She grinned as she took the frosty glass and drank it down in one gulp. “Thanks, Cora!”
Jack’s mom was laughing as Cait dashed out of the room.
“That girl,” she said to Jamie, “is the best thing that could have happened to our boy.”
Jamie tilted his head to one side and thumped his tail on the floor.
“And so are you,” she said, giving the dog a treat. “Now, how do you feel about steaks on the grill?”
Cait rushed through her shower, oddly energized by the conversation and cold tea. When she walked into the kitchen, Jack’s mom was mixing something in a large bowl. “What have you got there?”
“Just some blueberry pandowdy for our meeting.”
“What meeting?”
Jack’s mom smiled. “Founder’s Day. We used to hold the meetings here before John and I retired.”
“Can I help?”
“You and Peggy are already down as volunteers to set up and clean up.”
“Is there anything else?”
Mrs. Gannon patted her cheek and shook her head. “You work awfully hard during the day, Cait. Your sisters do too. How is Meg?”
Cait grinned. “She’s great! She and Dan are so happy, and those darling boys, Danny and Joey, are just so precious…even when they’re getting into trouble. Meg’s not nervous at all about having another baby in a few months. She’s amazing.”
They talked about babies and families while Cora had Cait setting the table and slicing cold potatoes for the potato salad.
“I’m not that great in the kitchen,” Cait confessed. “Jack’s a better cook than I am.”
“Well, it’s a good thing one of you can cook,” Cora laughed.
Cait smiled. “He seems OK, doesn’t he?” She paused, adding, “After talking to us about everything, I mean.”
“More than.” Cora patted her hand as she moved past her to the counter. “I worried as any mother would when we’d found out he’d been injured.” She speared the London broil and turned it over, spooning marinade over it a few times before she was satisfied. “When we could finally see him, I knew from the devastation I glimpsed in his eyes that there was something horrific he wasn’t telling us.”
“Did he tell John right away?”
Cora shook her head. “That’s when we started worrying, because if he couldn’t tell his father…it was beyond what Jack could handle emotionally.”
“What did you do?”
“Prayed harder as John pulled strings so that Jack would start seeing one of the doctors at the VA for PTSD right away, and another doctor from the private sector.”
She was washing her hands when a deep voice called out, “Anybody home?”
Cora laughed and tilted her face for her husband to kiss her cheek as he walked into the kitchen. Cait loved the way they looked at one another. Her heart tumbled over when Jack walked in a few minutes later with a clutch of daisies in his hand. When he held them out to her, she hesitated. “Hasn’t anyone ever brought you flowers?” he asked.
How could she say that without sounding foolish? Instead of answering, she shook her head.
“Then it’s about time someone did,” he told her, kissing her cheek as he rummaged in the cabinets for something to put the flowers in.
“They’ll look so pretty in the middle of the table,” his mom said. “Caitlin, be a dear and hold the door for me while I put the steak on.”
“Now just hold on there, Cora,” John said, standing in between his wife and the back door. “Grilling is man’s work.”
“Not until you wash up, dear.” She winked at Cait when her husband and Jack took turns washing their hands in the sink.
Once they’d gone outside, she smiled, and said, “That’ll keep them busy while you and I put the finishing touches on the dining room.”
“Hey, Mom,” Jack called, “we eating outside?”
“That’s right. Caitlin and I are setting up for the meeting in the dining room.”
An hour later, the house trilled with feminine laughter as the ladies arrived, bearing sweets and passing out hugs.
“It’s so wonderful to see you,” Mrs. Winter said, handing Cait a cherry pie. She was tempted to take a picture and send it off to Meg, because for as long as Cait has been working in the family business, Mrs. Winter had only given Meg cherry pies.
Miss Trudi arrived with Mary Murphy at the same time as Mrs. McCormack and Peggy. Cait pulled her friend aside while the others went into the dining room. “I didn’t know you were coming over tonight.”
Peggy shrugged. “Things got busy at the diner after school let out or I would have texted you.”