't." I see mom smiling. "This little one really loves it here." I smile as I put Bella down again, she sits down and barks.

"Shall we keep her, son?" Bryan smiles. "I think she's better off with us than with her." I nod at that. "I'll give her some food. I bet Rosco will be happy to have a steady relationship from now on." Jamaal says. We all start to laugh about it. Rosco barks once. I chuckle. "He has heard us." "We need to go. They're waiting for us with the barbeque." Dad looks at Frances, who is smiling as she watches me. "You wanna tell me about the pills, Baby?" She turns her head to him. She's still smiling. She shoves the bag to him. He takes it and opens it. She watches him taking the two bottles out. "Are these two different sorts of pills?" "No, this is a supply for a month. You'll need to take one during breakfast and one during dinner. I'll check on you in a week to see how it's going, and to see if we need to put up the dose or not." Dad nods as he looks at the labels.

"You'll start today, honey, so take one bottle with you." Mom says. Dad looks at her and hands her one bottle. "You better keep an eye on it, Cath, you know me." She chuckles and gives him a kiss as she takes the bottle and put it in her pocket. Frances stands up again and I grab her into a hug. She giggles and hugs me back. The rest is looking at us. "You need to wash your hands, son." I let Frances go and look at my hands. Dad chuckles. "The gate is fixed, son?" I look at dad and smile. "Yeah, Skittles helped me a little." I turn and wash my hands and arms. "Let's go then."

I look around in the big hall and smile. Several rows of tables are set up. An exit door is open, and I see a few barbeques standing outside. "I had no clue how big it became." Mom looks at me with a smile. "We started about four years ago with inviting people in the town to come to our obstacle race, a year later people were asking if they could join in on the dancing event. Some are asking about the football game as well, but we like to keep that family only." Mom explains as Franny came to us. "What took you so long?" We look at her. "Something happened, but it's not important now, let's enjoy the food and the dancing." I give Franny a hug. Mom takes her to the barbeques to check the meat out.

Bryan came to me and looks around with a smile. I look at him for a second and lay my arm around his shoulders. "It looks amazing, dad." "I agree, you're in for some good western dancing?" I look back at him. He looks at me with a chuckle. "I'll try my best." "I never really thought about you and dancing. I'm not even sure if you like to dance." He chuckles about it. "Don't worry, dad, I can dance. I like it, but not as much as you do." I lean in and give him a kiss on his head. "Dad!" Bryan exclaims as he sees Sean and the other boys looking at us. "You've got new friends?" "They're cool, but I need to get to know them better." "You will, go and have fun."

I let him go and he went to them. They talk and walk to a table to sit down. I put my hands in my pockets as I watch them with a smile. They're looking at some girls who are sitting a little further. I chuckle to myself as I remember how my friends and I were when we looked at the groups of girls at school, especially when Frances was there too. Jamie came to me and gives me a beer. "Thanks, brother." As I take a sip. "I heard what happened." I look at him and see his smile. "Skittles told you?" He nods. "Yeah, but I wonder why Baby was so nice." "Because she's a doctor." Jamie looks at Bianca. I see his face and smile.

"I'm glad you're gonna date." Jamie looks back at me. "I never thought that I ever would date her." "How did you even ask her to be your date at the events?" Jamie chuckles and pats my upper back. "I saw her in the bar and came to the idea to ask her." "It's nice to have someone next to you." Jamie sees Frances coming and standing still at my other side. "It sure is." He winks and walks away. I turn my head and look in Frances' twinkling eyes. "Hey." I whisper. She takes my hand and I automatically entwine fingers. "You wanna sit down?" I nod.

She pulls me to a table where Penny and Billy are sitting at already. "How was your day, cuz?" I ask as I look at Billy. I sit down. "We went to the zoo." Billy answers, I look at Penny who smiles as she looks at me. "You look relieved, am I missing something?" She knows me way too well. "After all these years, Pen, you still know me too well." She chuckles and shakes her head. "It's not hard to figure you out, mister." "How long are you staying?" I try not to talk about what happened earlier. I want to enjoy the food and the dancing. I don't want to think about anything else for now. "You're avoiding my question." "I don't want to talk about it here and now. I'll tell you soon, okay? Now I just want to relax and have fun."

