Ten #4
“Well, Dr. Jimenez says that whenever your father regresses to hitting or yelling for no other reason than his pride is challenged,” she said pointedly, “he must then lie down and make himself vulnerable.”
Luke got up from the table, walked over to his father, and stood over him. “So, am I supposed to kick ya in your junk to make you feel better?”
“You’re hysterical,” John said drolly. “Has anyone ever told you?”
“Oh, Dad, sarcasm?” He beamed down at his father. “I’m dying here.”
“It’s not just me, you know,” he grumbled. “Your mother must be completely honest now, all the time. She can’t sugarcoat anything. That’s what she’s working on.”
Luke turned to her. “So from now on, you have to say what you actually want for dinner? You can’t think about what everyone else would like first and then answer?”
She glared at him. “Yes, Luke, that’s what it means.”
“So, Nana, is it okay that I help you with Thanksgiving dinner?” Griff asked her.
“Ohmygod, yes,” she said, putting her hand on his shoulder. “No one ever helps me, and it’s exhausting.”
“That’s because you never want anyone to help you because you’re a perfectionist,” John reminded her.
“And that used to be true, but not for years.”
Luke crossed his arms as he regarded her. “How come you two always come here and never to Pete and Jenna’s or Rick and Brynn’s?”
Because I’d done my reading on the entire family before I showed up in Eena, I knew that Pete was his oldest brother and Rick was the youngest. Luke was the middle child, the peacemaker, the one who, from all accounts, had been overlooked.
Pete had played football in college and was now a cardiologist in Aspen, Colorado.
Rick went to college on a baseball scholarship and was now a farmer in Le Claire, Iowa.
She took a breath. “Luke, I really don’t think?—”
“Be honest!” John called over to her.
“Fine,” she said irritably. “We come here because Jenna hates me and I hate her right back.”
Luke chuckled. “I knew it. Caitlyn always said I was nuts because she loved you and figured everyone else did too.”
“Kids,” she said, addressing them all, “I adored your mother, and I miss her terribly.”
This was all so good and healing, I just sat there and watched, soaking it up as Tatum ran over and hugged her grandmother. When Quinn reached across the table and patted my arm, I turned to her.
“This is amazing, Nash. You should be proud.”
“None of this is me.”
“ All of this is you,” she insisted, and as I studied her face, I decided I couldn’t help liking her even though she wanted the same guy I did.
She continued, “I mean, not Luke’s folks finally getting therapy—and dear God, did they need it—but you created the space where they could share this with their son and their grandkids. That’s pretty damn amazing.”
I shook my head.
“Take the win, Nash,” she advised me.
“And Rick and Brynn?” Luke prodded his mother, still asking questions.
Looking up from her granddaughter, she said, “Brynn and I are very different people, and we share no common ground.”
“She likes to garden,” he teased her.
“It’s a lot more than that, Luke,” she snapped. “All that farm-to-table business is beyond me. And the things she has them eating, all vegan, I simply can’t.”
“You’re saying an all-vegan Thanksgiving is not for you?”
“Her kids pull carrots out of the ground, dust off the dirt, and eat them.”
“It’s barbaric,” John chimed in from the floor, where Darwin was now lying beside him, both in the starfish position.
“Are they healthy?” Luke asked with a gleam in his eye, knowing the answer already. Brynn and Rick had three boys, ages nine through thirteen, and their family farm sold all manner of vegetables, as well as honey and cider. That too had been in the file.
“Yes, they’re healthy,” she said belligerently. “But going there makes me grind my teeth.”
I was betting it did.
“Brynn wants your father and I to work for our meals.”
Luke shrugged.
“I don’t see you going to Le Claire to visit,” she said sulkily.
“Why does Jenna hate you?” he asked, circling back.
“Because I didn’t think she was right for your brother when they got married, and I still don’t. She’s very materialistic.”
“But she loves him like crazy,” he reminded her. “And her kids.”
She was pressing her lips together tight but then said, “Yes, she does.”
His smile was beautiful, and just looking at him made my stomach roll.
“I’m loving the honesty,” he stated.
“I am not,” she replied flatly, “but it’s how this works now.” She glanced over at her husband. “I think you’re good, John. Time to return to the table.”
“I’m fine here,” he told her.
She scoffed. “You can’t get up, can you.”
“I could, I simply don’t want to.”
“So you’re going to live there now?”
“I think so, yes.”
She laughed then, and it was a good sound. “Would you like some help?”
“That would be nice,” he confessed.
