Page 105 of Summer Holiday Lifeline

Jet nodded. “Kreed did it. I’m just stirring.”

“Did you finish up next door, then?”

Jet nodded and turned his attention back to the pot. He spoke into the sauce when he replied. “That cop dropped off the guy Uncle Myles was helping. He had to shower and stuff. I think he was nervous of so many people, so just Tris stayed over there for now.” He knit his brows together. “He’s practically my age.”

“So your uncle said.” Glancing around the room, Steven finally addressed Kreed. “Anything I can do to help?”

“Can you cut some veg for salad?”

“What’s veg?” he asked and grinned as he took the knife from Kreed.

“He’s a TV dinner guy,” Jet said, and made a face. “Gross.”

“As I told your uncle, I bought the good ones this time.”

“You can stop pointing out he’s my uncle,” Jet said. “I know that. You can call him Myles.”

Steven shrugged. “Fair.”

He spent the next few minutes carefully slicing tomatoes and peppers before Jet came to stand beside him with a salad spinner full of washed lettuce.

“You didn’t answer my question,” Jet said quietly so as not to draw the attention of the whole room. “Is he okay?”

“The scuffle didn’t do him any lasting harm. I think his hip is acting up more than normal, but otherwise, it’s all superficial.”

“But?”

“Do you really need me to tell you he’s struggling?”

“What do I do?”

“You’re doing it. Helping with your sister. Being patient with being here.”

“If he starts drinking…”

From the corner of his eye, Steven noticed Ozzy’s head come up at that, and he raised his voice just enough the big man could hear. “He hasn’t. And with us to support him, he won’t.”

“What are we going to do when we move back to Calgary? Who will support him then?”

“You’re here now. Let’s focus on now, okay?”

Jet nodded. He spun the lettuce probably more vigorously than necessary and said nothing.

Both Myles and his errant rescued teen appeared shortly after that, and Kreed put the sauce he’d made together with pasta and sausage. Everyone helped carry the meal to the pushed-together tables in the dining room.

It felt more like a family meal to Steven than anything had in a very long time, with Kreed and Lucky presiding, and the table filled with Tris, Ozzy, Myles and his family, and Jake, Lucy, and Tiffany, the one guest exception to Kreed and Lucky’s no-guest-service-on-Mondays policy.

Wyatt, the young man Myles had helped, sat on Myles’s other side from Steven, with Jet next to him, and the two boys nattered on about video games, D and D, and music while everyone else remained mostly quiet.

Despite defending his frozen dinners, Steven couldn’t deny Kreed’s cooking far surpassed his regular fare. He didn’t complain when there was also pie for dessert, or argue about the leftovers being packed into plastic tubs for him to take home later.

When it was clear Shelly was beyond done being up, Myles pushed his chair back.

Before he could get up, though, Jet jumped to his feet. “I got her, Uncle Myles.”

“You don’t have to.”

“Better than doing dishes,” Jet said. He glanced at Wyatt, then at Myles. “Can Wyatt come up and watch TV?”