(Violet's Pov)
I was currently in the dugout putting my cleats on until someone comes up and covers my eyes and I sit up a bit.
"So it seems my older sister can blay a game of baseball." Hear and I chuckle and the hands are removed from my face an I look to see Kat.
"Hey wait is mom here too? When did you guys get here?" I asked as I looked around a bit. My mother was talking to Clementine and I look back to my sister.
"Yeah, we felt bad that we couldn't make it to your retirement, but mom and I are here." She tells me and I nod.
"Hey I get it, traveling is expensive these days, I remember when a train ticket was cheaper, now they want one hundred dollars for first class." I chuckled.
"Oh, right you and Clementine rode the train a lot, let me tell you plane tickets are just astronomical." She tells me and I nod. Kat and I took a seat to chat a bit and I look to the side a bit.
"And it depends on the airline too, and have you seen these new cars? I heard they are going to make one that runs on electricity rather than gasoline." She tells me.
"That sounds interesting, actually we were looking into getting one of the older models for the girls to learn to drive but they want more for an electric but hey, all you got to do is pop a new battery in, but they are quite big." I mention to her.
"Yeah, but you'd need a garage for those cars, I heard that the batteries have been getting damaged by rain, you'd think they'd fix it for rainy weather." She tells me and I nod.
"Well at least we have our old reliable, let me tell you that car has been through it all." I shake my head as I chuckled.
"I remember when the girls were jumping around in the back seat." I chuckled.
"Did you hear they're making cars with seat belts now?" She asked.
"Yeah, some safety bullshit measures, but nothing wrong with the classics." I then see Clementine come over.
"Didn't take you two as the types to talk about cars." She says and I nod.
"Just wondering how I'm gonna get the girls to drive us though now that I think about it maybe I should get them a new used model." I think a bit.
"They can learn in the older car, and then when we can afford it, we can get them a new one, though I don't think we could afford two new ones." Clem says and I nod a bit.
"Who's ready for some baseball?" Louis asked and I get up and we all go to the center of the field.
"Ok so we don't have enough for a full two teams so this is just for practice." Clementine says and I nod as she explains what we will be doing. Of course, Clem, Diana, Lura and I were going to be on a team together, Louis, Mitch, Aasim and AJ were going to be on a team as well.
"Hey that's a little unfair, Violet gets three baseball stars on her side." AJ joked and I smirk.
"Well, if Clem and I have more kids we'd have our own baseball team." I joked and we all laughed a bit.
"Alright, well we can't separate the wonder twins." Louis says.
"Louis, you can take my place I'll go with Mitch and the others." I say and they agreed and we switch and Clem wins at me.
"No flirting with the enemy." AJ joked and I pat his head. He may be an adult now but he was still a kid at heart.
"Alright no flirting with the enemy." I say and we go to our sides and come up with a game plan. Though I didn't want to correct AJ on the fact I knew how to play baseball. When we get to the dugout, we made our plan and I we get to the field and start the game. When I got up to bat Clementine was pitching and I wink at her and she smiled. She pitches the ball and I swing and the ball cracks against the bat and flies through the air.
"Holy shit." I hear and laughed at this as I run to second base.
"That was a home run." Kat yelled and I shake my head as Lura had grabbed the ball and it flies quickly to the pitcher's mound.
"Never underestimate Lura and her pitching arm." I say back and we continue the game. We get to the halfway point and take a break for some lunch with Lee and the others and I was eating a sandwich.
"When did you start playing baseball?" Louis asked and I look to him.
"Grandpa and Grandma were players, my grandmother especially after my grandfather was drafted." I tell him.
"Shit, so it didn't matter what team you were on." Aasim says and I nod.
"Yep, Violet's grandmother was basically a pro on the field, I actually remember seeing her play a few games when I was younger, before I met Violet's father." My mom says and I nod.
"Must have been exciting." Lee says and she nods.
"I swear Violet wanted to be a baseball player when she was younger… well that and many other things." She says and I eat my sandwich.
