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“Hi, Kevin!” I heard Tony call from the background.
“Hi, Tony!” I called back, seeing him walk through the frame toward what I assumed were the back double doors, a large bird in his arms. “You do have a first aid kit, and 911 prepped, right?”
“Lena’s keeping an eye on him,” Diane said, referring to the girl they’d started fostering a couple of years ago. I remembered meeting her when she first arrived, terrifyingly smart but sullen and frigid. At first, Lena had been more likely to use her smarts to cause all sorts of trouble and try to get out of the house at all hours. After two years, she discovered what I had, though. Tony and Diane could be trusted, and she had warmed up and evened out. “I trust her with that far more than the idiot I married.”
“I can hear you!” I heard Tony shout from out of frame.
“I call you an idiot to your face,” she called back, turning her head toward him.
“And it hurts my feelings every time,” he said, and though I couldn’t hear him from the distance he was at, I could imagine the fake indignant sniff he probably gave.
Diane turned back to the camera with an unimpressed look. “If he didn’t want to be called an idiot, he shouldn’t do idiotic things.”
I stiffened at a familiar voice behind me. “So that’s where you get it from.”
Diane tilted her head. “Oh, hello there.”
Still looking at my phone, I could see Shane come into view on my end of the call. “Good evening.”
Diane smirked. “Kevin, you’re supposed to be working.”
“That is my employer’s son,” I told her hastily, narrowing my eyes in warning.
“You are aware I can see your face, right?” Shane asked in amusement.
“Thank you for the reminder. Do you need something?” I asked, finally giving in and glancing up at him.
“No, just passing by. Your foster mom?” he asked, stepping around me to descend the stairs.
“Diane,” I told him.
“Well, a happy Thanksgiving to you, Diane,” he called as he began to take the pathway toward his small home.
“And you!” she called, then a heartbeat later. “Shit, how do you get any work done with that walking around?”
I groaned as I watched Shane come to a complete stop, turning around to smirk at me. “Diane…you’re loud, and he’s not that far away.”
“He heard me, huh?”
“He did.”
“Well, no getting the cream back in that udder.”
“No, no there is not.”
“I suppose an apology is…” she stopped as a crash and a sizzling noise came from somewhere behind her. “Tony! What happened?”
“It just started foaming up. It’s everywhere!”
“Oh my God, are you and Lena okay?”
“She’s uh, upstairs…I’m fine.”
I sighed, pinching the bridge of my nose. “Please tell me he did not shove a frozen turkey into boiling oil.”
“God in Heaven, give me patience and not strength,” Diane groaned. “Kevin, sweety, I’m sorry, I have to let you go. Call me later, and I’ll give you the details.”
“Don’t forget the first aid kit!” I called before the screen went black. “She really should have kept an eye on him.”
