Corpsman and the Nerd (17 page)

KC leaned forward as Lainy and several
of the other women stood, thankful to have her thoughts broken up.
She noticed Dory, finally, and realized Max’s youngest sister had
been missing during the dinner preparations. She swayed with Eliza,
her daughter, in her arms. She looked to be singing softly to the
baby, whose head rested against her shoulder, eyes drifting shut,
peace on her little face.

Dory looked like Monica, her mother.
Both resembled the proverbial blonde. But she also seemed perfectly
comfortable with the streak of dirt that ran nearly the length of
her leg. And the stains dotting her pale colored shirt. Her cutoffs
looked old and her hair straggled.

She looked more like a tomboy than a
put together cheerleader. She was a mom now so perhaps that made a
difference. KC knew all about that. The child’s needs always came
first.

KC watched as more people, neighbors,
she couldn’t tell if they were relatives, joined the crowd at the
table. Each was welcomed in typical Morrison family tradition. A
plate, utensils, and cup were passed along and the newcomers helped
themselves to the food. She enjoyed the warm welcome for whoever
came, because she had been a thankful recipient of the Morrison
hospitality often enough in the past.

Lainy refilled the bowls a few times,
as did her mother. Max caused subtle trouble and Laurie and Ed
jumped up a few dozen times to rescue drinks and catch flying
objects or to pest, at least on Ed’s part.

Just as the kids grew restless, the
men cleared the table. They carried in the dirty dishes and Lainy’s
mom disappeared into another cabin. Max’s father followed her. They
carried out several huge trays of brownies and four large tubs of
ice-cream.

The kids stopped being restless. Ryan
would be disappointed to have missed out on this.

They dug into the trays and ice-cream
and KC watched as sundae toppings appeared on the table. Some of
the adults helped the younger kids, while the older ones built
amazing brownie sundaes. There were nut and non-nut brownies and
four different flavors of ice-cream.

She watched with envy as Lainy delved
into a non-nut tray and then added chocolate ice-cream on top. That
would have been KC’s choice too. Probably why she and Lainy got
along so well, since Lainy was a fellow chocolate
addict.

Lainy slathered both with hot fudge
sauce and topped the confection with some whipped cream and two
cherries. Her sisters and grandmother had similar concoctions in
front of them. The men topped theirs with the typical vanilla,
although Ed and Max both selected French vanilla rather than the
usual regular stuff. KC smiled as she thought of all the times she
had teased Max about his boring vanilla tendencies.

The kids ended up wearing almost as
much as they ate and KC saw several of the men finishing off what
the kids didn’t eat. Again, that interchangeable thing went on. Ed
ate one of Will’s kid’s desserts and Will ate one of Tom’s kid’s
desserts. And Tom finished off Will and Ed’s wives desserts. Lainy
snagged someone’s cherry and got a dollop of whipped cream on her
nose, which she rubbed on Ed.

KC winced and then laughed. “Bad-good
idea, Lainy,” she muttered and watched in fascination as Ed picked
up the can of whipped cream and aimed it at her. Lainy scooped up
another can and returned the favor. He opened fire first, but
barely a millisecond before her.

In about ten seconds, brownies,
ice-cream, toppings and even the remnants in the bottom of the
cherry jar flew through the air. Shrieking and throwing food at
random, the kids’ laughter nearly overrode the taunts of Max’s
brothers to the women.

Max’s mom picked up one of the trays
that hadn’t been cut into and moved it to a safe place, and then
she calmly picked up her half eaten dessert and flung the contents
at Will, the biggest taunter. Pretending to be shocked, he let his
mouth fall open, which proved to be a bad move, since Lainy still
held the whipped cream can in her hand. She squirted a huge glob
into his mouth and Rachel added some caramel sauce.

Two of Max’s sisters, Laurie and
Melly, backed Tom into a corner and dribbled chocolate sauce on
him. Their husbands were busy helping some of the kids wing mangled
brownies.