"Oh, and what else did Violet want to be?" Clementine asked.
"Well, she once got into my make-up-."
"Ok, enough about that, we don't talk about that, we keep that to ourselves and to our graves." I say to my mother who laughed.
"Oh, come on it was adorable, she wanted to be in a beauty pageant." My mother says and I groan as Clementine laughed.
"Ooooh a beauty pageant huh? Well, I have some make-up-."
"Nope, no make-up sucks, no." I say and everyone laughs and I smile a little.
"I mean it's not all that bad." Kat says and I look to her.
"For me it is, skirts, dresses, make-up, not my style." I tell her.
"Yes, Jeans, pant suits, and a nice polo is all you need." Clementine says and she hugged me gently and I smile and nodded.
"You know, I've never seen Papa in a dress before, not even when she had photos as a kid." Lura says and I look to my mom who looked to me with a small smile and I roll my eyes.
"I know you have at least one photo of me, go on show them." I tell her and she grabbed her purse and pulls out her little photo booklet. Inside there was a photo of me as a baby in a frilly white dress as I'm looking to the side and upward while smiling.
"Oh my gosh you look adorable." Carley says and I nod.
"Her grandmother and grandfather were with me when that photo was taken, oh there's another one it's the same but she's reaching out to her grandfather." My mother says and she shows the photo and Louis was looking to me.
"What?" I asked and he smirks.
"Didn't know you liked frilly-." I stopped him.
"Just so you know, I didn't care as a baby, bet your mom put you in some rediculus outfit." I tell him.
"Oh yeah she did." He says and I shove him again. We all finished our lunch and got back to playing the game, and after a few hours Clementine's team won and I was sweating and looking to her.
"Well that was a great warm up." She says and I look down to her.
"Warm up my ass." I tell her.
"Well I could tonight if you just asked." She says and I turn red at this and coughed a bit.
"Well uh I mean… uh." I tried to speak and Clem laughs a bit as she puts her hand on my shoulder and she leans up to whisper in my ear.
"That's if you want to?" She asked and I nod quickly. She giggled gently and I smile down at her. We picked up our equipment and then we set it in the back of our car and I think a bit.
"I'm thinking about getting one of those trucks." I say to Clementine as she put the bats in the back seat.
"You want a truck? For what?" She asked and I think.
"Well it would help your dad a lot with his farming instead of his old beater car, could use it for hauling too, could be useful for any work at the bakery too." I tell her.
"Hmm, we can think on it later." She says and I nod at this. We get the girls in the car and we all head on back to Lee's for some lemonade and I head on over to mine and Clem's house. Once inside I go and change my clothes into something clean and the girls come in.
"We have got to do that again, that was so much fun." Diana says and I come on out mine and Clems room.
"Well, we can do it again on Saturday." I tell them and they agreed to this. They then got changed and we all head to Lee's and we get our drinks. Everyone was sitting outside in the back yard and I was on the ground leaning back on my hands as do some of the others and a few of the adults are sitting in the lawn chairs. It was a while before a car pulls up in the driveway and I stand up along with the others and we see that it's a military jeep. I raised my brow at this and looked to Clementine and we along with the others go up to it as it stops.
"Howdy." The sergeant says and I nod to the man.
"Howdy, what brings you out here?" I asked.
"Is there a Violet Everrett here?" He asked.
"That would be me sir." He then hands me a paper and I look to him a bit.
"Heard from the general that you might be looking for a job, just wanted you to know you can do contract work with the Military if you want." He tells me.
"Oh uh, thanks, yes I'll have to think about it." I tell him and he nods. He then tips his cover and heads back to the jeep and head out and I look to the papers.
"Huh, you thinking about taking the job?" Aasim asked and I tear the paper up and put the scraps in my pocket.
"Nope, I want to spend some time with my family, plus I'm working with Clementine, hell I might just do what I planed a while back, helping homeless vets and such." I state. We all then went back to the back yard and relaxed for a bit. days would pass and it is Sunday and we head on to the church and I crack my neck a bit as we park the car in the gravel lot and we head inside. We take a seat in the back pews and I'm sitting straight and Clementine is to my right and I hold her hand gently as we listen to the pastor as he talked.
