Page 6 of Ever's Last
I turn to see a man from the cleaning crew.
“We’ve cleaned from top to bottom. Mr. Sal said to let you know.”
I nod. While my dad is calling his own crew, I head upstairs to my room. I love this room. It’s big with a vaulted ceiling, and the windows overlook the pasture and woods. I have a window bench with chairs that form a little reading nook. My bed is king size and was my grandmother’s. The walls are plain white, but the artwork is colorful. Every trip or milestone is documented in print on my wall. I pull the comforter and sheets off the bed, needing to wash them since they’re a bit dusty. I figured all the sheets need to be cleaned so I head down to start the laundry and then go back to my dad’s room and take his bedding down as well.
“I have someone bringing in all-new sheets, towels, and comforters,” a voice startles me.
Uncle Sal.
“The comforters on my bed and Dad’s bed are family quilts,” I hiss out, annoyed.
“I’m sorry . . . ” he starts.
“It’s fine. Sorry, I didn’t mean to snap.”
“I know this is hard for you. I might not be around much, but I know about that night.”
“Thank you, Uncle Sal. I’ll be okay.”
“What do you think?” He’s studying me, but gestures outside. I can’t help but feel scrutinized and I don’t know why.
“You guys move fast.”
“We do. Memphis will move in tomorrow along with Brick. The girls will show up the next day. They are not allowed in the main house unless given permission. Filming doesn’t start until the day after that.”
“Okay.” I don’t know what to say. In all reality, I’m just here because I don’t want to be at the other house. And this is huge for my dad. If I have to put up with the asshole for a few weeks, so be it. Hard to believe we were friends once. The guy I see in magazines isn’t the one I recognize.
“I’ll leave you to it.” Uncle Sal walks off to talk to some people who I’m guessing are part of the crew.
“Ever?”
I head back to the kitchen and my dad.
“This is so exciting,” Ivy, one of my only friends, squeals when she sees me.
“I know.” I can’t help but feel her excitement despite the acid churning in my stomach. I don’t want to ruin her happiness.
Lincoln and Austin are the other two people who work for my dad. Lincoln and I have been friends for a long time. He’s the neighbor who watched my horses for me. Ivy, Linc, and I are inseparable. We support each other through everything, including stupid pageants and stupid dating shows.
“Now that we’re all here and understand what’s going on, we need to make our menus. The shopping will be done for us, so that’s a plus. They want authentic southern cooking. I’m pretty sure we can accomplish that. Well, maybe that’s just for the dates that Sal was talking about. Not sure, but I’ll just go with that as a theme for all.”
“We get the point, Shane,” Austin says. He’s worked for my dad from the beginning. He’s married with two kids and is a genuinely nice guy.
“Right. Okay, Austin and Lincoln, you take lunch. I think we can go with a buffet-style for breakfast and lunch. Pick simple things. Plan it out for a week. We can do this for each week and that’ll give us time to focus primarily on the dinner menus. Ivy and Ever, you’re working on breakfast. I’ll plan out dinner. I need to get with Sal and see if there will be any dates this week. I will take the reins on those as well. Once you plan your week, we will write the lists.” He heads off while the rest of us try to think of what to plan.
“We should check and make sure no one has any allergies, but I think for breakfast it should be easy, different types of eggs, fruit, biscuits, maybe some gravy. Some pastries, cereal,” Ivy says, writing it down.
“I agree,” Linc states, “Same thing for lunch. Sandwiches one day, with chips, always fruit, maybe cottage cheese. Another day, chicken and dumplings with veggies. But always put fruit out for breakfast and lunch. Oh, and grits, and corned beef hash for breakfast.”
Ivy writes all this down. She already has the shopping list with exactly what we will need for each day.
“What about a fish fry for lunch one day?” Austin asks.
“I like that. Maybe they could go catch their food,” Linc suggests.
“Great idea.” Uncle Sal walks in, causing us to shift in our seats. He has that effect on people, even me and I’m family.
“Okay, well, that’s one more day down,” Linc says.
