“Tell Papi bye for me. Have a good party!” Making a mental list of everything that she had to get done between now and the time she needed to head to the lake, Daisy went back out the back door and headed to the grocery store. She knew it would take an hour to drive there, and possibly more depending on traffic. Ken had assured her she could use the oven there to warm up her dish.
At home, she spent the next hour making a couple dozen corn tortillas, then packed everything into her car and followed the directions to Ken’s lake house. On the drive, she had a talk with herself.
“You know, of course, that this will only end in heartbreak. You need totellhim not cook for him.”
She grimaced and met her eyes in the rear-view mirror. “But, he’s so nice and so, you know, Ken Dixon. I can enjoy today, right?”
Focusing back on the road, she gritted her teeth and said, “No, but apparently, you’re going to, anyway.”
She arrived to find cars and trucks filling the dirt and pine straw covered yard. She’d pictured a wooden cabin, like one would find near a snow-capped mountain, not the square gray-stone structure with the red tin roof. When she went inside, though, the beautiful tile floors and fully furnished kitchen surprised her. The kitchen opened up onto the main room that contained tables bowing under with food. She set the stone crock in the oven she’d asked Ken to preheat. It would need more than a few minutes to get back up to temperature. She found the spot reserved for her dish and set the basket of tortillas next to the empty Crock-Pot shell. She looked up as the door opened, and one of Ken’s brothers came in.
“Well, if it isn’t Daisy Ruiz, as I live and breathe,” he said.
She smiled because she liked both of Ken’s brothers. She used to have the ability to tell them apart when they spoke, but apparently, that skill had declined over the years. “And you are…?”
He laughed and said, “Jon.”
“It’s good to see you, Jon. It’s been a long time.”
“It has. How’s your brother? It’s been a couple years since I’ve seen him.”
“He’s doing very well. Still at a church in Panama City. DJ is a joy and has just started saying auntie.”
He walked into the kitchen and opened up a door revealing a large walk-in pantry with an ice maker. He grabbed a cooler from a shelf and filled it with ice. When he lifted the cooler, his muscles rippled beneath his T-shirt sleeves. “Ken’s out there. I can take you if you want.”
“Thanks. I’m just about done.” She found a dish towel and used it as an oven mitt to take the crock out of the oven and carried it over to its shell. She plugged it into the extension cord someone had run to the table, then put the glass lid on it and turned to Jon. “All done.”
He wiggled his eyebrows and said, “That smells amazing. I remember your mom’s barbacoa. I know where I’m headed first thing.”
Jon led her out the door he’d come through and gestured with his chin toward the dock. Then he carried the cooler of ice in one direction, and she walked down to the dock in the other. A large tent covered about twenty tables and chairs. Red, white, and blue flags hung from banners all around the edges of the tent. A couple played volleyball at a net, and another group swung from a rope swing and fell into the lake. Country music piped from somewhere to the speakers set up all around the perimeter. As she walked into the crowd, she realized that she didn’t really recognize anybody. Finally, she found Ken.
He wore a pair of red shorts and a dark blue tank top. Sunglasses hung loose on a strap around his neck. He had a red cap with the black Dixon Contracting logo.
“Hey, Ken.”
As soon as he heard her voice, he turned in her direction with a smile covering his face. “Daisy!”
When she approached him, he put his hand on the small of her back and gestured at the woman standing in front of him. She had blue hair pulled up into pigtails with red and white pompoms fastening them. She’d secured a sparkly blue star on the side of her face. “This is Brad’s assistant, Sami. Sami, this is Daisy Ruiz.”
Daisy looked down at her simple outfit of cutoff denim shorts and a sleeveless white shirt and felt a little less patriotic. “I love your style,” Daisy said. “I would never have the guts to pull it off.”
“I often get a double-take at work after people see me at a party.” She laughed. “Most of the extreme hair color is temporary.”
Ken grinned. “Think this is something? You should see her at Christmas.”
Sami excused herself, and Ken gestured to the raft next to the dock. “Hope you’re up to going out on the water with me tonight. There’s nothing like fireworks when you’re surrounded by water.”
“I’m looking forward to it.”
He had taken her to a jazz festival yesterday. They’d had the best time walking around, listening to different jazz performers, eating food on sticks, and drinking frosty fresh lemonade. They’d stayed until well past sundown. When he drove her home, he insisted that she come today. Even though she promised herself she would say no to the next invitation, she found herself agreeing to come and then looking forward to it all morning.
The music stopped, and a sharp whistle sounded over the speakers. She turned and saw Ken’s dad, Philip, standing near the big white tent with a microphone in his hand. Like his sons, he stood about six-six and had a brown and gray goatee. She remembered being so afraid of him when she was younger. One day, she’d fallen in the church parking lot. He’d helped her to a bench where he tended to her bloody knee in such a gentle way that she’d never felt intimidated by him again. In a deep voice, he said, “We’re going to ask God to bless this food! Bow your heads, please.”
Silence descended upon the crowd. Philip prayed a prayer of thanksgiving over the nation’s birthday and then asked God’s blessing on the food. As soon as he said amen, the music started back up, and people headed into the building to get their dinners.
While milling around, waiting for the line to die down, Ken introduced her to Brad’s wife, Valerie. Valerie had beautiful skin the color of rich milk chocolate. She wore an orange sundress that perfectly complemented the caramel color of her eyes. “It’s nice to meet you. Ken talks about you often.”
It felt weird to say that because she had only spent a little bit of time with Ken. But in several conversations, he exuded his love for his family.