"The way of life is mysterious to many, why is the sky blue? Why is the grass green? Why is the question that is always asked… now the topic we are going to talk about today involves the life of innocents taken… abortion." He says and I roll my eyes a bit at this.
"Miscarriages, and so on… the lord does not like when-." I drowned the man out and I feel Clementine clench my hand a bit and I look down to her and I whisper to her softly.
"Do you want to leave?" I asked and she looked down a bit and then shakes her head. I look back to the pastor as he ranted about some bullshit and by the time his sermon ended the girls and I exit out the building and Sarah comes over to talk to the twins and I look down to Clementine as she kept holding my hand.
"Hey, are you ok?" I asked and she nods.
"Well, hello you two, been a while." The pastor's wife says and I look to her.
"What did you think of the sermon today?" She asked.
"Could have dealt without it." I tell her and she frowns at me.
"Well, it's a matter that needs to be brought up." She says.
"In the privacy of one's home." I tell her.
"You know for one who goes to church you and your family don't seem to like what we talk about a lot." She says and I glare at her.
"Says the racist bitch that doesn't know when to keep her mouth shut." I tell her and she glared at me.
"Excuse you?"
"You heard me loud and clear, I didn't forget you calling my girls thugs." I tell her and she shut her mouth and I nodded a bit.
"Now unless you plan on saying something nice, you are to keep your mouth shut." I tell her and she then leaves and I glared at her as she goes to another group of women and they seem to be talking. I shake my head a bit. We talked a bit to the others and then I hear something.
"SHE WHAT?!" I hear the pastor's wife say and I look to see her looking over to Clementine and I and I glare at her and she goes over to her husband. She whispers something to him and I look to Clementine.
"Clem you and the girls can head on home, I'll be right back." I tell her and she looked to me then to the car.
"I'm staying… I guess they're talking about me huh?" She asked.
"Maybe, I don't-." I stopped just as the pastor and his wife come over to us and I look to them.
"Hello Mr. and Mrs. Everett." The pastor says. I look to him a bit as he looed to his wife who had a smug look on her face and I glared at her then the pastor.
"I think this church is not to welcoming of my family and I at this point, and we wish to leave." I tell him.
"Oh my is it because your wife and you committed sin on unborn children?" The wife says and I look to her. It was just in the moment, I don't even remember doing it but she had fallen to the ground holding her cheek as I had smacked her right across it and I glared at her then her husband.
"What is wrong with you?" The pastor asked as he helped his wife off the ground.
"You have no idea what we have been through in our lives and you dare say we committed an act such as that? You should have your wife's tongue cut out before she starts to gossip more on matters, she knows nothing about… remember you two are still fairly new to this town compared to us, and I will not have you sully my wife for your sick twisted humor." I warn him and Clementine grabbed my arm and I look to her a bit then back to the pastor and his wife.
"You and her will burn in hell." The pastor's wife says and I just look to her.
"You know what, you want to know the truth? We've had fertility issues, we went to a lovely doctor, who helped us start our family that we have now, our daughters are wonderful girls, and god knows I would have loved to have met our other children…. I had ONE miscarriage, and my life was a mess, but my husband and I got through it… you think I didn't want any children? Why would we go to a doctor over and over again to help us start a family if we didn't want one? You know nothing." Clementine says and I glared at the pastor a bit.
He looked to us then to his wife as he helped her stand up from the ground and I clench my hands into fists as she glared at Clementine. The Pastor then looked to us and I glared at him as well. He was about to say something but held his tongue as he saw me looking directly at him. Telling him to choose his next words wisely otherwise he will be punched unlike his wife.
"Well maybe god knew they would be heathen-." I punch his wife directly in her face breaking her nose as blood came out of it and I shoved the pastor away before he could do anything and I pick her up by her dress collar and she looked to me.
