Great-grandchild

The solution of those who envied her, was to whisper mean things about her. Of course their whispers were loud enough for Jenny to hear in hopes of at least damaging her confidence or her happiness, instead of looking in the mirror to see that they themselves were the problem. They were sabotaging themselves every step of the way, including with the gossiping right now. As Jason's grandparents had a keen eye for people who seemed to be scheming, making them keep those people at an arm's length. Their reasoning for this was that a scheming person is a selfish person and a selfish person does not hold back for anything or anyone, including their own family. So being too close to people like that, would be putting themselves in danger. Aside from that they felt that entertaining people like that was at their age a waste of their time. Jenny, who seemed so genuine and not interested at all in what there was to gain for her, other than approval from the elders from the family of the man she loved, seemed like a breath of fresh air to the two of them. That was exactly the reason they instantly became fond of her and welcomed her with open arms, making her mission for approval an easy victory.

Though Jenny had heard their whispers, she forced herself to ignore them, keeping Jason's grandfather's words in mind. Though she would feel a jab every time their words hit close to home, she repeated the words 'sticks and stones' over and over to herself to remind herself that their words couldn't hurt her nor her relationship. Once they left the party, these people would be nothing more than jealous people who she would have to face but twice a year. Keeping their motives in mind, she walked through the room with her back straight and her face confident. Earning her a pat on the back of her hand and a gentle, proud smile from Jason's grandmother, who was quite impressed with how she was dealing with the situation. She only hoped that Jenny would remain this strong and confident. She had seen what these whispers can do to a person and would hate to see Jenny become a victim to that. Once a seed of doubt has been planted, it weakens your defenses and opens one's heart up to these vultures. And they, these people she was ashamed to call family, won't hesitate to completely darken her heart until all the light that was exuding from her innocence had died out. Crumbling her confidence until she would be nothing more than a shell of the person she used to be. Jason's grandmother pushed that thought away and smiled as she lifted her hand to greet Jason and her husband at the table.

Seeing the smiles on both of their faces, Jason felt relief and a sense of happiness at Jenny's success of gaining his grandparents approval. When his grandmother got to the table she let go of Jenny, who took a seat beside Jason. Before taking her seat beside his grandfather, she turned around and said to Jason, "I hope you didn't miss your lovely fiancé too much. I had to borrow her when we ran into each other outside the ladies room. It must have been fate, so I couldn't help myself." Jason replied with an uncaring, "It must have been." and a meaningful smile. Seeing the look on her grandson's face, she lowered her face to his ear and with a teasing smile whispered, "Though I didn't expect her to be walking out of one of the guestrooms. Any idea what she might have been doing there? Even her lips appeared a bit swollen. I imagine you had something to do with that?" She asked questioningly. "Couldn't even keep your hands off her for one night, hmm champ?" Though everyone was unaware of what she had said, aside from Jason himself, they could all clearly see the change in Jason's expression, drawing the attention to the two of them. His grandmother had just straightened her body again before she lowered her face by his ear once more, this time on the other side of his face, and she added with a soft chuckle, "Though I am not complaining. Keep up the good work so I may be holding my great-grandchild soon."

Jason's grandmother did not know that what had happened in that room was a lot more innocent than she was currently imagining, but it was enough to cause Jenny to turn around towards Jason with a flushed face and an angered expression. Her words had been heard by her and had caused Jason to choke on his drink. Informally he exclaimed, "Grandma!". "Sorry, sorry, my bad." She said, while looking like she was not sorry at all and even was enjoying her grandson's embarrassment. Though she thought it an innocent prank on her beloved grandson and his bride-to-be, neither of them took it very well. Jenny was mortified and excused herself from the table, despite having only just returned, ignoring Jason's words to wait. Susan and Stephen, who had just returned form a round of socializing with the few people they did like or had to interact with from a business point of view, saw their daughter-in-law walk away with an unhappy expression and their son follow her shortly behind. Wondering what had happened, as they were aware of Jenny and Jason decision to put their troubles aside for tonight, were surprised to witness this scene. Once they arrived at the table they asked what had happened and they were joined by the equally clueless grandfather, who turned to his wife for some answers as she appeared to have caused whatever was going on.