Nerd and the Marine (13 page)

“
-And those telescopic
lenses we use, those are his design and the-”

“
-The man's a
genius.”

“
So, there isn't just one
electronics expert in the Morrison family,” Mitch mused, pausing in
the annihilation of his next cookie. “That's how he got all those
shots without Lainy knowing. He must be using some sort of high
powered camera.”

“
I wonder if we'll get that
technology.”

“
Probably.”

“
No wonder Lainy let him
video tape all those things he's filmed. She had no idea.” Al shook
his head.

Mitch stared at his new computer. “She
knew, but didn't know when or where. I think she suspected he would
have a camera.”

“
I wonder if she knows
about his work?”

“
Probably has an inkling of
what Ed does, but I doubt she knows details, since he mostly sells
to the military.”

“
She doesn't?”

“
No, her stuff is more
commercial.” Mitch thought about her battery packs.

“
Probably good money in
that.”

“
I don't think she worries
too much about money.”

“
Wonder if Ed has
to?”

“
Don't know, but I doubt
it. I think all Lainy's relatives, at least her immediate ones, own
a cottage at the lake. Those don’t come cheap.”

“
Right. Maybe I'll buy me a
house at the lake. Find a Morrison girl to marry,” Al decided and
leaned back on his elbows.

“
I think there's a pretty
large selection. Maybe not within Lainy's immediate family, but in
the family. She's got lots of relatives.” Mitch still couldn’t
decide which DVD to watch next.

“
She does seem to be
related to a lot of people.”

“
I can have her start
looking for a woman for you,” Mitch invited.

Al sent him a withering death glare
and Mitch laughed. “Hey, don't say I didn't offer. Something tells
me if Lainy couldn't help, any one of her siblings would be
willing.”

Al's glare kicked up a notch and
grinning, Mitch selected another cookie.

“
Ah, I forgot, I've got a
meeting in twenty minutes.” Al glanced at his watch and frowned.
“Don't watch these without me.”

“
Yeah, yeah,” Mitch
muttered, still swinging back and forth between the two
DVDs.

Chapter Fourteen

To:
[email protected]

From:
[email protected]

Subject: The
lake

Attachment

Hello Mitch,

We're off to the lake this
weekend. Since it's the Fourth of July, we'll be there for a long
weekend. Some of the families will stay the week, so Bentley and I
might, too. Depends on how adept I am at packing.

I was a little fried from
a project I'd been working on. There should have been at least
three others working with me, but the company thought they'd save
money and only hired me. Since I did the work of four people, I
billed for five with a huge bonus. I was so burnt out from that it
was weeks before I could tackle anything more advanced than
replacing light switches. Although, everyone did get new light
switches in their homes and at the lake. Some of them were in dire
need of replacement, so I suppose everything works out the way it
should.

I told Bentley we were off
to the lake and he ran circles around me. I had to send him
outside, so he's otherwise occupied with the herd. Thank goodness!
He gets so excited whenever we go. I think he enjoys the water and
the kids, and the root beer. We're leaving early tomorrow
(Thursday) morning to beat the traffic and won't be back until
sometime next week.

Fortunately, none of us
have to be back at any set time next week. The guys all took off
work and most of the ladies don't work outside the home.

I'm the only single woman
who'll be there, unless K.C., Max’s partner, or Treeny, a
sister-in-law’s sister, show. Granted, some of my nieces are in
college now, but now that I think about it, I'm the only Morrison
female out of college who isn't married with a passel of kids.
Well, Dory and her husband only have one, but she'll be pregnant
again soon, I’m sure. ☺

Our folks do plan to be
there this time. The grandparents too, as usual. All ten sets of
them. There'll be about double that in parents, I think. Our family
with our family’s family now own the entire west and north sides of
the lake. All the cabins are ours. (By that many sets of parents
and grandparents, I mean the in-law’s family, too.) No one gets
left behind. There will probably be close to 200 rellys there this
weekend. Bentley should be well entertained.

Be safe, and I'll have a
computer at the lake, so let me know how your visit with Ben
goes.

Yours,

Lainy

Lainy sent the message and kept
packing. She didn't want to forget any of the parts she'd need to
build another computer like the one she'd sent Mitch. She hated
when she left things behind and didn't want to risk having to stop
simply because she forgot something necessary. Of course, her
brothers would have spares she could bum, but she intended to limit
borrowing since she wanted to make this second computer as much
like the first as possible.

Her parts hadn’t been rifled though
since she’d finished Mitch’s laptop. One of her brothers could have
helped himself, since they all had keys to her house. The hacking
efforts continued, however.

Lainy frowned. She’d designed a third
virus to attach to her firewall. One should have been sufficient.
Her efforts to locate the hacker caused her to grind her teeth. At
least Ed didn’t seem any closer to finding them either. She’d
called him in three days ago to help track the problem.

She paused to watch Bentley romp with
her nieces and nephews and smiled at their antics. Having all these
yards certainly aided the kids in wearying themselves by evening.
And their parents could rest assured they were safe.

How she longed to share all this with
Mitch. She couldn't think of a better place to raise kids. She had
never visited a more welcoming town. Plus, they had all the
advantages of city life without having to actually live in a city.
They had three cities to choose from if they wanted to visit one.
Harrisburg, Lancaster, and York. Each provided something a bit
different, and a little further – but still within day trip status,
were Philadelphia, Baltimore, NYC, and Washington, D.C.