"Speak ill of my family one more time and I will have you humiliated in front of the entire congregation, I know more about you than you think, and I don't think you'd want your dirty secrets out an about, and you can deny it all you want but the thoughts in people's minds will always be there in the back of their minds." I warn her and she looked to me. I let her go with a shove.
"We will no longer be attending this church and if you are to pass us on the streets you are to stay the hell away, if I hear word about you talking to my daughters or wife without me present I will come to your home personally, how dare you say your church is full of kindness when you have dark hearts, the last pastor had more compassion than you two combined and that is a sad sight to see." I tell them and I look to Clementine and we both nod and leave to go to our daughters.
Once we got to the girls, we inform them that we will be leaving and we all head to the car as I start up the car I see the others looking to us and I drive off to our home. Once home I get out of the car and the girls start asking questions.
"What happened?" Lura asked.
"The Pastors wife doesn't know to hold her tongue in the name of gossip, and we are no longer attending the church." I tell them.
"Wait so we won't see Sarah again?" Diana asked.
"No you can still see her just not at church, and if the pastor and his wife come up to you two in public you are to inform me, they are to steer clear of you two and your mother at all times, is that understood?" I asked them.
"Yes… was it something bad?" Lura asked. I look to Clementine as she comes in the house and she looked to me a bit then we look to the girls.
"Yes it was bad, again the pastors wife is a gossiper and likes to judge before she knows… that is all you two will know ok?" I asked and they nod at this. They then say they will be heading to their friends house and I nod a bit as they get changed. Once they leave after I informed them to call us when they get there I go and take a seat on the couch and groan a bit as my back hurt.
"Are we going to look for anther church?" Clementine asked.
"No… no I don't… after what I did, I don't think any church would want us to go to theirs." I tell her and she nods and takes a seat next to me. I feel her hand on my back a bit and I look to her and I give her a gentle hug.
"Are you ok Clementine?" I asked her.
"Oh I am, trust me I am." She says and I take a breath.
"Are you sure?" I asked.
"…Ok maybe I wanted to punch that woman in the face but you beat me to it." She says and I look to her.
"Well if she comes up to you-."
"I'd rather you do the punching." She says and I couldn't help but laugh. We sat in silence for a bit I was still holding her to me and she rubs the back of my head gently.
"Well we can think on all that later, what would you like for lunch?" Clementine asked and I think and then get up.
"How about I make lunch today?" I asked and she raised a brow at me.
"What?" I asked and she smiles a little as she gets up off the couch and I look to her.
"As much as I appreciate the offer, I think our stomachs should not hurt by the end of the night." She says.
"Are you saying I'm a bad cook?" I follow her to the kitchen and she laughed.
"Oh no, your food is amazing, you just tend to make more than what we can eat." She tells me and I think and try to think on a time when I didn't. I couldn't and look to her.
"You make meals for large families, which is great, but not when it's just two to four people." She tells me.
"Well the girls need the carbs for when they play their games." I say as I help her.
"Be that as it may, you still make too much." She tells me.
"Oof… well guess I'm in charge of party dinners?" I asked.
"And Barbeques, can't forget that." She tells me and I chuckle and kiss her gently on the cheek and she looked to me.
"Have I told you I love you?" I asked and she kisses me.
"Every morning and every night." She says and I kissed her back.
"Hmm, got to say it more." I mutter and we both laughed a bit. Clementine and I made some salades and also some steaks which tasted amazing. I look to the window a bit and the sun was still up and I finish off the last of my salad, I then get up and take the plates to the sink and started cleaning them.
"Hey, we should go for a stroll… it would be nice and the day is still young." She says and I look to her a bit and I smile. I nod and we get into some comfortable shoes we made sure to wait for the girls to call us before we left, and we head outside. The sun is shining, the birds are out chirping and the wind was blowing gently. I felt Clem grab my arm just like she always did. As we walked through the town we head to the park, many families were out with their kids and I look to Clementine as she watched them.
"The girls have grown a lot huh?" I asked and she nods.
