“Spending the weekend. Haley and I are staying over to watch you rug rats while Mom and Dad are on vacation.”
Cole, who was chugging out of the OJ container, sprayed a mouthful of juice down his shirt. “What?” he demanded, turning to his mom. “Why does he need to be here? I’m eighteen.”
“Cole, did you honestly think I would leave you in charge?” Katherine asked, half distracted. One of the kitchen drawers was pulled open, and she was rummaging through the files inside. “Where is it?” she said to herself. “I swear I put it here.”
“Darling,” George said, as he slid open the back door. From the sweat glistening on his face, I could tell that he had been doing work around the ranch. “Are you still looking for the florist’s receipt? We need to leave soon and you’re not packed.”
“What?” Will asked, giving his mother a look. “You’re not packed? Go get ready.”
“Will,” Katherine said, not bothering to look up. “I don’t think you understand how much I still need to get done for the wedding. It’s less than two weeks away, and I don’t know if I have the time to go on this vacation.”
I didn’t doubt it. In the past month, Will had stopped by to help with the arrangements, but since Katherine was hosting the backyard wedding, she was the one with the most work.
“Then give us something to do,” Will said.
“Yes,” Haley said a moment later. “We’d love to help.”
“That’s really sweet of you both, but these are things that I need to get done myself.”
“Kitty,” George said, sounding exasperated. “Let the kids help. We’ve been planning this trip for a while.”
“And I’ve been planning this wedding for the past sixteen months! I will not let it be a total catastrophe.”
“Mom,” said Will, coming up behind his mother to give her a hug. “I think you need to relax.”
She shrugged him off. “How can I relax when I have a to-do list that’s a million miles long?” she cried, pulling her hair.
“Katherine,” I said, trying to get her attention.
She was back to riffling through the drawer, even though the thing she was searching for hadn’t been there the first time she looked. “I’m just too busy,” she muttered again.
“Katherine!” I said, raising my voice. Everyone looked at me, but I ignored the surprised expressions, choosing to focus solely on Mrs. Walter. She was starting to slip into panic mode, a habit I recognized from my mother, and I needed to calm her down before she broke down completely. Her head turned at the sound of my voice, and as if in a daze, she looked at me with her mouth half open.
“What do you have to do?” I asked her, my voice slow but direct.
“Pardon?” she asked.
I rephrased my question. “What needs to get done so you’ll feel comfortable leaving for vacation?”
“Oh well, I don’t know if that will be possible. The seating chart has to be arranged and ceremony programs need to be typed up. Honey, I don’t understand why you want to know—”
“No,” I said, cutting her off. “Just keep talking.”
“All right,” she said hesitantly. “I still can’t find the…” And she dove into a mental catalog of all her different chores.
“Someone pen me,” I muttered, holding out my hand as she continued to list the tasks. Nathan responded, slapping the ballpoint from his pocket into my hand. Grabbing the morning paper, I started to scribble a list on the edge of an article. It wasn’t as neatly organized as one of my own to-do lists, but it would suffice.
When he realized what I was doing, George directed his wife to one of the kitchen chairs and made her sit down, keeping his hands clamped firmly on her shoulders. Then he told everyone else to sit down.
“Listen up, crew,” I said a few minutes later, after reading over everything I’d written down. “This is how it’s going to work.” I looked from one Walter boy to the next to make sure they were paying attention. “Cole and Isaac—you have yard duty. The lawn has to be mowed, the hedges need to be trimmed, and the garden is in desperate need of weeding. Jack and Jordan, since you’re good with editing, you’re in charge of putting together the picture slide show of Will and Haley for the reception. No funny business either because I’m going to look over it when you’re done. Danny, someone needs to pick up Haley’s dress from the boutique, and Nathan, I want you to call all the vendors and reconfirm arrival times.”
When I was done talking, everyone stared at me. “Are you all deaf?” I demanded. “Come on. We have work to do.”
All the boys scrambled to their feet.
“Amazing,” Alex said, once everyone was out of the kitchen.
“That was nothing,” I told him. He had never seen me in my glory days, organizing one of my mother’s fashion shows or charities.
“Is there anything left for me to do?” Katherine asked, looking uncertain. “I could write out the placeholders—”
“Yes, Katherine,” I said, pulling her to her feet and shoving her out of the kitchen. “Go pack. You have a vacation to enjoy.”