A Time To Love

Today was the start of the weekend I was always looking forward to all year. The weekend we all came together, children, grandchildren, everyone knew. The first weekend of September was the Avenged Sevenfold family weekend.

I had been preparing all of the rooms in the house to receive the guests and the large table in the garden was set.
“How late will the others arrive?” Rye yelled from the kitchen, where she was preparing the food.
“I don’t know- oh wait, a car pulled in the driveway!” I yelled back.
“Oh no…” I murmured.
“What?” Rye stood next to me suddenly, her gaze also at the driveway following mine.
“Ah Matt, come on, you should get used to seeing your little girl with her boyfriend.” Rye shook her head at me and then slapped my arm.
“Ouch… don’t do that. Yes, I got used to seeing Ava with her husband , but my other little girl, too…” I complained with a loud sigh.
“I can’t believe that you are still complaining, you are already a granddad and still can’t get used to seeing your girls with their men…”
“Apparently not…” I replied.
“You never made such a big deal out of it when Owen brought a girl back home.” Rye lifted an eyebrow at me.
“Well, he is a man, that’s just different.” I shook my head.
“No, it’s not. And you still remember how Zack freaked out when he heard that Owen and his precious little daughter were together?”
I grinned “Oh yeah, I remember, I still get the murderous glares from Zack from time to time.”
Owen had fallen in love with Zack and Kim’s daughter, getting the girls to be all happy they would finally be bonded as family by law and getting us guys into a fight almost every time. I was teasing Zack with it all the time, but the truth was, I knew how it felt… It felt like your heart was ripped out when you weren’t the most important man in your daughter’s life anymore.

We walked back inside. We had organized this weekend for over the past 20 years, ever since our babies were still little and we were still on tour around the world with Avenged, we always did this one weekend at the end of summer. Our own family weekend.
We would all gather around at my and Rye’s house in Huntington, we had never left, some of us did, but most of our friends had returned too.

The touring and Avenged time was long gone sadly, but in our age, we wouldn’t live through a whole concert anymore.
“MOM?? DADDY??” Ava yelled from the garden, while Rye and I prepared the food for the BBQ.
“Yeah?” I called back.
“Guests are arriving!”
“I’m coming!” I yelled back and grabbed Rye around the waist so she could help me greet the people.
“Heyy, I wasn’t done here.” She complained but I just silenced her with a kiss.
“I know, but Mrs. Sanders, you gotta welcome our guests as well.”

We walked outside and I loved the view, our 2 Grandchildren playing in the sand, Ava and Owen together with their husband and girlfriend talking, and when I looked into the driveway my and Rye’s smile grew even wider.
“KIM!!” Rye yelled and walked forward, me following on her heels.
“You made it!”
“Of course, and I brought along everyone else.” She motioned behind her and there were all our friends.
“Leyla, Meike you could make it too?” I hugged them with a smile.
“Of course, we arrived yesterday. We spent the night in our house on the beach.”
“Where are the children?” Rye asked and I heard the excitement in her voice.
I grinned seeing my beautiful wife having fun like this.
“Still in the car with the guys, give me a second, we want to introduce our youngest member to the family.” Meike announced and I saw Brian opening the back door of the car.
Meike walked towards him and Brian gave her the little bundle in her arms and she walked towards us.
“We are Grandparents for the second time, now. This is little Sam, isn’t he cute?” She held the babyboy towards us.
“Awwnnn, look at him, Matt…” Rye took the baby right from her arms and I smiled, seeing my Rye with a baby again.

“Aunt Kimmie!” Ava came running over and hugged all of them.
“What’s up with us, we also need a hug! And where is my daughter anyway?” Zack announced looking around.
“I’m here Daddy!” Zack’s daughter walked towards him, with Owen shortly behind.
“I will keep an eye on you, Owen. Just because your Dad is here doesn’t mean I can’t beat you up!” Zack announced.
“Stop threaten my son, Baker!” Rye pointed a finger at him.
“Yeah, cut the alpha male stuff” Kim added, also pointing her finger
Zack held up his hands in defense “Sorry Rye.” He walked towards Rye giving her a kiss on the cheek.

After all the guests were finally welcomed and we were sitting in the garden watching our kids and grandkids play together.
“I wished Jimmy was here… Seeing all this…” I said sadly.
“He is gone for so long and I still miss him like it was yesterday.” Brian said and took a sip of his beer.
“Dad, will you tell us another story about Uncle Jimmy?” Jared asked looking at Johnny.
“Oh boy, most of the stories are x-rated, so we can only do that when the little ones are sleeping, you know” Johnny grinned and we had to laugh at all the funny memories that played in our heads when Jimmy was still around.