"All right, but you better tell me soon, I'm curious." I chuckle and she gives me her typical teasing smile. I roll my eyes. "We normally would stay until Monday, but we got some bad news today." I start to frown as I look back at Billy. "What bad news?" "The apartment building we're living in, burned down to the ground, there's nothing left of it." I'm getting worried as I look at Penny. "What will you do?" "We don't know. I'm unemployed for months now and Billy got fired right before we came here. We don't have enough money to get back to New York and we don't have insurance. We lost everything today." I feel really upset for them. "You told me you were doing great."

"That's because we don't want people to know our real situation." Billy answers. I look at Frances and see her thinking. She looks at me and I inhale deeply. I look back at them. I know how it feels to lose everything and have nothing anymore. I think about my dream. "If you like the idea." I pause a little and see them becoming curious. "You can ask my parents if you can stay at the ranch for a while." "We wanted to do that after the anniversary, if they don't mind then it will give us some time to look for something else." "Well, I'm going to talk to Marcia next week. Baby is taking me with her." I see Billy thinking. "You mean Marcia from the dance school?" I nod with a smile. "Is she still alive?"

Frances starts to giggle about it. "Yeah, she is." "Why do you want to talk to her, Johnny?" I look at Penny and see her serious but curious expression. "Baby told me that the dance school is out of business for years now, but that no one is interested in the building." I see Billy's eyebrows disappearing behind his hair. "I want to see if I can buy it from her, then I can renovate it and re-open it." Penny looks at Billy, he looks at her and I can see what they both are thinking. "I could use some help with the renovations, the maintenance and the lessons." Frances leans in and gives me a kiss on my cheek. I turn my head to look at her. I see her little smile. I bite my lip and lean in.

Billy and Penny watch us kissing. Penny smiles, she looks at Billy again. "What do you think?" Billy looks at her. He inhales deeply and gives her a kiss. "You told me that reuniting with the family made you feel like being back at home. Johnny is giving you an opportunity to stay here and be with your family again." Billy smiles a little. "Is it what you want, Pen?" He whispers. "I've got no family to go to, Billy, you know that. I adore yours and Kaylie seems to love it here as well." Billy looks at Kaylie. She's with the other kids, they're running around on the dance floor. "We can give her stability here." He looks back at Penny and nods.

I stop the kiss and look in her eyes. She lays her hand on my cheek and smiles. Billy looks at us. "Thank you, cuz, for giving us this opportunity." I look at him and smile. "I rather have my family working with me than knowing they're living on the streets having nothing." Billy holds up his fist and I bump it. I chuckle about his face. "But we do need a place to live." Penny says, making us look at her. "There's an apartment above the dance school. Marcia used to live there." Frances says. "We can renovate it and then you can live there." I suggest. "Don't you need a place?" Billy asks. "I'm moving in with Baby after the weekend." They look at Frances who giggles.

Mom and dad came with plates. Jamaal sits down next to Billy. Jamie came to sit next to me. Bianca sits next to Penny as Franny decided to sit next to Frances. Jack sits next to Jamaal and looks at Frances and I with a sigh. Everyone has seen us kissing. I'm pretty sure we're the talk of the evening now. "As Baby has won the race yesterday." Dad starts, he puts a plate down in front of her with a huge steak on it. She starts to laugh. "I told you it would be the price." He winks and walks to Peter who has won the men's race and lays the other plate with a huge steak in front of him. "Dear Jesus! Baby, are you even able to eat it all?" Jack asks. "I'm not gonna eat it alone." She points at me and I start to grin. That steak looks really delicious. They chuckle about my face.

Mom and dad sit down at the head of the table and look at everyone with a smile. "It's good to see the whole family being together again." Mom whispers. Dad looks at her and gives her a kiss on her cheek. "I'm happy too." She smiles as she looks in his eyes. "Let's eat!" Dad says out loud and everyone digs in. I look at my son, he's sitting at the kids' table. I take some bread. Frances cuts the steak in half and lays one half down on my plate. I look at it and then at her. She smiles, I lean in and give her a kiss. Then I dig in and she giggles about my reaction when I took the first bite. Mom takes the bottle out of her pocket and opens it. "Here you go." She gives dad a pill and he takes it in with some water.