Ed had his wife, Zara, locked in his
arms. She was wriggling all around until KC realized he attempted
to rub the whipped cream on her. Zara got the upper hand when she
licked his cheek free of the stuff and his eyes darkened. She
stopped wriggling and he wiggled his brows at her. The pair snuck
off into the trees. KC grinned and then rolled her eyes. She knew
where they were headed. They better hurry or Laurie and Greg would
beat them to The Closet.

Max and three teenagers were busy
tossing ice-cream at anyone who moved too close. KC giggled as Max
landed a really good shot at Will. Head on, right in the face. The
teenagers bent over in laughter, and KC recognized the girl as
Laurie’s daughter, Destiny. The older boy was Dustin, Will’s son.
Granddad and Max’s dad quickly relieved the table of any dish that
contained anything inside. Anyone within firing range had brownie
sundae contents tossed on them.

Bentley, along with all the dogs had
taken to licking anyone and everything. They barked in between when
they felt it necessary but their attempts seemed only half hearted.
Spuds probably wouldn’t have bothered to bark. He’d simply lick
anyone within licking distance.

One of the sisters-in-law, or someone
opened fire with a hose and soon several joined in. Rivulets of
melted ice-cream, brownies, and toppings trailed from nearly
everyone. They mopped up most of the mess, which KC was glad for.
Chocolate wasn’t good for dogs, and the dairy wouldn’t be good for
the wild-life in the lake. After everyone had been cleaned up, they
took a dip in the lake.

The screen blanked.

Chapter 21

Max turned on his computer, and tried
to wake up. He rubbed a hand over his face and heard some bristle.
Whoops, he forgot to shave. They’d experienced a difficult morning.
Neither he nor Ryan had been interested in leaving their beds. He
was on his third cup of coffee, and he gave Ryan the most sugared
cereal he could find.

Both of them were still
dragging.

He clicked on the email icon to
download his mail. Yawning, he sat up when he saw a message from
KC

To:
[email protected]

From:
[email protected]

Subject: The
lake!

Hello Max,

Mitch and Lainy sent me a
video of all of you at the lake. Lainy was cooking. You all had
spaghetti and meatballs, garlic bread sticks (yum!) and then
brownie sundaes for dessert. I was
most
jealous.

The meal looked fabulous,
but then a fast food hamburger would be haute cuisine compared to
what we eat here. It’s not like the cooks don’t try, because they
do, they have to eat this stuff too. But they don’t have a whole
lot to work with. Still, those brownie sundaes alone would be
savored to the nth degree here. And you guys threw those treats at
each other! I’m appalled. (Not really, but it’s fun to say
so.)


Ryan would have been most
dismayed to have missed out on that weekend. Although, I’m sure
he’s had that much fun with you already. I would have enjoyed
cooking with the ladies. And I was quite happy to see you men clear
the table and do the dishes. This is a most excellent system! Kudos
to whoever thought up that scheme. Ryan does like to help load the
dishwasher, though, so I can’t complain. And I know you’re pretty
adept at kitchen clean-up. Bless your mother!

(Sans water fights with Mitch, of
course!)

Oh, there goes the call
for all hands on deck, if you will. Sounds like we’ve work to do. I
wanted to write more, but alas, that’s not going to happen this
time.

I miss you guys terribly!
I’m very homesick for you.

Love,

KC

Max stared at the last line
for a few moments.
I’m very homesick for
you
. Was that a singular you or a plural
you? He knew which option he preferred, but he would take the
plural if he had to.

Of course, KC would miss her son. He
knew that. But he liked this new trend where she seemed to be
missing him, Max too.

Not feeling quite so tired now, he
opened a new email screen to tap out a message to her.

To:
[email protected]

From:
[email protected]

Subject:re: The
lake!

Attachment

Hi KC,

Glad you liked the video. I
think I remember what you’re talking about. I haven’t seen
that
DVD
myself,
but I believe I remember seeing Ed mount a camera during one of the
meals. And I think Lainy did the majority of the cooking then. So,
it’d make sense that particular video would wind up in Mitch’s
hands.

