No Quarter (NOLA's Own #2) (46 page)

“Aye, ’tis,” said Da.

Poor Phil. He looked close to having an episode. With his eyes closed, he gnawed on his bottom lip to help him hold back his laughter. Alys had no misgivings. She was already in silent laughter mode.

X looked down the table at me. “What the fuck is eye-tuppin’?”

Connor and I both pointed at him and roared in unison, “Uncuith yuith!”

Alys fell back off the bench, caught by a very narrow margin by her completely confused boyfriend before she could hit the ground.

“Babe, you gotta be more careful!” he admonished, lowering her gently to the grass. “You could hurt yourself, laughin’ this hard.”

Phil couldn’t take it any longer. He stood up and stormed into the house, clapping a hand over his mouth.

“Always nice t’ have th’ family ’round fer a civilized meal,” commented Da sweetly.

From the kitchen, Phil’s unrestrained laughter erupted loudly.

Da gave me a startled look. “Yer mon’s off his rocker, Kenna. Dinna I warn ye aboot the musicians?”

I nodded. “You did, Da.”

He grunted and winked at me, and then he took another bite out of his po’boy.

Phil came back out a few minutes later, looking composed.

“Ye all righ’ there, son?”

“Couldn’t be better, sir.”

We all heard Alys as she sucked in a draft of air from her prone position on the turf.

“So, X, yer a ginger musician. Ye play the bagpipes at all?”

X was looking down on his woman, concern in his eyes. “No, sir.”

“Surrounded by bluidy musicians, an’ none o’ ye play the pipes,” grumbled Da.

“I play the pipes,” snapped Connor. “Remember?”

“Ye’re Sco’ish! Ye
hae
to play the pipes!”

“Kenna’s just as Scottish, and you never made her play the pipes,” he grumbled.

My gaze crashed with Phil’s as he hunched over, mouth opened wide, about to shove half of a po’boy in his mouth. My lips went flat, and he lowered the sandwich slowly, closing his mouth.

“
Phil
!” Da barked.

My eyes shot to the heavens, desperately searching for some divine intervention there.

“
Kenna
!” Da hissed heatedly. “I guess ye
hae
been blowin’ on some
bagpipes
, just none tha’ can be considered Sco’ish!”

“
Oh my God
!” shouted Alys. She lapsed back into hysterics.

My face flushed hotly. Phil had turned the color of a painful sunburn. Even Connor had gone a flaming shade that clashed with his hair.

Phil got to his feet once more and headed inside.

X looked at Connor. “Dude, I have no clue what just happened.”

“Tha’s ’cause ye’re a soulless ginger,” Da retorted offhandedly.

“
Bah-ha-ha-ha-ha
!” roared Phil from the kitchen.

There was no help for it. I lost it. I laughed so hard that my face started to hurt. Tears and maybe a bit of snot poured down. Connor handed me a napkin at some point, and he was losing it, too. Even Da had given in, boisterous guffaws erupting from his barrel chest.

Only X sat there, dumbfounded, the lone man not laughing.

I could hear Phil absolutely losing it in the kitchen. I’d never heard him laugh so hard. It was only fueling my own laughter.

As our hysterics subsided, Da called out, “Come oot ’ere, son, and finish yer lunch!”

Phil could only snort in response.

“Oh God…I just got the bagpipes thing!” stated X.

He had been assisting Alys back onto the bench, and she lost it again, flopping back onto the ground.

Weakly waving her hand in the air, she cried, “Just leave me here!”

X had lapsed into wheezes as he joined in the laughter this time around. From the kitchen, we heard Phil’s hand slapping the tiled floor.

“Oh God, it hurts!” he cried.

“Bunch o’ uncuith yuiths, all o’ ye!” shouted Da, but he was smiling.

Eventually, we were able to finish lunch, and Da had to head out to pick up Gloria from her shift at the nursing home. Her car had broken down and would be in the shop over the holiday weekend. She still needed to pick up a few things from the grocery store to make four scalloped potato casseroles for their contribution toward Thanksgiving dinner the next day.

“We’ll be gone fer some hours,” Da told us, snatching up his keys. “I suppose ye’ll be out o’ here by the time we get back?”

I nodded. “I’m on stuffing duty, and Alys has to help Mama Sally with carrot soufflé.”

Da’s expression morphed into one of revulsion. “Gloria’s makin’ a bowl of ambrosia, too—fer Connor.”

My look instantly mirrored Da’s. “Ugh.”

“Yeah,” he agreed. He reached out and rubbed his knuckles over my cheek. “Be seein’ ye tomorrow then.”

“I’ll be here around one o’clock to ride with you over there.”

Phil had told his father that the people invited needed to pitch in and would be bringing food to share. It had lightened Mr. Deveraux’s load considerably. He’d only have to cook two turkeys in his double ovens and a shit-ton of gravy. Lili had dragged Lewis into making several cakes and pies. X’s family had decided to contribute salads and roasted vegetables.

Sheri and Jason—both of whom were free of any familial ties—were bringing three glazed hams from a local specialty shop. I had once asked Phil about Jason’s family, but he had been loyally mum about it and said he’d need to be sure Jason was okay with me knowing about them before he told me anything.

Flipper wouldn’t be joining us. He and Vivian were going to their family and would be announcing to all their kindred that they had decided to be in a serious relationship.

“So, you never know,” Flipper had said darkly when he informed Phil and me about what he and Vivian planned on doing. “We just might end up there anyway, if it goes fuckin’ ugly.”

The four of us happily hung out with Connor after Da left.

“So, can you guys tell me what an uncuith yuith is?” asked X after the front door closed behind Da.

