“Your husband needs it.”
“So does yours.”
“I’d be the last guy on earth to disagree. We all need it! So, let’sgo!”
The kitchen door opened, and Nate wandered in. “I can hear you bickering from the couch. What’s going on?”
“Colin’s trying to talk me into taking two weeks off so we can all go to Ireland.”
He moved to David’s side. “And is he succeeding?”
David’s eyebrows lifted, and he gave a comical shrug. “He’s pretty damned persuasive.” He rested both hands on Nate’s shoulders. “What do you think, rabble-rouser? Wanna kiss the Blarney Stone?”
“Don’t you have to hang upside down to do that?”
“You do,” Colin informed him, grinning.
“And didn’t ten thousand other people put their lips there before me?”
“Probably more than ten thousand,” Joshua replied.
“OK then!” Nate said. “When do we leave?”
“Really?” David asked. “Really, Nate? It’d mean taking time off during summer sessions, but—”
“Who cares? Do you know how much money those jackasses made off myplay? They owe me.” He tilted forward onto David’s chest and was quickly embraced.
“OK,” David told the group. “I’ll talk to Arthur and arrange the time off.”
“Let me check plane and train schedules before you plan your time off,” Colin advised.
“Well, don’t dawdle,” David told him. “I can’t dillydally around about this.”
“Dawdle and dillydally in one sentence?” Nate muttered against David’s chest. “They’ll revoke your professor’s license for that!”
“I’ll do it right away,” Colin said to David, then took Joshua’s hand. “We’re going down to the lake.”
“Don’t pollute the water,” Nate cautioned.
Colin ignored him and led Joshua out of the cabin and down the path. “Ireland!” he crowed. “With David and Nate! Damn! I can’t wait!”
“Is Esther going to throw sixteen kinds of fits over this?”
“More apt to be Norm who throws the fit,” Colin told him. “But I’ll talk him off the ledge.”
“You’d better call your family and get cleared for landing. It’s not just us this time.”
Colin shrugged. “Ahn-tee won’t care. She’s got three bedrooms.” He nudged Joshua’s shoulder and grinned. “We’ll stick them in the small one. The one I got stuck with when I was a kid.”
“No, Aileen won’t mind if David and Nate stay there. She’ll probably love it. As I recall, she developed quite the crush on David when she was here for our wedding.”
Colin grunted a wordless assent, then dropped to the ground, sitting cross-legged in the grass. Joshua stood beside him, gazing across to the opposite shore where moonlight reflected silver maples onto the lake’s smooth surface. “So peaceful here,” Joshua commented, lowering himself to the ground beside Colin.
“Ireland,” Colin breathed out, his eyes fixed on the far shore.
Joshua smiled and shook his head.He didn’t even hear me.
* * *