I’m glad he shared it with
you. I do recall having a brutally fun food fight, using brownie
sundae ingredients. We ended up all sticky. The dogs had a good
time. Well, so did we.

Destiny, Dustin, and Kyle
helped me sling ice-cream, if that’s the correct time. We got Will
right in the face with a huge glop, and Dad and Granddad threw a
brownie on him. He’d been spouting off as usual, so that was
fun!

We have a leaf-raking day
scheduled for this coming Saturday. It’ll be Mitch’s first time, so
we’re all excited to initiate him. He’s never had the privilege of
raking leaves with us, so we’re hoping he’ll enjoy the family
day.

Oh, and a bunch of the
rellys have already informed him and Lainy that Bentley is NOT
allowed to be outside while we’re raking. Apparently, neither of
them planned on allowing the leaf-beast out, anyway, so we’re safe.
(Lainy kept him locked up last year, if you recall? The kids whined
as much as Bentley did. Rocky’s doing well, by the way. She still
hasn’t had the puppies, but they believe it’ll be any day
now.)

From what you say, Spuds
won’t be a problem? But Ryan will? I suppose I can’t lock Ryan and
Bentley up together, so I imagine Ryan will just be a part of the
herd and we’ll end up re-raking. This happens. That means I’ll get
extra cookies. (Much hand rubbing and gleeful expression) I’m not
worried.

I am interested to see how
Lainy does. She’s started throwing up. Scares the bajeebies out of
Mitch every time she does. All the girls keep assuring him this is
normal, but I’m not sure they have him convinced.

I actually feel like he
does whenever she runs for the bathroom. I’ve been taking him out
onto the porch and we fortify ourselves with the strongest thing in
the refrigerator until she’s finished. So far, chocolate milk is
the beverage of choice. Ryan assures me that you have to be manly
to drink chocolate milk. Mitch likes it. Since a Marine will drink
the stuff, I figure I can too.

Although, I have convinced
Mitch that iced tea is also good for us, so we trade off. If
there’s tea, that’s what we have, but so far, we’re usually stuck
with milk. Laurie claims it’s good for us. And, Lainy doesn’t get
sick if you talk to her with chocolate milk breath. (She has from
the tea, for some reason. It’s strange. But then Melly told us
that’s common too. Coffee also makes Lainy sick. And she normally
loves coffee.) Even though my family is very good at reproducing, I
can’t say I understand this process.

Fortunately, none of the
girls have been cranky while pregnant. Mitch says Lainy is more
serene. I’m not sure how he can tell this, but that’s what he
claims. Lainy’s the most laid back of all of them. And there are
how many girls? Seven, that’s right.

Dory has gotten to the
stage where she’s really uncomfortable, and wants to have this kid.
She’s due any day now. I’ll probably get Eliza when she goes into
labor, since she and John live next door. Well, Lainy could take
her too, but with her not feeling well, I imagine Ryan and I
will.

Eliza’s eighteen or
nineteen months old now. It’s amazing. But she’s sweet and easy to
get along with. Even Ryan has remarked on this. He told me in an
aside that as girls go, he likes Eliza the best. Okay, then. Guess
that little pledge of how he didn’t like girls tanked pretty fast.
Give him a smooth talking, cute chick and he’s done. See how easily
we fall? It’s disgusting.

Onto business, now, I’m
sending you the new needle supplier contract. Take a look at it and
let me know if anything should be changed. None of us have your
experience with these, so we’d appreciate your input. I marked a
few of the places I think need to be changed, but don’t know if
they’re legitimate concerns or not.

Ryan and I both had
trouble waking up this morning. I’m not sure why, but we’re both
dragging. It was a sorry breakfast. We went to bed at a decent
enough hour, but I suppose we’ll try a little earlier
tonight.

We miss you and want you
to come home.

Love,