She felt safe and well loved in this
town. There was always something to do. Someone constantly had a
cookout planned in the summer or baking and hot chocolate during
the winter. They carved pumpkins and held a community leaf raking
during the fall and planted seeds and flowers in the spring. Many a
garden needed readying and Lainy loved every aspect of each
season’s activities.

Would Mitch? And would he want her
involved if he did?

*****

Before he could select a video, Mitch
was called into the same meeting Al remembered. He figured he'd
have a little while to decide which to watch, only to discover a
unit would be sent out and his group were the chosen
few.

He'd have just enough time to pack. On
the bright side, by leaving today, chances were even better he'd be
on base for whenever Lainy's cousin Ben showed up. He still didn't
know if he would create the impression he wanted with her cousin,
but decided this visit might give him some insight into
Lainy.

Plus, if the guy proved to be someone
he felt he could trust, he'd ask him about Lainy's bad self-esteem.
He really needed some help on that vein. Of course, he'd have to be
careful, because this guy's swim buddy had been interested in her,
and Mitch wasn't about to step on toes.

A thrill of satisfaction coursed
through him at the thought of Lainy not remembering the guy.
Hopefully that was a good omen for his chances. Should this Sam guy
prove to draw Lainy out of herself, though, Mitch would still feel
good for Lainy. Awful for himself, but good for her. He didn't have
much to offer a woman at this point. When he did leave this God
forsaken land, he'd have to prove, at least to himself, he could
fit comfortably into her huge family.

Eight hundred relatives. What was the
likelihood of all of them accepting him? Shaking his head, Mitch
switched his attention back to the meeting. He'd need this
information so he'd better pay attention. No more thoughts of
Lainy. For now.

After the meeting adjourned, Mitch met
up with Al. “Don't watch my videos.”

Al affected a wounded look. “Would I
do that?”

Mitch continued to stare him down and
Al did the belly laugh thing again. “Okay, so I would.” He laughed
again.

“
I've known you way too
long to trust you with my videos.”

“
Yeah, well, tha's how it
goes sometimes, Cookie Boy.” Al shrugged.

“
No moving in on Lainy
while I'm gone either,” Mitch said as an afterthought. Not that he
worried Al would do anything of the sort, but he did worry that his
friend would try to “fix” things, because he'd want to see Mitch
happy.

“
It'd be for your own
good,” Al defended himself, although not very
strenuously.

“
Right.”

“
I might look at your
videos, but I'm not about to interfere.”

“
I can live with that,”
Mitch responded, already compiling a list of the things he'd need
to take with him.

“
See ya later.” Mitch waved
him off with an absent grin.

Could he handle being a part of such a
huge family? Even if they accepted him, could he accept
them?

Chapter Fifteen

“
Bentley,
no
,” Lainy shrieked, but
it was already too late. He'd spied her grandfather with a root
beer and took off, running full throttle at her
grandparent.

To give him credit, her grandfather
took the subsequent dunking with aplomb, and didn't seem to change
his attitude toward Bentley, but Lainy still felt terrible. She
really hoped this wouldn't set the tone of the weekend.

Fortunately, Treeny, Will’s wife’s
sister, was a doctor and had pulled up in time to witness the
entire occurrence. She’d looked over Granddad, despite his protests
of being fine.

Lainy paused now to appreciate the
sunlight catch in Treeny’s red gold hair. The other woman had been
busy with her residency so they hadn’t caught up in a while. Lainy
made a mental note to pull her friend aside for a chat session at
the earliest possible moment.

For now, though, she’d better get her
truck unloaded. She lugged the last bag from the back and piled it
on the grass next to the other luggage.

Carrying three small bags into the
house she owned and would use this weekend, she snapped on lights
as she went. Normally she rented out the house, but she'd turned
down renters for this week.

Lainy trailed outside and grabbed the
next set of bags, treating them tenderly because they contained
parts for her new laptop. Bentley ran up long enough to shake water
all over her before racing back to join his friends.

“
Need help?” Melly bellowed
from the doorway of her cottage three down.

“
Yes,” Lainy bellowed back
and Melly trotted over.

“
Goodness, Lainy, did you
bring your entire house?” Melly huffed as she picked up one of the
bags and staggered beneath the unexpected weight.

“
You're a mother, you're
supposed to be strong.” Lainy stared at her sister in
concern.

“
I didn't say I couldn't do
this, I was just surprised.” Melly followed Lainy into the house.
“I really love this house.”

“
Uuummm, you own one just
like it, three doors down,” Lainy felt the need to point
out.

“
Yes, but yours doesn't
have kids, toys, pets, and unmentionables strewn all
over.”

“
All moved in are you?”
Lainy set the final bag on the floor and headed back outside to
wrestle with the cooler. Melly followed her.

“
Of course we're all moved
in. We've been here since the crack of dawn.” Melly’s voice held a
tart edge.

“
I see.” Lainy fought to
contain her laughter, but failed.

“
Go ahead and laugh, but
just wait. One day you'll have gung-ho fishermen in your house
who'll insist on getting onto the water first thing and you'll be
waking up at three a.m., too,” Melly threatened.

“
You
did not
wake up at three
a.m.”

Melly sent her a glare. “You think
not? That's what my clock said. That's what my husband said when he
nearly bounced me out of bed in his haste. It's not like he slept
the few hours we were in bed, anyway.”

By the time Melly finished, Lainy had
plunked herself down on the cooler and let loose with the barely
contained laughter. “As if you'd have it any other way.”