Kathryn answers. “Yes, Mom and I said yes.” She threw her arms round Mom. Mom has tears in her eyes as she holds Kathryn. Kathryn pushes mom back for second I got to tell you something else. I’m JJ’s new partner in the stock market we made too and a half million so far.
Mom remembers the joke I used to tell when Kathryn would find unexpected money in her pockets. “Now you both are money magnets.”
Laughing I say, “She made all the choices, if she keeps it up by the time we’re married we’ll be billionaires.”
She corrects me. “JJ you’re a billionaire, don’t forget I’m your personal assistant and I’ve been watching your accounts for you.”
A little surprised I say, “Really I guess I’m been making you work harder than I had thought.”
Giggling mom says, “That’s right you slave driver.”
Kathryn walks to me hugging me tightly she says, “We got to go tell my parents.”
Mom says, “Hang on a second I want to get the video camera.”
As we are walking into the Edwards’ yard Kathryn is wrapped around my arm which is not an uncommon sight. I can’t help but remember how much both of us have changed in the past two years. Oh my God, with everything else on my mind I didn’t realize tomorrow is her birthday. “Love, what would you want for your birthday?”
“I think I got it already.” She says looking at her ring.
“Seriously love, I want to give you something for your birthday. Anything at all.”
Kathryn asks “JJ could you give me your help for my birthday present.”
Smiling I say, “Of course I will but you don’t have to make that your birthday present.”
Kathryn seriously replies. “Let me finish before you say that. You said we were partners and I get 50%. My parents are struggling financially I want to help. Would it be possible if I gave my share so far to my Mom and Dad?”
I stop this a few feet away from the porch and turn to her smiling I say, “You’re such a generous and loving person you’re going to make someone a great wife. Oh yeah that’s me.” Then I kiss her passionately. Her mom laughs from the porch, watching my Mom videotape us. Kathryn holds her left hand up to my face and Mom zooms in for a close-up of us kissing.
Helen calls from the porch, “Would you two come over here and tell us what’s going on.”
We break our kiss and begin walking hand-in-hand again to the porch. She sets down in my lap with her left hand resting on her knee. Neither of us says anything for a while but my eyes keep traveling down to her hand. I’ll make eye contact with Helen or the Coach and then my eyes travel back to Kathryn’s ring. My fourth time doing this Helen follows my eye movement. Mom catches Helen’s expression of total shock when she sees the engagement ring. “Oh my God that’s… That’s the ring you described.”
The Coach seen the ring asks like a dutiful father, “JJ did you ask my daughter to marry you?”
“Yes Sir, I did ask her to marry me.” I can’t read his face whether he is happy or upset he’s hiding it well.
The Coach says, “Seeing that ring on your finger I guess you said yes Kathryn.”
Kathryn bubbling with joy replies, “Yes, Daddy I did say yes. I also said yes to becoming his partner. He taught me how to trade stocks on the Internet. In the last two weeks we’ve made two and a half million dollars. ”
Rubbing her shoulder I say. “You did all the work on making that money, all the decisions and choices on the stocks were yours.”
Michael and Helen are almost in shock hearing this new information about their youngest daughter. “She such a natural when it comes to the stock market she has a sixth sense, she’s easily outperforming my choices so I’m going to begin putting more money for her to work with.”
Kathryn turns to me asks, “Are you sure?”
“I’ll always be there to help you and not give you more than you can handle. Now get back to what you were saying.”
Kathryn smiles as she addresses her parents. “Oh yeah, my partner has agreed to allow me to take out my share of the earnings for the past two weeks. Mom, Dad I know that money has been tight this year so I want to give you 1 million bucks.”
Helen’s mouth drops open in shock. The coach rushes forward and grabs a giggling Kathryn off my lap. Holding her up, he asks, “Are you sure?”
Throwing her arms around her father’s neck she kisses him on the cheek before pulling back to say, “Yes Dad it’s what I want to do.”
Helen recovering from her shock jumps up and wraps the both of them in a hug. Kathryn her head between her parents as they both begin to kiss her on her cheeks. After a few minutes her Father sets her down.
