5. Center Of Attention
CENTER OF ATTENTION
“Ash,” his mother said. “I’m so glad you could make it for dinner.”
“Who else is coming?”
“Everyone but Blaze and Arden. Blaze is working.”
“Clay is probably here every night,” he said, smirking, and walking over to the counter to snag a slice of cheese she was arranging on a cutting board.
“You know better than that,” his father said, coming in. “Even when he was single he wasn’t coming for dinner.”
“No. You were still bringing him food though.”
His mother laughed. “I’d do the same for you. I did the same for you when you lived in the cabin.”
The little cabin at the edge of the property that everyone but Gale had lived in at some point.
It gave them all the freedom to have their own space.
He was in the cabin when Ford was in the ranch. Clay was in the service, Gale and Blaze in college.
When Ford got his first place, Ash could have moved to the ranch but chose not to.
Too much work to pack shit up, too much space for him to care for on top of it.
A year later, he ended up at the fire department and had to move to the city of Glens Falls anyway.
“And I appreciated every day of it.” He looked around trying to figure out dinner today. “What are you making?”
“There is a ham in the oven. Mashed potatoes and gravy. Broccoli with cheese sauce.”
He grinned. “You’re making my favorite meal.”
She moved over and patted his cheek. “Because you gave me enough notice that you were coming.”
He’d texted last night when he was at Corbin’s. He didn’t think that was much notice.
“You went to the store this morning and bought a ham?”
His father snorted. “No. She had that. She was making it anyway. Don’t think too highly of yourself.”
Which meant that the only thing being changed was the broccoli with the cheese sauce. The only way he’d eat that vegetable.
If his mother put cheese sauce on anything, he’d devour it.
“Come have a seat and tell us what is going on.”
“Not much,” he said. “I was out here a few days ago.”
Working with Clay in the mill. He put in one to two days when his brother needed him. Another one or two days with Corbin, then his two twenty-four-hour shifts at the fire department didn’t leave him much time to relax.
He had a lot of years ahead of him in life for that.
If Clay had had an event last night, he would have been here rather than Corbin’s and manning the bar with his brother.
They’d had a wedding on Friday, but he wasn’t able to help.
“You came over for lunch and then went back to work,” his mother said. “That doesn’t give me a lot of time to really talk to you. I’m working.”
“So Ash is mooching a meal,” Ford said, coming into the kitchen through the back door. It was how everyone entered the old farmhouse.
“Mom loves having me home. I tell her what a great cook she is.”
“You always were the suck up,” Clay said, coming in next.
“Are your wives working?” he asked Ford and Clay.
“Both of them do on Sunday,” his mother said. “But the cafe closes at one, so they are cleaning up now and should be here soon.”
“I’m going to run over and get any leftover sweets.”
“Reenie knows what you like and she’ll bag them up for you. Don’t worry.”
He moved closer and kissed his mother’s cheek. “You’re the best.”
“Oh boy,” Gale said, holding the door open while Rory came in next. “Here we go again. Ash is trying to be the favorite. What is it this time?”
“I should be the favorite,” Rory said. “I’m the one who proposed to Gale and am taking her off all your hands.”
There was laughter in the room. Even from Clay. That was saying something.
Or maybe not as much as it would have years ago.
His feisty sister nudged her fiancé’s arm. “That’s not nice.”
“Who said I was trying to be nice?” Rory said, grinning.
Ash was happy to see all his siblings settled.
Even Blaze was in a serious relationship now with Arden. He wouldn’t be surprised if there was an engagement there at some point.
And here he was again. The youngest, the one who was left alone while others moved on.
It might be why he always ended up the center of attention when he was in the room.
“I heard about the car fire on Friday,” Ford said. “Is it the same as the last one?”
“Yeah. It’s looking that way.”
“Just what we need around here,” his mother said. “Someone setting cars on fire.”
“It’s not here. It’s in Glens Falls.”
And he hoped for everyone’s sake they figured out who it was and it didn’t move out of the area.
The rest of the towns and cities in Warren County only had volunteer fire departments.
“Still close enough,” Ford said. “I was surprised to see the article written by Skye Lancaster. That’s Corbin’s sister, right? Is she back?”
“Yes to both,” he said.
His mother looked up. “Carrie is so happy to have her back. I knew a month ago it was in the works.”
What the hell?
“And you said nothing?” he asked.
“Why would she?” Clay asked.
“Because Skye is the one girl who wouldn’t give Ash the time of day. We know that had to poke at his ego with a hot stick,” Gale said.
“Not true,” he argued, then moved over to take the board of meat and cheeses from his mother’s hand and go to the living room with it.
If anyone else wanted some, they’d have to follow him.
They all did but not to reach for the food.
But to bust his ass.
“Very true,” Gale said. “I was still here and in school with you. I saw the way you looked at her. Or the questions you asked when Corbin and Tate were around.”
They were the only two Lancasters who came out to the farm when he was younger.
Keegan was just that much older and kept to himself.
Holden was younger and didn’t really tag along, having his own group of friends.
Skye and Brenna, they did their own thing.
“You never did mind your own business,” he grumbled and stuffed a slice of pepperoni in his mouth.
Gale pointed. “That’s guilt if I ever saw it. Right, Ford?”
“I’m staying out of it,” Ford said. “Do they have any idea who might be starting the fires?”
“Not that I know of. I read the same article as you this morning.”
Because he’d been looking for it.
Not to see an update on the crime itself, but to see if Skye got anything else.
She had gotten little more other than verifying what she’d loosely put out the day before.
“Do you think it’s going to be an issue?” his father asked.
He shrugged. “I don’t want to guess. Could just be kids being punks.”
“Or adults being punks,” Ford said. “Like they’ve got nothing else better to do than cause trouble.”
“Could be. With any luck, it will end. The more it happens, the more eyes that are out there. Both cars have been older, not even running.”
“Oh,” her mother said. “I hadn’t realized that.”
“The first one, the car had died there a few days prior. The owner just left it. He’d been questioned to see if he’d done it for the insurance money.”
The car was eight years old. Not that old, but needed more work than the owner could afford to put into it.
Normally that was the first person suspected.
But the second car, he’d heard the neighbors talking that it’d been there weeks and barely moved prior. It’d been nothing more than an eyesore and many were happy to see it gone.
“Here’s hoping you have a quiet day at work tomorrow,” his mother said.
Reenie came in a few minutes later, moved into the living room and gave Ford a kiss. Meredith followed and did the same for Clay.
“It was busier than I thought it’d be today,” Reenie said. “But I’m sure it will slow down soon.”
“Does that mean there weren’t a lot of leftovers for me?” Ash asked.
“Look at that pout on your face,” Gale said. “Just like when you were a kid and didn’t get what you wanted.”
He picked a pillow up and chucked it. “Brat.”
“Enough, children,” his mother scolded. “Even as adults you never change.”
“I brought you fifteen donuts,” Reenie said. “To bring to the firehouse. The last of them. Plus, there might be two cookies and a muffin in another bag.”
“You’re the best. How come you don’t have a sister?”
“Because if I had a sister, I’d tell her to stay far away from you,” Reenie said. “Unless she just wanted to have a good time.”
He rolled his eyes. “Someone has to be the fun one.”
And it seemed it’d be a title he’d never outgrow, no matter how much he wanted what everyone else in this room had.