"Yes, they have, they are wonderful children… never really had a problem with them, I was really dreading the terrible twos." She admits and I chuckled gently.
"Remember when they wanted to help make breakfast? And we ended up with flour all over the place… again?" I asked and she giggled and nods.
"Yes, and again on mother's day." She says and I chuckled again and we kept walking.
"Now they're heading off to college… I just realized something." I say quietly and I look to Clem as she looked to me and we stopped.
"What?" She asked.
"I never thought that I would have a family… never thought I would have the life I do now… yeah we have had our ups and downs but all families do… I'm going to be honest you did all the hard work in raising them as I worked… I missed out a lot in their lives and it bothers me… but you did a wonderful job Clem." I tell her.
"You did your part when you could." She tells me and I nod.
"Yeah… so did they say what they wanted to study?" I asked as we continued our walk.
"Well Diana wants to be a veterinarian, and Lura wants to get into sports medicine." She says and I chuckled.
"Are you ever going to go back to college?" I asked.
"Hmmm, maybe I should just to make sure the girls don't do anything dumb." She joked and I couldn't help but laugh at this.
"Hey, maybe you should attend college? They have a community college here now." She tells me and I think a bit.
"What would I go in for though?" I asked as we passed by the pond and we decided to walk around it a bit.
"No idea, what did you want to be when you grew up?" She asked and I think a bit.
"Huh… never really came to mind… I mean I did joke about being a teacher… Maybe I could do that?" asked and she nods.
"It's whatever you want." She says and I nod at this.
"Alright… yeah I can do that… Lee can help me right?" I asked and she nods and we finished our walk for the day just as the sun was setting. Clementine and I were sitting in the lawn chairs outside the back yard of her home. I looked to the pond as the ducks quacked and Clementine had a glass of lemonade and I had a bottle of beer. I held her hand gently and she stroked the back of my hand with her thumb a bit. I close my eyes gently as I just take in the soft winds.
A few weeks would pass and I was looking over some papers for a bit just as the girls were for their college applications and they look to me a bit and I look to them as well. I smile gently at them as they got back to work on the applications and I chuckled a little.
"So, you're going to college too?" Lura asked.
"Yeah, but not to where you two are going, heading to the community college." I tell them as I finished my paper work and Clementine kissed my head.
"Well, that's good, be a little embarrassing if our Papa was attending the same school as us." Diana says.
"Embarrassing you say?" I joke and Clementine shoves me gently. I look to her and pulled her onto my lap.
"Oh, I wouldn't do that I'd think you two would try and embarrass me." I joked and Clementine gets off me an I get up as well. When the girls finished their applications, I went and took them all to the mailbox and set them in. I then walk back to the house and another few weeks would pass and I was working in the garden with Clementine.
"Now, you see how the leaves are turning a bit brown?" I asked as I showed her. I then clip them and she does the same. We picked a few of the berries and other vegetables in the garden and the postman walks up to us.
"Hey what a lovely garden." He says and I chuckled as I get up and wipe the dirt on my pants.
"Indeed, it is, couple of green thumbs in this family." I chuckled and he hands me some envelopes.
"Post for the day, have a nice day you two." He says and I nod and look to see two of the envelopes for the girls and I wave them to Clem a bit.
"Girls got some mail." I say and then just as if the devil summoned them himself, they both come running from out the house.
"We just saw the postman." Diana says and I chuckled as I hand them their letters. They quickly open the envelopes and Clementine stands next to me as we watched them.
"YES! I GOT IN!" Lura cheered and I look to Diana who looked to her letter a bit and she smiled.
"Same, I got in too." She says and I hug them both as does Clementine.
"Seems like we need to have a celebration don't you think?" I asked.
"Hell yeah, and we can get the old record player." Lura says and I chuckled.
"Did you get in Papa?" Diana asked and I look to the letter in my hand and I open it up and read it over a few times and sighed.