Luke first darted over to his mother and kissed her on the cheek before jogging over to his father to help him up. Everyone was smiling except Quinn, who was blowing her nose with a napkin.
“Dar, get the box of tissues from the bathroom for Quinn.”
“Thank you,” she said to him, then turned back to me and smiled. Or tried to. The sneeze, and then another, interrupted her.
“You all right?”
“I’m fine,” she sniffled. “Why do you ask?”
“Because your eyes are starting to get a bit puffy.”
“Are they?”
I nodded.
“I asked before I came, and John and Vi assured me you didn’t have—ohmygod, cherry on the cake of my life,” she groaned as Wink came flying into the room like he was being chased by a demon or something, before leaping up on the table and walking over in front of me, only to sit down and stare at Quinn.
He really was the cutest thing, and the way he tilted his head as he regarded her was adorable.
“He’s trying to kill me.”
“More likely he senses you don’t like him and therefore must befriend you.” When he took a step toward her, I grabbed him. “See?”
“Yes, he’s charming. Keep him over there.”
“You poor thing,” I said to Quinn.
“You’re saying that because I look like ass.”
“No,” I lied. “But how bad is the allergy?”
“Why? Is my skin getting blotchy?”
“Just a bit.”
“Would it kill you people to call and share the news that you got a cat with Luke’s folks?”
“No. Should’ve done that,” I agreed as she sneezed again.
Wink took that opportunity to dive sideways, run off the table, and leap at Luke.
“Owww, you little shit,” he groused, carefully unhooking Wink’s claws from his cardigan.
All the kids said board at the same time, and Luke, carrying Wink, walked over to his board, where he erased the number two and put a one.
“No swear words is good,” Viola said.
“Yes, but I really wanted Chinese food next Saturday, because I know I’ll be sick to death of turkey by then,” Luke whimpered.
“I’ll take you, Daddy,” Tatum told him. Her board was at five. We were supposed to be having Thai today, but I was thinking, with Luke’s folks here, that wasn’t going to happen.
Quinn sneezed again, and both Tatum and I turned to her.
“Besides the cat,” she said, sounding pretty stuffed up, “I hate rain. Does it do anything else here?”
“Who hates rain?” Tatum asked me, like that was the worst thing she’d ever heard.
“People in flood zones,” I answered her. “Probably Noah. Anyone who’s lived through a hurricane or lives next to a river.”
“The Noah thing is funny.” Tatum grinned at me.
“Do you want an allergy pill? I have lots of different kinds in my medicine cabinet,” Darwin offered Quinn. “Sometimes I have to double up because of my hay fever.”
“I’m right there with you, buddy,” she told Darwin as Griff delivered a second box of tissues.
“How many of these do you think she needs?” I asked him.
“I dunno, but she doesn’t look good.” He sounded a bit grossed out. “Is that a rash?”
Quinn shot me a look, and I bit the side of my cheek so I wouldn’t smile.
“He’s never gonna get married like that.”
“I’ll fix it,” I promised her. But Griff wasn’t wrong. She was getting redder by the second. “You don’t need some kind of shot, do you?”
“No,” she said miserably, scratching her arm.
I got up then. “Come on, we’ll get a Benadryl on the way out, and I’m taking you to this really pretty B and B. You can see mountains from there.”
“Rainy mountains,” she muttered. No way not to like a woman choking on snot who could still make jokes.
“But no cats,” I pointed out.
“That you know of. They probably have a cat named Bernard sitting in the lobby.”
I chuckled, and she laughed along with me.
Once we were in Luke’s bathroom with the medicine cabinet open, I leaned around her and yelled for a glass of water. Luke was there in moments, passing it to Quinn.
“I’m sorry about this,” he apologized. “But in my defense, the cat was acquired while I was out of town.”
I scowled at him. “You love the stupid cat.”
His grin made his eyes glint. “I do,” he agreed before pressing his face to my shoulder for a moment, then smacking my ass and leaving the room, just as Wink jumped in. “Hey, no, buddy. C’mere, you tiny terrorist. You’ve already got her breaking out in hives.”
Quinn groaned. “I hate hives.”
“They’ll go away,” I placated her as she took two pills to be on the safe side.
“By the way,” she said, squinting at me. “In case you’re this clueless, a man who can’t keep his hands off you is a man who’s into you.”
“It’s complicated.”
“It’s not.” She patted my arm. “But that’s okay. You’ll figure it out. You seem like a pretty smart guy.”
I arched an eyebrow.
“Okay, maybe not.”
When Tatum came to check on us, we were both laughing.