One week later, Augusta

Elizabeth packed up their little studio apartment while Jack worked. This day, Julie, her sister, had come to help and keep her company.

"I can't believe you are leaving Augusta. I am so jealous."

Julie was twenty years old and had dreamed of leaving town since she was young. "You'll get your chance."

"Maybe I should transfer to a college in like Arizona or something."

"Are you that desperate?"

"Yeah." She went to Augusta Community College and she couldn't make up her mind if she wanted to study art or something entirely different.

"Is life here really that bad?"

"Says the girl who just married the perfect guy and is moving away in a week."

"You make it sound like being married is easy and that our life will be perfect."

"Won't it be?"

"No. No one's life is perfect. We are going to be living in a fifth wheel, Julie. It will take almost a year to get the house done so that we can start the foster process. During that year, I won't see that much of Jack. He will be working on the house and starting his new company."

"Sounds like an adventure to me."

"I guess it is."

"It is Elizabeth. You are getting to live out your dreams and I am stuck living with Mom."

"Mom is great."

"Mom is overprotective."

"She has the right to be that way. After Dad…."

Elizabeth's mind traveled back three years to when her Mom sat her and Julie down in the living room with tears running down her face and told them that their Dad had been killed in a carjacking. He had been driving home from work and stopped at a red light. Some guy in a mask, according to witnesses, broke his window and shot him, pulling him out of the car and leaving him on the road to die while he drove off.

Since that time, Grace Thatcher was afraid to let Julie out of her sight. It even took a lot of convincing for her to let Elizabeth get married and it had been three years and she knew Jack.

"I know, but nothing is going to happen to me. She just thinks everything is too dangerous. I can't live like that anymore, Beth."

"Julie, mom lost the love of her life in a very harsh way. You can't expect her to just snap out of it."

"Of course not but…."

"No buts. Remember how you felt when Dad died and then multiply it times one hundred. She has to sleep without him every night. She can't talk to him, get his opinion or advice on anything. He won't kiss her goodbye or good morning anymore. He is gone forever. Remember that when you get the urge to just leave her."

"I'm not being selfish, Beth."

Elizabeth looked at her sister and then headed to the kitchen to get a drink of water.

As she was drinking, Jack walked in. "Hey, baby," he said, giving her a kiss.

"Hi."

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing. Just frustrated with Julie I guess."

"Well, don't worry. I'll leave and get out of your hair," Julie said as she entered the room from the bathroom.

"You don't need to leave, Julie," Jack told her.

"Yeah, I do. I'll miss you."

He watched his sister-in-law leave and his wife make no effort to stop her.

"Babe, what happened?"

"She kept talking about moving away because Mom is overprotective and I told her to put herself in Mom's shoes. No one to kiss goodnight or sleep next to…" Elizabeth wiped her cheeks. "She doesn't get it, Jack."

"Get what?"

"How devastating it would be to lose your husband. I can't even imagine it."

"How could she understand, Elizabeth? She's never been in love. Never married. She doesn't know what that's like."

"She thinks you and I have the perfect life and it's just going to be one big adventure."

Jack gave his wife a hug and held on. "I know it's not going to literally be perfect, but it's perfect for us. It's what we worked so hard to save for. I like to think it will be an adventure and I happen to think you are absolutely the perfect one for me."

"She was being so selfish."

"Was she? Or just naïve?"

"I don't know what Mom will do if Julie leaves too."

"She will be just fine. Your mom is a strong woman. All the Thatcher women are. Strong and stubborn," he said, kissing her lips.

As he grabbed lettuce, tomato, roast beef, and mustard from the fridge, she sat at the island. "You're saying I overreacted."

He looked at her as he grabbed the bread and a knife and made his sandwich quietly.

"And that I need to call her and apologize."

He cut the sandwich in half and handed one half to her. "Love you."

After she ate her half, she took out her phone and dialed Julie's number.

"What, Beth?"

"Will you please come back? I think we need to talk."

"I don't really like being called selfish so I think I'll just go to the movies or something."

"I didn't call you…." Elizabeth stopped talking when she saw Jack's expression. "I'm sorry, Julie. I didn't mean to suggest that you were selfish. Will you please come back?"

"Can I move with you and Jack?"

"Nope. Nice try."

"Thanks," she said with a giggle. "I'll be right in."

Jack gave Elizabeth a kiss. "I'll see you in a few hours."

Julie walked in and put her purse on the counter. "Bye, Jack."

"You were just outside weren't you?" Elizabeth asked.

"Yeah."

"You really want to leave Augusta?"

"Yes I do."

"Then, maybe you need to tell Mom. Patiently and with an open mind."

"Will you come with me?"