“Uncouth youth,” replied Alys, who suddenly looked as though she were fighting off more laughter. Her delicate nostrils began to flare.

“Ah…” said X. “Yeah, he’s right about that. Are we still youths?” he asked Phil.

“I think we are to Da,” replied Phil. “I’m pretty sure, technically, we’re just uncouth.”

Connor brought out two acoustics and an upright bass, and the three of them jammed out for Alys and me. Connor and X switched between the guitar and bass. Bass was Connor’s true love—except you wouldn’t know that from the way he kept looking over at Alys, who dutifully kept her eyes on her man.

One day, that woman is going to have to tell me what the fuck that is all about. Did they hook up at some point, and neither of them told me? That fucking sucks! I would have loved for them to be in love with each other! Wouldn’t they know that?

Obviously, they had not. Now, it really was too late. Alys was in love with X. I could see and feel it between them. And X flat-out worshiped her.

“Man, you’re fuckin’
brilliant
,” X told Connor after a few jams. “You say you’re moving back here, yeah?”

“I’ll be back permanently after Christmas break,” Connor replied.

X looked at Phil, who nodded.

“Good,” was all X said, and the three of them continued.

Alys and I exchanged a look. I guessed we’d know soon enough what
that
was all about.

In fact, we had hardly pulled out of the neighborhood before X crowed, “Dude, he has to join the band! He’s got
everythin’
we’re lookin’ for!”

“What?” Alys and I both gasped in shock.

Phil was nodding. “We’ll talk to the guys, but yeah, I think we found him.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” demanded Alys.

“We’ve been lookin’ for a fifth member for the band,” explained Phil, his thumb caressing over the top of my hand. “When we’re in the studio, I play the rhythm guitar parts, and our roadie, Scott, plays during the shows. We thought about making him the fifth member, but he’s not really cut out for what we do on a regular basis. And in all honesty, we need someone who has the talent to be a second lead guitarist. Jason wants to try out different types of instruments, do different sounds, so we need someone who can take a lead role while Jason fucks around on a banjo or some such shit.”

“You want my
brother
to be in NOLA’s Junk?” I asked weakly.

Phil smiled, and his eyes glowed warmly. “Fuck yeah. Flipper and Jace will have to meet him and see if they agree, but I think they will.”

“Oh my God…” whispered Alys. “He’s going to
freak
.”

X dropped Alys off at her parents’ before heading back to the Plantation House.

Phil and I walked through the backyard, hand in hand, over to my place.

Lili came home not long after with Lewis. She helped me out with my contribution to the feast while Lewis and Phil went to pick up some equipment Lewis had offered to loan for the dinner tomorrow.

“Lewis has been teaching me to bake today. The restaurant is closed this week, and we made apple pies, pecan-fudge pies, that ginger-pumpkin spice cake you tried to make that year…” she chatted on.

I was really interested in the spice cake—truly, I was—but my brain was elsewhere.

“Do you know if anything ever happened with Alys and Connor?” I blurted, interrupting her.

Her face went into complete shock. “
What
?” she screeched.

“Something had to have happened between the two of them.” I explained everything I could remember from the day, in detail. “But I really don’t think she wants anyone to know, and if she’s not willing to talk about it with me, then you probably shouldn’t know either, so keep your mouth shut about it, okay?”

“Of course. But…are you
sure
?”

I nodded. “Yeah. I just don’t know why either of them would want to keep it from me—us. I think Connor was really surprised that she’s dating someone. And he hasn’t been in touch with either of us at all lately. I just wonder if it’s all connected somehow.”

“Probably.” She sighed. “And maybe it’s really for the best. I mean, you guys were all raised together, Kenna. You’re all
family
. If they got involved and it didn’t work out, what sort of position would that put you in? If anything, that would be the number one reason
not
to tell you. Us. Whatever.”

“You’re right.”

“But they were friendly with each other? It wasn’t overly weird or anything?”

“Nah, just weird. Not overly.”

“Good. Then, it means it’s probably something that they can put behind them, and we never have to know specifics.”

“True.”

“It’s borderline incest, if you ask me,” she mumbled, making me laugh.

“Speaking of incestuous relations, did I tell you about Flipper and Vivian?”

It was a lot of fun, catching Lili up on everything. After we’d returned from LA, she had quit her job as a nine-one-one dispatcher and had joined the front-of-house staff at The Duck Pond. We missed her terribly, and Lewis, wonderful man that he was, made sure she had Sundays off, so she could have time to spend with us. She spent Mondays and Tuesdays with him and then worked the rest of the days, and she’d sleep at his place most of them.

“It’s going to be nice to have everyone together tomorrow,” she stated, her black eyes twinkling up at me.

“Yeah, it is,” I replied, feeling a twinkle in my own eyes.

Phil had headed over to his dad’s not long after we’d woken up the next morning. Sheri and Jason had gone with him to help get everything set up, and they would be getting ready over there, too.

Alys, Lili, and I had a rare morning with just the three of us sipping espresso on the back porch before heading upstairs to get ready ourselves.

I would be wearing a dress. Phil had begged—quite impressively, too—while tied to his massive bed’s headboard. That had been a lot of fun for both of us
. Yeah
, our experience in LA had pushed the door wide open on our sex life.

Sheri had found a gorgeous dress for me while she was out shopping for the guys, and although I still found it beyond bizarre that someone else was buying me my clothes, I had to admit that she had done a fantastic job. She had presented the sleeveless knee-length spring-green silk wrap dress to me the previous Saturday. She had also picked out a slip and a bra and thong set to go with it.