Family Ties

Part 15

By late afternoon, they were headed to Damon's for the weekend.

"You're sure you've packed everything that you need?" Raymond looked over his shoulder to Skye, who was strapped into the backseat.

"I've got everything, papa, promise!" He confirmed again, excited by the thought of spending a whole week with his grandparents. It was always fun to stay with them and his uncle Eric was also always around, which meant it was more like a holiday to him.

"Grandma!" He called as soon as they stopped in front of a grand house, surrounded by a manicured garden and lawns. Running up the stairs, he pushed open the wide doors. "Grandma!" he called again, looking around the open-planned seating area.

"Do you think you could help me with the bags?!" Raymond called from the car, opening the boot to take out the luggage. Skye immediately bounced back outside, grabbing bags before making his way into the house again.

"Grandma!" He called out again when he saw a small dark-haired woman making her way toward him with a bright smile.

"Oh honey, it's so good to see you again." She pulled him into a tight hug as soon as she reached him. "Where's your papa?" She asked as he dropped his bags.

"I'm right here Mom." Raymond huffed into the room with the rest of Skye's bags, leaning in to kiss her.

"What are in all these bags?" She asked, looking at the luggage Raymond was carrying.

"It's for the squirt, remember? You said he could stay over for a week." He was surprised that his mother would forget something like this because when it came to Skye, there wasn't a thing she didn't know.

"Oh, I know that dummy. But you can't bring any of those clothes in here, there's just no space!" She threw her hands in the air, taking Skye's hand and leading them to wide white couches that looked out over a wide courtyard with a pool in the middle. The wide concertina doors were open to let in the late afternoon sun.

"I saw so many things that he would like on our trip, that I had to get a few for him." She looked adoringly down at Skye who was playing with the rings on her fingers.

"Mom! When will you stop? He's got too many things already, I don't even know where to put them!" He moaned at her.

Skye was Gillie's first grandchild. Despite the fact that they were not related, she felt as though Raymond was a member of her own family from the moment she met him.

He'd met Eric, her fifteen-year-old son when they were both working at the family pizzeria. Raymond was a scrawny kid that worked like crazy. It was a small pizzeria then, and they were together like a family. It was hard for Raymond to talk. He avoided being around when they closed the shop so that he didn't need to socialize.

Eric, with his general disregard for personal space and his penchant for getting into trouble, had finally broken through his shell and slowly he started sharing his life in broken bits and pieces. Gillie was always most attentive at those moments, trying to find ways to lighten his load.

When they'd discovered that his mother was dying from cancer and that he was taking all those crazy jobs to help pay the medical bills that seemed to be piling up, Gillie immediately offered to help. But Raymond refused, instead taking on the extra hours of work she offered.

It was only at the point of breaking that Raymond finally gave in and accepted their help, with the promise to pay back every cent. She had sat in the restaurant kitchen with him, trying to get him to open up some more, when the floodgates opened and Raymond poured out his whole story, freely weeping. Since that day, he'd become her son, even if it was against his wishes at first.