To that end, he called his mother and explained that he wouldn’t be able to come to Phoenix for Thanksgiving. It turned out it would only be Sean this year anyway; Colin was in Iraq, Paddy out to sea and Aiden was pulling call at the hospital over Thanksgiving to get Christmas off. His mother was disappointed; she hadn’t seen him since August. So he told her about Art. Of course, Maureen Riordan told Luke to bring Art with him. “I don’t think I can do that, Mother,” Luke said. “He’s on the run from a group home because someone abused him. I’m pretty sure I’m not breaking the law by giving him shelter, but I don’t think it would be a good idea to take him out of state. At least not until I’ve had a chance to get his situation sorted out a little, which is going to take some investigating and probably legal help. It’s just one Thanksgiving. I’ll probably see you at Christmas. Be a big girl. Don’t nag.”
“I don’t nag,” she said.
“Oh, you nag.” He laughed. “There’s no mercy in it.”
“I don’t want you to be alone on Thanksgiving,” she said.
“I’ll be fine, Mother. Don’t worry.”
But Luke wasn’t going to be alone. He was going to the general’s house, and he was bringing Art. The invitation had come through Shelby and he recognized right away that it was mandatory. He’d rather not get any more enmeshed with the family, but it was impossible to avoid. When it came to living in a place like Virgin River, you were enmeshed the day you hit town. It was all right—a holiday dinner wasn’t too much to ask. Art was welcome and Luke happened to like the general and the Haggertys. He couldn’t deny that if Shelby had been his young cousin or niece, he might feel just as protective as they did, yet they’d managed to act as though they respected her choice and treated him fine.
Just as he was coming to accept it all, Luke’s well-organized life was derailed by a phone call from his brother Sean.
“So, you put in a no-show for the turkey,” Sean said. “What’s up with that? You’re stateside, you’re not that far away…”
“I have things to do here, Sean,” he said. “And I explained to Mother—I can’t leave Art and I can’t take him on a trip.”
“So I heard. And that’s your only reason?”
“What else?”
“Oh, I don’t know,” he said, as if he did know what else. “Well then, you’ll be real happy to hear this—I’m bringing Mother to Virgin River for Thanksgiving.”
Luke was dead silent for a moment. “What!” Luke nearly shouted into the phone. “Why the hell would you do that?”
“Because you won’t come to Phoenix. And she’d like to see this property you’re working on. And the helper. And the girl.”
“You aren’t doing this to me,” Luke said in a threatening tone. “Tell me you aren’t doing this to me!”
“Yeah, since you can’t make it to Mom’s, we’re coming to you. I thought that would make you sooo happy,” he added with a chuckle in his voice.
“Oh God,” he said. “I don’t have room for you. There’s not a hotel in town.”
“You lying sack of shit. You have room. You have two extra bedrooms and six cabins you’ve been working on for three months. But if it turns out you’re telling the truth, there’s a motel in Fortuna that has some room. As long as Mom has the good bed in the house, clean sheets and no rats, everything will be fine.”
“Good. You come,” Luke said. “And then I’m going to kill you.”
“What’s the matter? You don’t want Mom to meet the girl? The helper?”
“I’m going to tear your limbs off before you die!”
But Sean laughed. “Mom and I will be there Tuesday afternoon. Buy a big turkey, huh?”
Luke was paralyzed for a moment. Silent and brooding.
He had lived a pretty wild life, excepting that couple of years with Felicia, when he’d been temporarily domesticated. He’d flown helicopters in combat and played it loose with the ladies, taking whatever was consensually offered. His bachelorhood was on the adventurous side. His brothers were exactly like him; maybe like their father before them, who hadn’t married until the age of thirty-two. Not exactly ancient, but for the generation before theirs, a little mature to begin a family of five sons. They were frisky Irish males. They all had taken on a lot: dared much, had no regrets, moved fast.