But Luis wasn't certain about this new feature for cars. And from the way Isabelle was going after Jase in the dining room, Luis had a feeling Jase might wind up insulting every senior citizen in America with this invention. Jase would have to market it to everyone, and not just single out senior citizens. That would be wrong: both socially and politically incorrect. Weren't senior citizens a minority, too?
When Luis opened the dishwasher to stack the coffee cups, he remembered the time he'd mistaken the gas pedal for the brake and he'd almost gone over a cliff at a state park. At the time, Luis had been in his early twenties. He'd broken out in a cold sweat and his hands shook for the next twenty minutes. It really could happen to anyone, not just older people. Maybe Jase did have something there after all. He just had to work on the presentation so he wouldn't offend senior citizens.
When Mary entered the kitchen and offered to help Luis clean up, he'd just closed the dishwasher and set the first load on “normal.” With this crowd, he'd have to do at least four loads and wash many things by hand. But he didn't mind. He kissed Mary on the cheek and told her to go back into the dining room and save Jase from Isabelle's wrath. Luis wanted Mary to relax and enjoy herself. From what Luis could hear, Isabelle had started to curse and Luis knew Mary was the only one who could calm her down.
Mary kissed Luis and said, “It was a wonderful day. I'm glad I came and didn't stay in Alaska. It would have been too hard this year to be there without Barry.”
Luis stopped doing the dishes and turned toward her. He could tell by the look in her face she was still missing Barry. There were tears in her eyes but she wasn't actually crying. If anyone needed a hug, it was Mary. “Are you okay?”
She smiled. “I'm fine. It's hard. But being with my family today made it a million times easier. And I missed Hunter so much.”
Before Luis could say a word, Jase came into the kitchen looking for a piece of paper. “I want to explain my new invention to my grandmother on paper, so she can see it. I think that will calm her down. Now she thinks I'm going after every senior citizen in the world.”
Mary turned and headed back to the dining room. “I'll see what I can do about calming her down. If you need me to help out with the dishes, Luis, just shout.”
Luis turned back to his dirty dishes. “Jase, tell your grandmother it's for everyone, not just seniors. Tell her it could happen to anyone.”
Jase grabbed a piece of paper and a pen from the drawer next to the sink and walked up behind Luis. He wrapped his arms around him and said, “I tried. But now she's stuck on the senior citizen thing. And I think poor von Klingensmith is a little upset, too. He's agreeing with her and giving me dirty looks.” Then Jase kissed Luis on the mouth and said, “If you need help in here, let me know. Thanks for today. Everything is fantastic.”
“You don't have to thank me,” Luis said. “I had fun. Now get back in there and calm your grandmother down before she starts using the F-word in front of Hunter.” He preferred cleaning the kitchen on his own. He could do it faster, and do it the way he wanted to do it.
On his way back to the dining room, Jase sent Luis a backward glance and said, “Love you.”
“I love you, too,” Luis said. “I'll be in in a minute.”
Luis heard a scream when Jase went into the dining room, followed by high-pitched laughter. It sounded like Beth Anne screaming because Isabelle had just cursed. He could still hear Isabelle's voice over all the laughter. He'd never heard so much laughter in Cider Mill Farm at one time. And they were still expecting Cory's parents to drop by.
The walls of the old stone house seemed to vibrate with love. Everyone talked over everyone else and Luis could hear bits and pieces from each conversation. Cory was telling Preston about the new renovation Jase wanted to do down at the barn next summer. They'd been putting it off since they'd moved to Cider Mill Farm and Jase wanted to use the barn as a combination guest house and party area. This made Luis smile. If the barn was ready by this time next year, he'd have another huge Thanksgiving down there. This time he'd invite twice as many people. Maybe this would become a tradition and they'd host Thanksgiving dinner every year for all the people he loved. It would be an event people around them would look forward to and plan for, like the way people plan for New Year's Eve in Times Square.
Luis overheard Gage talking about nursing school. He was telling Rob and Rand about how he couldn't wait to become a nurse practitioner and work with people who were HIV positive. Gage was explaining about how expensive it was for people who were HIV positive to get the outrageously expensive medications they needed to stay alive, and how hard it was to keep some people on the medications for lengths of time due to the costs. Gage said celebrities made it sound so simple: you get the medications and live a normal life, happily ever after. But the costs of these HIV medications were thousands of dollars a month and only wealthy celebrities could afford them.
Hunter and Justin talked about school and football. Hillary told Josh and Roland about her plans for the next event with the Angel Association, the foundation for women who abandon their babies because they felt hopeless. Luis was looking forward to this event. He loved doing charity work for the Angel Association, and he'd grown accustomed to the fact that Hillary was a control freak and liked to micromanage everyone. In fact, though Luis didn't do this in front of anyone anymore, Luis was still checking out dumpsters, double checking to be sure no one had abandoned a baby.
Luis listened quietly and did the dishes, hoping someone was watching Hunter so he wouldn't give Camp too many scraps from the table and throw his diet off. Luis had heard about a new diet for dogs that all the breeders were doing. It was called “The Raw Diet,” where dogs were fed raw meats and vegetables. Luis had read that some dog owners were now throwing raw whole chickens to their dogs and the bones didn't do them any harm at all because they weren't cooked. It was supposed to be better for dogs; they were supposed to live longer and remain more active in their senior years. Though Luis didn't want to know how old Camp was, he wanted to keep him around for a long time. He wanted to keep everything in his life as perfect it was that Thanksgiving Day.
THE END