“They’re called Dusty and Panda,” River said and peeled back the edge of the clean towel they were wrapped in. “Say hi to Uncle Lake, kids.”
And that’s when Lake saw the ring.
The squeal and flailing were so unlike Lake it was hilarious. Then there were a lot of hugs and congratulations, and for some reason, Theo looked misty eyed when he backed away from hugging River.
“Congratulations, guys,” he murmured and patted Ben’s shoulder.
Just as everyone was calmed down and sitting again, Seb arrived with a happy Bucky in tow.
Both of them immediately locked in on the kittens, and whoa boy, did the babies not like Bucky especially.
I got up to make room and went to Jack.
“What are you making?”
“Blueberry mousse for dessert today, but I think for tomorrow’s party we’ll need something more interesting.”
“Never had blueberry mousse before so that’s interesting already.” I leaned on the counter next to where he was hand-whisking cream. “Why aren’t you using the electric whisk?”
“Noise.” He glanced at me. “I’m making a blueberry pie, but I need your help with this one. Can you google anything Ben and River might like? Blueberries of course, but…you know, more festive?”
“Sure!” I pulled out a stool and took out my phone, then started to search. After five minutes, I frowned. “You know, I think there aren’t nearly as many recipes as I thought there would be, but also, I don’t think we need anything fancy.”
He glanced at me. “What do you mean?”
“Well, for when River got the job we had that lemon and blueberry cake, right? Now you’re making a mousse and there’ll be pie tomorrow.”
“Right.”
“While cobbler is something everyone would totally love, it’s kind of close to pie, right?” At his nod, I continued, “How about we make a cheesecake type of thing?”
Jack’s eyes unfocused in the way I recognized as him thinking hard. Then he nodded, “Yeah, that sounds good. Do you want to make that tomorrow?”
My gaze snapped back to him. “Really?”
“Why not? I’ll have my hands full already. I’ll put the turkey in the oven in the morning and make the pies. There will be many pies…” He said the last bit as if it was a threat, and I laughed.
“Well, okay then. I’ll make the cheesecake while you do all the rest.” I knew the others would be bringing stuff and even River and Ben were making something in their tiny cabin kitchen.
“I was hoping that the new stable would be done so I could’ve utilized the oven in the kitchen upstairs, but alas,” Jack murmured as he started to go through a thing of blueberries. “I mean of course there’s the one in Theo’s cabin, but it’s tiny. He never wanted a full-sized one there so…”
I realized he was getting into his cooking zone, so I hopped off the stool and retreated.
* * * *
Saturday’s Friendsgiving was…a lot. Especially for Madden and Mona. At first, they did fine, but then Mona got wobbly and I could see the tightening around Madden’s eyes.
“Jack?” I called out from the doorway. “We’re going upstairs for a bit. The cheesecakes are in the fridge.”
“Okay, we’ll let you know when you’re needed.”
River intercepted me when I went toward the stairs to go after the siblings.
“How are you doing?” he asked.
I frowned. “What do you mean?”
“I mean that we haven’t had time to talk lately, and I’ve noticed…” He trailed off and glanced over his shoulder at Jack.
