“I helped carry it,” Mason says.
I suppress a groan.“Thank you for that.”
“Why are we having stew?”Mason’s sideways glance is familiar.He does this whenever he’s sharing an inside joke with me, like he thinks Irish stew is somehow funny.
“Well, I was so busy working this afternoon that I burned the turkey beyond salvation,” I say.“But Cillian saved the day.Since we’re all immigrants here to Ireland, we’re going to have a main course of delicious Irish stew, and we’ll all be grateful for it.”
“Ooh,” Paul says.“With sausage?That’s my favorite lunch at school.”
“I wasn’t sure what people would like,” Cillian says.“So I bought three kinds.”He smiles at me.“Traditional lamb stew, a Dublin coddle, which has sausage in it, little man, and a farmhouse beef, since I hear that Americans usually like that best.”He sets his bag on the center of the counter.“I even got a small container of the vegetarian stew, though I’m told it’s a little bland.”
“Oh, I want that,” Blaine says.“I’m vegetarian now.”
“You are?”I ask.“Since when?”
“Since I found out bacon’s made of pigs.”She shakes her head.“I’m never eating animals again.Pudge is a pig, and that’s murder.”
Oh, boy.“Well, thank you, Cillian,” I say.“And Mason, you can set that bag here.We’ll be ready to eat in half an hour, so everyone go wash up so you’ll be ready.”
“Should I set the tables the same way we did yesterday?”Cillian asks.
“I can help,” Sam says.“Just show me what to do.”
The two of them disappear, setting the long table in the dining room.
“I can set up the kids’ table,” Vanessa says.“I assume we’re using paper plates for them.”
“I don’t have to sit there, right?”Hannah asks.“Because I’m not a baby.I’mfourteen.”
“It’s a matter of space,” I say.“We have enough seats for ten at the adult table, and that’s Vanessa, Jack, Richard, his father, Trish, Rian and his girlfriend, Sam, me, Cillian, and Mason, and we’re already over by one.We’ll have to stick an extra seat on a corner.I need you and the other teenagers to keep an eye on the smaller kids.”
Hannah groans.
“Knock it off,” Mason says.“This isn’t the time or the place.”
“I think the table has leaves.”Cillian pops in from around the corner.“Sorry—I overheard.I happened to notice earlier—the leaves were in the pantry.And once we put those in, we could just move a few chairs.It would be tight, but you could probably squeeze another three or four seats in there.Then Hannah, Clara, Bryce, and Trace could join us.”
“That’s amazing.”Hannah’s beaming as she leaves.
“We don’t want them at the adult table,” Mason snaps.“And now we’re stuck, thanks to Mr.Amazing here and his bag of solutions we don’t want.”
“Best behavior?”I mouth.Then I pull a face and shake my head tightly.
Mason throws his hands out and walks away.
“Why was that wrong?”Cillian asks.
Sam’s smirking.“Oh, I think I can explain this one.”
I snort.
“They wanted an adult table, and kids need to learn to deal with disappointment.Now we’ll have teenagers at our table, and Hannah got her way.”
“And more importantly,” I say pointedly.“No one will be in the other room to keep Paul from smearing mashed potatoes on the wall when Trina laughs at him making a joke about it.”
“Wait, would he do that?”
“Paul probably won’t, but Jack’s kids are even younger.Who knows what they’ll think is a good idea?”Sam’s really enjoying this too much.
