“Andy, bring that other bag in here, and give me a hand setting up the buffet,” Cory called from the kitchen. Kel and I locked eyes again, then I brought the food into the other room.
Cory had pinched the tinfoil covering the ribs and pulled up one edge. “Did a little BBQ, huh? Cool.” He pushed everything we’d prepared down closer to the sink, clearing a spot to deposit the dishes from the bags.
“You didn’t have to bring dinner,” I said, opening up containers of tom kha kai and pad thai.
“It’s fine. I’m seeing this girl, totally gorgeous, met her through a friend at church, and she introduced me to more traditional Thai. Not like this stuff—most places are perversions of the original recipes. That’s what Tanya says anyways—her name is Tanya. There’s this place on the lake called Delphi’s, and it’s amazing. She’s totally opened up my tastes. I never realized there was more than General Tso’s and whatnot.”
“That’s Chinese, but—”
“So how’ve you been? Publish any good books lately?” Cory laughed and dug a beer out of the fridge. “I read your last one and had a question—wouldn’t Holmes have caught the guy sooner if he’d just followed up on the lead that prostitute had given him in the first act?”
I drained my glass of bourbon.
We sat around the kitchen table in a weird quasi scene that could’ve been our childhood, except two of the members were missing and had been replaced by two of the next generation. A casting change in the suburban drama of our lives.
Cory attacked a heaping plate of food, mostly Thai, but there was a considerable hunk of the ribs I’d cooked mixed in as well. Dad had a small portion of everything even though I knew he didn’t care for some of the dishes—still trying to keep things even and fair among us kids. Kel and I ate little and drank more. The girls chowed overfull plates of spring rolls and pineapple fried rice. The burgers I’d grilled for them sat on the counter untouched.
“So what’s going on around here?” Cory said. “Anything new on the Loop?”
“It’s been pretty quiet,” Kel said before any of us could answer. She’d worked her way through her second beer and was on to a glass of bourbon. More than I’d seen her drink since the last time Cory was home.
“See, that’s the nice thing. The city’s so fast paced, it’s great to come here and decompress,” Cory said. “You get caught up in the bustle and don’t stop. There’s always someone calling or a cocktail party. My boss, he’s the COO of one—no wait, now it’s two—Fortune 500s, he threw this get-together at his place the other night, and wow. I mean he pulled out all the stops. Three hundred people there at least, and French champagne for everyone. He’s got a two-tiered pool, and he dyed the water this turquoise that you only see in the Caribbean because that was the theme and—”
“Gramma Mary passed away,” Alicia said quietly.
“Who?” Cory asked, scanning us.
“Mary Shelby,” Kel said.
“Oh really? That’s too bad. I guess she was getting up there.”
“She had an accident with her horse,” Alicia said.
“Horse?” Cory asked.
“Yeah, we can fill you in later,” I said, panning my eyes to the side at the girls.
“Huh, well they are dangerous animals,” Cory said, continuing to eat. “Kevin, one of the guys I work with, his kid got thrown during a riding lesson and broke his collarbone and a couple fingers.”
“Can Asher and Joey come over to play?” Emmy asked.
Kel blanched and shook her head. “No, not tonight, honey. Tonight’s for family.”
“So what are you working on now?” Cory asked me. “Same series or something new?”
“Uh, something new. It’s in the basic stages. Lots of editing to do.”
“Mmm, yeah. Must be a lot like putting the final touches on a proposal. We have a few interns to do all the basic stuff, but then I fine-tune it. Make it sing.” I just nodded. “So I was going to tell you, one of Tanya’s friends is a screenwriter. She did that movie last year with Bruce Willis and Ryan Gosling, the sci-fi one where everyone’s living in space? She’s making bank. That something you ever considered? Try to get one of the books made into a movie?”
Deep breath. In. Out. “Yeah, it’s a process.”
“Grampa, is it okay with you if Asher and Joey come over to play?” Emmy said.