"Nope, dear sister. You are an adult. You can do it on your own."

…..

The next day, Elizabeth sat down at the table in the apartment to work on her first children's book. She was almost finished. Her ultimate goal was to be published by a real publisher.

She currently worked for one online magazine writing articles about organizing your home and other lifestyle subjects and another one published her fiction short stories. But she really wanted a book published.

Just as she was going to type her phone rang. She smiled when she saw the name. "Hey, Charlotte."

"Hi, dear. I was wondering if you and Jack would like to come for dinner sometime before you leave? Tom plans on making homemade pizza."

"We have tomorrow night free."

"Great!"

"Do you want us to bring anything?"

"Nope. Just yourselves. Seven sound good?"

"Sounds great."

Once they hung up, she fired off a text to Jack to let him know and got back to her book.

It was Monday which was date night for Jack and Elizabeth. They made a commitment to either go out or stay in every Monday night but to spend it only with the two of them. This morning, he had told her it was date night in so he was grabbing takeout and they would watch a movie on Netflix.

She worked for two more hours and then headed off to shower. When she emerged thirty minutes later, he was just walking in the door with Italian from Richie's.

"Oh, yum!" she said, walking over and taking the bags from him.

"No eating without me. I need to take a quick shower."

"You're gonna make me sit here and smell this food while you take a shower?

That's a bit mean, husband." He kissed her sweetly.

"You could join me."

"I just took one."

He grabbed her hand and led her into the bathroom. "At least keep me company."

He walked out for a minute and grabbed his clean clothes and came back in.

As he showered, she told him that her book was tantalizingly close to finished.

"Where do you send it next?"

"I'll send it to my editor and then to my artist to add pictures to the pages. Then it goes to the publisher."

"That's so exciting, baby. I'm so proud of you."

"Yeah, well, I have no idea if it's any good or if anyone will buy it."

He peeked from behind the shower door. "I'm sure it will be a huge hit, but even on the remote chance it's not, our kids are gonna love it just because you wrote it."

"Thanks, Jack." It really helped that he had such confidence in her.

"People like your short fiction stories for Tabletop Magazine, right? Or they wouldn't keep asking you for more."

"I guess."

He got out and towel dried his hair and wrapped a towel around his waist. "Listen, sweetie, you are talented. Even when we were in tenth grade and we wrote stories in literature class, you always got A's. You can do this. I know you can."

She gave him a kiss. "Thanks, hon. I appreciate that."

A few minutes later they had their plates of food, glasses of wine, and were seated on the couch.

"I'm glad we didn't pack the plates yet. Not sure lasagna and paper plates would work too well," he joked. "Would probably end up wearing it."

She kissed his cheek. "Let's forget about moving for now and just pick a movie."

"Deal."

…..

The next day, Elizabeth finished packing almost everything so that on Thursday when they retrieved the moving truck, they could just move everything on there for the trip to Riverton on Saturday.

That evening they headed over to Jack's parent's house about three miles away for their goodbye dinner.

"Tom and Faith are here?" Jack mentioned when he saw his brother and sister-in-law's minivan. "I guess I thought it would be just us and Mom and Dad."

"Now that I think about it, she didn't mention how many people were coming. She just asked if we wanted to come."

"Well, let's go have some pizza."

Everyone chose their own toppings and made their own pizzas which ended up being a lot of fun.

After dinner, they sat in the living room and talked. Charlotte disappeared for a moment. When she came back, she had a large bag in her hands which she sat in front of Elizabeth and Jack.

"What's this?" Elizabeth wondered.

"Open it."

Charlotte sat back down next to her husband, tears in her eyes.

"Blankets? Charlotte, did you knit these? There must be at least a dozen in here."

"I did. First, Tom and I want you and Jack to know how proud we are of you. Moving away to a different town, remodeling a large home while living in a small fifth wheel all so that you can provide for children who have no one. That is such a wonderful thing to do and that got me thinking. These children, even if you only have them for two weeks, two months, or two years, are going to be our grandbabies. I wanted to give them something that will not only keep them warm, but maybe help comfort them wherever they end up."

Elizabeth allowed her tears to flow as she stood and hugged her in-laws. "Thank you so much. I'll make sure I tell them that Nana Charlotte made these just for them."

"And just to warn you, we will be coming to visit. Three hours isn't that far away."

"I hope so. I'm going to need help from time to time, I'm sure."

"You're going to do just fine, Beth. I know it."

As they laid in bed that evening, Elizabeth smiled. She was excited for this new chapter in their lives to begin. It was so exciting and she knew that they would be blessed for their efforts.

Children were a gift from God and she was going to do her best to take care of and love the ones they were given.