"Nope, but it's all good, I'm glad you two are going though." I tell them. They frowned a bit but I wave it off, college just isn't for me if I have to be honest. Lura grabbed my letter and I raised a brow at her and she looked to me then back to the letter.
"Papa, it's because you put Mr. on your application." She says and I look to the paper again and chuckled.
"Oh dear, well you can submit a new one." Clementine says and I laughed a bit.
"So, use to being called Mr. Everett that I put it on college applications." I laughed a bit and then gently grabbed the letter. A few months pass and I had resubmitted my work and I got into the college. The girls didn't want to have a party till I got in even though I protested about it but they did as well. Clem joked that we all were hard headed.
"Well, I wonder where they got it from." I joked and Clem laughs at me. We were heading to church today; it was one that Clem had suggested and I have to say it was very lively than the last one. Lots of singing and clapping. Not something I'm use to if I was going to be honest. At first, they were wondering why I was attending till Clementine explained that I was her husband. They are really nice people; they don't judge our family like the old church did.
"Today we will be talking about the married couple, in the old days it was about unity between land owners, but now we marry for love, many here today are married to their loved one, have children, to care for, to protect, to teach, and some who are expecting their first as well… they say that it takes a village to raise a child and that is what this congregation is willing to do, so we are asking for some donations if you want, baby clothes, cribs, and so on." The preacher says and I think and look to Clementine a bit.
When they finished up, we all went out and chatted with a few of the church members and I see a couple off on the side. The woman was expecting her first born in two months if I recall. We talked more with the people and then we get to the couple.
"Oh yes, we're hoping it's a girl, my husband just wants to be the big papa bear to them, scaring off the boys and such." The woman says and Clementine laughed.
"Same with my husband, he actually just scared this young boy asking out our daughter Diana." She tells the woman and I roll my eyes.
"I'm not that scary." I mutter.
"Papa, you were constantly glaring at him as we all had dinner." Diana chimed in as she comes over to us.
"Is it bad I want a nice young man to ask my daughters out? The least he could have done was talk to me if he had any problems with me, I'm not scared to tell the truth." I tell her.
"Well, he's dating someone else so don't worry." Lura says and I frown a bit and look to Diana who did look a little sad. I rubbed her back gently. Seems like my little girl was in love with him, but she will find better, I know she will, like I did.
"Speaking of dates, Papa-."
"Who?" I asked immediately and Clementine giggled a bit.
"It's just to the drive in, I promise." She tells me and I nod a bit.
"You know the rules, he has to meet the parents first, if not me then at least your mother." I tell her and the other woman laughs.
"Husbands, so traditional." She giggled as did Clementine.
"Oh he's just worried about his girls, your husband and you will do the same with your little one, thank the lord we didn't have a son though." Clem states and I look to her a bit. We all then went home and Diana said she will be going to a friends and we remind her of the party tonight. Lura also wanted to go to her friends and they said they would be back in the afternoon and I crack my back a bit as they leave.
I go back inside the house and grab my pack of cigarettes and I lit is with my match and looked to Clementine a bit.
"You good there darling?" I asked as I come over to her. she gently takes my cigarette from my mouth and takes an inhale for herself and hands it back. I look to her gently and she looked to me a bit.
"I know I'm a bit old but… I do miss the girls already and they aren't even gone." She says and I kissed her head gently.
"I know darlin I know." I whisper in her hair and she comes closer to me.
"Would you want another child?" She asked out of the blue and I look to her.
"Another kid?" I asked.
"It's stupid I know." She says.
"Guessing hearing about families does that… I don't mind it but do you think you could handle it?" I asked gently and she looked to the cucumbers she was cleaning for the salad.
"I'm too old." She says quietly and I gently rub her head.
"You aren't." I tell her and she just sighs. I kiss her head gently and look to her.
"It's up to you darlin, if you want another baby we can go talk to the doctor, just like last time." I tell her and she just nods gently.
"Think we should donate some of the girls old baby clothes?" I asked as I helped her and we got to work on the food.
"It would be nice to do, I'll get a few." She says and I nod gently and kiss her head again.