Page 34 of Astrid
“I wonder why?” She frowned again. “Not that I don’t mind them being here, but I thought Dolly cooked for them every night.”
“Shit,” Alex said in shock. When the others looked at him, they frowned when his cheeks turned pink. “I didn’t go to get my cooking lesson today, because Dolly had plans. I had overheard something about it being her and Wilson’s anniversary, and he was taking her out to dinner.”
“Ah, and the others didn’t want to cook.” John laughed. As he did, he reached out and put his hand on Astrid’s shoulder, something he’d done in the past, and only grinned when she shrugged it off without a word. He grinned at his brothers, and ignored their frowns back to him. Mentally, he had a plan on how to get Astrid to talk to him again, but first, he had to get through dinner, then he would take her aside, even out to the firepit to get her alone to discuss why he’d treated her so badly the night before. With his sister and her family coming over, he knew he’d have to bide his time until he could get her alone. However, that wouldn’t stop him from giving her little touches here and there. If he played his cards right, he’d be back in her bed later that night. With a smile on his face, and whistling softly, she began gathering the dishes for the table and set them on the island for someone else to take to the table. He was going to stay close to Astrid as much as he could.
In exactly twenty minutes, Morgan, Wyatt, Dillon and his two sons and fiancée arrived. Because they were expected, John had taken the initiative to put another pot of water on to bowl, so when Morgan handed him the three-pound box of noodles, he only had to dump it in and stir them into the boiling water. The others had joined them, and Joyce and Morgan began filling glasses for the water, and whatever else people wanted to drink. Fifteen minutes later, after draining both pots of noodles, and putting the huge pot of sauce into two bowls, the meal was on the table. At the last minute, John swore and ran back to the kitchen to get garlic bread he’d tossed in several baskets when it’d come out of the oven. Back at the table, he noted the empty chair beside Astrid and grinned as he sat down. He didn’t think anyone had noticed he’d moved his chair closer to her, until she elbowed him in the ribs.
“Move,” she whispered, and elbowed him again until he did move, then they began passing dishes around the table. No one said anything as they filled their salad bowls, then their plates with the pasta and sauce, and began to eat. About halfway through the meal, Dillon was the first one to speak.
“If you guys don’t mind, I’d like to take you down to the basement after dinner and go over some hand-to-hand with you.”
“Why?” John frowned at him.
“Because, I’m leaving here in three weeks,” Dillion began, but was interrupted by DJ.
“Eighteen days,” the younger man grinned at his father as he shoveled a huge forkful of spaghetti into his mouth.
Dillon shook his head, and sighed, “All right, we’ll be leaving here in eighteen days. I thought I could work with you guys a couple of hours a night to help you out.” He then looked over at Alan with a frown. “When do you have to have those cabinets delivered?”
“Two days after you leave,” Alan said as he passed the salad bowl around.
“It’s Monday now,” Morgan said as she sat back with her glass of wine and studied the others at the table. “I’ve got a new operative coming in next week sometime on Monday or Tuesday. She’s supposed to be processed out on Thursday of this week.”
“Who?” Ava asked.
“Janice Bartlett, she was a medic and scout for her unit.”
“Never heard of her,” both Joyce and Ava said as one.
“Okay, but she’s coming here next week anyway. I figure by the time of the wedding, everyone should be here.”
“Even Bernie?” Joyce asked as she stacked her and Alex’s plates, then settled back in her chair with her cup of coffee.
“That’s still up in the air,” Morgan sighed. “I’ve got to call her to check on her progress, but I don’t want to pressure her, you know?”
John watched as the women nodded, then he frowned. “Who’s Bernie, and why don’t you want to pressure her?”
At the same time, Alfie asked, “Who else will be coming?”
“To answer Alfie first, as I just said, Janice Bartlett will be here next week, then a week and a half to two weeks after her should be Alice Fischer, then the week before the wedding, June Vanderbilt will be here.”
“Will they be doing the same thing as these girls?” John asked as he pointed to the women, and grinned at Astrid’s scowl.
“What the hell else would they be doing?”
“I don’t know,” John shrugged and turned to her. “Ava set up the house, Joyce set up the garage, and you set up the security systems.”
Astrid shook her head and turned to Morgan, totally ignoring John as she spoke, “I think your brother might have a screw loose.”
Morgan smirked at her, and hid her grin behind her wine glass. “Why do you say that?”
“Because, Ava set up the house, Joyce the garage, and me the security system, because the house was brand new and no one lived in it, of course it had to be set up.” She then turned to John and scowled at him. “We also did the job we were hired to do while setting up the house. I don’t think buying all the household items was in Ava’s job description.”
“It wasn’t, but if we wanted someplace to sleep, someone had to do it.” Ava grinned at them. “Besides, it gave me something to do, so I wasn’t so bored.”
“I’m assuming when the others arrive, then we’ll just have to give them the files of what we’ve gathered so far, and let them get up to speed.”
“That’s what I figured too,” Morgan said as she set her wine glass down, and began gathering the dirty dishes. She looked up when Lucas quickly jumped to his feet and took them from her.
