Deb brought her free hand to the ear that didn’t have the phone against it, trying to block out the rest of the kitchen noise to listen to the conversation. She caught her husband digging into the bread and her eyes went wild. “Step away from the bread! That is for dinner Joe!” She said through gritted teeth. The family that surrounded her laughed. “Yes, I’m here I’m sorry I had to scold my husband. The man is ridiculous. Okay, you have a set date? Great!” She looked up at the entire bunch of them that rallied around the counter. She smiled as she eyed them through the glasses that sat on the edge of her nose. She circled a date on the calendar in front of her and pushed it towards them so they could all see the day the transplant had been scheduled.
“Okay, thank you. God bless you, have a great day. Take Care. Bye, now.” Deb said, smiling into the phone. Joe grabbed the phone and hit the end button. “What the hell is wrong with you?” She stared at him as if he had lost his mind.
“Excuse me, but you were two greetings away from inviting whoever was on the other end of that conversation to have dinner with us.” He said sincerely concerned that his wife would feed another mouth.
Deb rolled her eyes and took her glasses off and she turned her gaze to her family and smiled. “We have a date!”
Jake glanced down at the calendar. “July twenty first.” He blew out a breath and glanced across the kitchen to his brother. “You okay with that?”
Luke balled his hands into fists and stretched his arms out in front of him insinuating to take his blood right then and there if he could. “Let’s do this.”
“Wait daddy, my dance competition is that weekend. Who will bring me if you and Uncle Jake need to go to the hospital?” Ava stared up at Luke in wonderment. Luke’s smile fell as he looked down at his daughter. He put his hands on his hips and contemplated a remedy for the situation, in true Luke form.
Jake interrupted his thoughts. “We’ll change the appointment munchkin!” He smiled at Ava, and Luke turned to face him abruptly.
“No, we won’t.” He said firmly. He looked around the room, his eyes landing on Leah’s.
“I would but I’m working that weekend, twelve hour shifts.” She said as stared down at Ava.
“Alright, well we will just have to miss this competition, Sweetie.” He bent down, he was eye level with his little girl. “They’ll be plenty more, and you know how important is that daddy has this procedure to help Uncle Jake get better.”
Ava nodded. “It’s okay.” She smiled and looked at her uncle. “I rather you get better so you can come to my next competition.”
Jake bit his cheek, obviously affected by Ava’s reaction. Sam heard the words escape her before they registered. “I can take her.” She looked between her brothers. She wanted to be there for them during the transplant, but one look at her niece's sweet face, and she wanted to be the one who made it all okay for her too.
Luke shook his head. “Forget it. Her competition is in Atlantic City. That’s like four hours from here.”
“So we’ll get a hotel.” Sam said.
“You’re not driving that far by yourself.” Luke asserted.
Nothing infuriated Sam more than when her brothers acted as if she was the frail little rag doll that couldn’t take care of herself; or stand on her own damn two feet for that matter. Usually it was Luke who did the insinuating, she couldn’t group Jake in the same category. He was the one that usually made Luke see the light. She rolled her eyes at Luke.
“I’m a grown women Luke. I know how to drive a car, and I’ve driven to Atlantic City before. As a matter of fact…”
Jake interrupted her rant. “What if someone else drove her?”
The entire kitchen turned to him and when he confirmed he had all of their undivided attention he wiggled his eyebrows. A mischievous grin spread across his face.
“Please daddy!!” Ava said, breaking the silence.
Nick had been around this family for a long time. He knew exactly how each and every one of them operated. He watched as Sam’s anger fumed, and mentally counted down the eruption of the tirade she was about to unleash on Luke. He shook his head; his friend never learned his lesson when it came to his sister. Sam didn’t take to Luke when he denied her independence.
For some stupid reason, as the chaos exploded in the kitchen, he decided to look at Jake. He studied him for a moment and almost physically saw the wheels in his head turn as he formulated one of his grand schemes. Jake’s eyes found Nick’s and a light flickered in them. Nick eyed him skeptically as he brought his beer to his lips.
He heard the warning bells sound in his head as he guzzled the beer. He knew the look in Jake’s eyes only meant trouble for Nick. He glanced around the kitchen, trying to formulate the easiest escape route.
It played out in slow motion. Nick would’ve sworn he heard the dreadful music of a horror film taunting him in the background.
“What if someone else drove her?” Nick flinched at Jake’s words, here it comes.
The entire kitchen turned to face Jake. He wiggled his eyebrows as he stared at Nick. A mischievous grin spread across his face.
“Please daddy!!” Ava said, breaking the silence. There you go, add the cute kid with puppy dog eyes. He was so fucked.