The Coach pulls me up into a hug between him and his wife, Helen kisses me on the cheek it feels like both welcome me into their family officially. They finally let me step back and then the Coach begins. In a series tone he says, “John since you came into her life two years ago you made my daughter extremely happy. You are a good friend to our family. Whenever you were needed you were always there helping. I know you’ve paid for the schooling of my children with it was not required of you. It was you who give them automobiles so they have transportation to school. I’ve seeing you prove yourself over and over to be a far better man than most any I’ve known. I would be pleased to call you son.”
Then he adds playfully, “Don’t think I will be easier on you on the football field.”
Just as playfully I reply, “I would not like it if you did.”
The rest of the family begins to come on the porch wondering what’s going on. As Kathryn holds up her hand for her sisters to get a good look at her engagement ring. It’s Kara that is first to congratulate us says, “You were serious when you said you spend the rest of your life finding out what it was. Congratulations little sister, you got a good one.”
Some of her sisters’ comments make me smile others I have to worry a little bit about. I have a feeling until we are married there still going to try to tempt me. Maybe not even then they would stop.
Like every summer Kathryn and her sisters and brothers are off to the grandparents for a week starting on Kathryn’s birthday, the only difference is this summer I get to go spend the day with Kathryn at her grandparents. We follow the Edwards to the grandparents’ home.
Her grandmother has hundreds of stories all of them new to me, one story in particular gets Kathryn’s attention. Her grandmother tells us when she was a young child how her grandma told her it was more normal for a young girl to marry an older man sometimes as much as ten or fifteen years difference in age, with the girl anywhere from twelve to fourteen. She tells us her grandmother married when she was thirteen years old to her grandfather and they were married for fifty-five years before their deaths.
I got my driver’s license at the first possible moment. Mom bought me a car for my sixteenth birthday. Took my driver’s test as soon as I was permitted and like most everything else my life I pass with flying colors even the road test. I even parallel parked well. I hadn’t told Kathryn about getting my driver’s license that Wednesday the day after her birthday. Kathryn was surprised when I showed up on Friday to spend some time with her, and of course I listened to a bunch more stories from her grandma. As it was beginning to get late they invited me to stay the night they had a little more room. I had to sleep up stairs with the boys. I called mom told mom where I was going to be at, before she left to her party.
That night her brothers grilled me on marrying their baby sister, most of it was in good fun. They basically wanted to make sure that I truly loved their baby sister. Kathryn’s brothers also ribbed me about being a virgin and already engaged asking why I haven’t tried anything. I told them it’s always been up to Kathryn, when she’s ready she will let me know. They all said they appreciated that but admitted not being able to do it themselves. I said, “I know what I’m waiting for is totally worth it.” The three brothers groaned before telling me to shut up and go to sleep. We all laughed and the drifted off to sleep.
I woke up earlier than anyone else the next morning. I am accustomed to running in the early morning. I walk into the bathroom and wash my face and wet my hair to comb it out. I quietly moved through the house and out onto the back porch to wait the rest of the family to awake.
Grandma was the first to get up only about ten minutes after me. We set there and talked in the early morning sun, she basically asked me how I ended up engaged to her youngest granddaughter. I asked her, “You want the long story or the short version of my life story?”
She giggles and said. Those sleepy heads will not be up for at least another hour so you got time if you give me the long one in that time.
I begin the medium one. “When I was three my father died in a LA freeway accident. A rich man not paying attention ran into my father as he was helping to rescue people. There was a large lawsuit settlement and I received twenty-five million dollars.
My mother was so busy working; she had thrown herself into her career trying to avoid the pain of losing my father. That’s why I can do things other kids never got away with. I pulled myself out of public school and hired a governess and started my own home schooling. I needed a class for my physical education and the accepted a martial arts Academy where I trained at. I began training there three times a week when I was seven by the time I was ten I had my first black belt when I was twelve and finished high school I have five.
To get the information I needed to get through school I would hire tutors. Occasionally they were hard to find. Sometimes I paid for a week when all I needed was less than an hour of their time. So I started Internet business just as I was finishing my high school, to help other students in the same situation.
To help me with my business my governess became my partner. Between high school and college we started a second Internet company it was an auction site and make quite a bit of money with people paying point $.50 for each bid they entered. I sold my Internet companies and decided to retire I finished three Associates degrees in college by that time. And I got really lucky when I found the land next to Kathryn’s home.
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