I saw a smile on Leyla’s face, their love had been too short, but intense. Jimmy and Leyla had jumped into their love without any fears or hesitation and the 8 years they had together had been wonderful, we were all able to notice that. Just after Jimmy passed away, Leyla found out she was pregnant. It had been hard on her, but when little JJ was born, it all made sense. He had Jimmy’s eyes, and now, almost 30 years later, JJ was the spitting image of his father, tall, slim, bright blue eyes, black hair and adoring his mother. He never left her side and made sure she was always well taken care of, his father would have been proud of him.

“Dad, can you help us for a second.” I heard Ava yell.
“Sure, wait a second, baby girl.” I got up from my chair and I saw Zack, Brian and Johnny following me.
“The children want to go in the tree house, but the ladder is missing, can you get one?” Ava asked and all the children were running around waiting for us to help out.
“Yeah, I think the old ladder must be in the house, Brian, Zack, come on, help me get up there!”

Both men grabbed my legs and pushed me up, I was halfway in the house when I heard Rye’s voice yelling behind me.
“MATTHEW CHARLES SANDERS! WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING THERE? YOU ARE 74 YEARS OLD, GET OFF THAT TREE, RIGHT NOW!” Rye yelled and I cringed at her voice.
“I will just-” I started.
“DOWN, NOW! How could you guys help him? Let the kids do that… you are that old and still have the dumbest ideas…” Brian and Zack let me down again and Rye already let the kids get the ladder and they started to play again.

“Now, you guys better get back to the terrace, all the girls are so excited that Arin finally arrived.”
“Oh that kid, finally found the time to show up?” Brian asked.
When we walked back we saw Arin standing in the middle of all the women, Rye taking the place next to her friends, Arin had the complete attention directed at him. Him being the youngest was now his benefit I guess, we still called him the kid, I guess for us he would always be, even though he was already 67 years old.
“Is everyone here?” Rye asked and looked around
“I guess so” I replied ”Time to make the photo then”
Everyone gathered in the garden and stood close to each other, as I adjusted the camera
I had to smile at the sight of my friends, we had all been through so much, but we were still together.
On the far left was Johnny with his Nessa and their son Jared. Jared didn’t bring his wife, seeing she was too pregnant to travel, next year Johnny and Nessa would be grandparents too and this family would be even more extensive. I still couldn’t believe how tall Jared was, he had looked his father on the head by the age of 17 and I could still remember how he had looked down at his father during puberty. Johnny had had a hard time raising the boy, but fortunately the boy loved his mother too much, to actually act out badly.

Next to Johnny was Leyla with JJ. They were joined by Arin and JJ’s girlfriend. Arin had put his arm around Leyla and told her something that was very funny apparently, because she was smiling. I missed Jimmy, but Arin had been a good replacement, he had carried the music in his heart, just like we had and he had fit our little group. Rye had been the first to accept him to our group, she had invited him to dinner just a week after he did audition and made us all sit at the same table and talk for hours. That was the night Arin had become one of us, one of Avenged Sevenfold, and not only the replacement for a few songs.

On the far right Brian was kissing Meike, he had always been the one you should keep an eye on, the places we found him and Meike, I shook my head. “Haner!” 4 faces shot up, Brian got blessed by fathering 3 boys, Brick, Brad and Bray, all the things he laughed about when he was younger, had bit him in his ass hard, I smiled at the four faces looking at me and finished my sentence “I’m not going to put you and Meike in the picture like this!”
Brick laughed hard “You have to hand it to my parents, still going at it, at this age!” Meike hit the back of her sons head and held her grandson on her other arm. The other three Haner wives were cooing over little Lisa’s wobbly steps and I saw Brian smile at the effort his granddaughter was making. “Ah look at my little girl”.

Zack and Kim were next to the Haner family, Kim stroking the cheek of little Sam, chatting with Meike. Kim had her son behind her, his wife sat at Kim’s feet, their twins in her lap. Zack had his arm wrapped around his daughter possessively, while my son fought for her attention. Getting it of course, he inherited my dimples.

And in the middle of all this chaos, my beautiful wife, surrounded by our two girls, Ava and Mary, their men behind them, holding them close. Ava’s two kids at their feet. She was looking around her and smiled her widest smile, making me love her even more. This was where we were we wanted to be. We were one hell of a lucky bunch.

“Alright guys, pay attention!” I set the timer and ran to the group to stand next to Rye and my girls, we all called “cheese” and the camera flashed.

I walked inside the house and saw all the group photo’s hanging on the wall, the group changed every year, but one thing stayed the same; Rye. My lovely Rye.

Notes

That´s it, the last chapter... We hope you liked it Rye, we sure liked writing it!

Luv you! Mei & Kim