Part 28

Dear Diary,

Harm and Renee were wrapped up in each other and planned on a quiet Thanksgiving alone. Harriet’s parents were flying up from Florida and she insisted on inviting AJ and myself. I think that she wanted more people there to counteract her mother. I was glad to go and have dinner with them but part of me wished that I could have had dinner alone with AJ…

The day before Thanksgiving, AJ and I were sitting around my apartment. He was busy teaching me some of the Italian translation from the Andrea Bocelli song that we both liked when the phone rang.

“Hello?”

“Mac, this is Harriet and I have bad news.”

“What’s wrong?” I asked concerned.

“I’m going to have to cancel dinner tomorrow. My dad called and they can’t come up so they want us to fly down.”

“That’s okay, Harriet. Is everything okay?”

“Mostly,” she said amused. “My mom has laryngitis so she refuses to go anywhere.”

“Laryngitis?” I asked smiling. “What’s your dad say about that?”

“He didn’t say anything but I could tell he thought it was funny. I think Mom was in the room. Bud is packing right now and we are leaving for the airport soon. Dad arranged for tickets to be waiting for us.”

“That’s good. I hope you have fun,” I said.

“I’m sure we will. The last time Mom kept quiet was when I threatened her at my wedding,” she laughed. “Can you call the Admiral and make sure that he knows? I tried to call him and I didn’t want to just leave the message on his answering machine.”

“Sure, Harriet. I’ll make sure to tell him. And don’t worry about dinner. I’ll come up with something.”

“Are you sure?” she paused. “You going to call that guy?”

“Probably,” I smiled over at AJ. “I better let you go and make sure that Bud packs everything you need.”

“Good idea, he usually forgets something. I’ll talk to you when we get back on Sunday.”

“Okay. Have a happy Thanksgiving.”

“You too,” Harriet said just before hanging up the phone.

“You will probably do what?” asked AJ.

“I will probably call ‘that guy’ I told Harriet about for dinner tomorrow since she had to cancel.” AJ frowned in concern. “They are flying down to Florida because her mother doesn’t want to go anywhere. She has laryngitis.”

AJ barked with laughter. “I bet Bud will have fun with that! I would love to know what he says to her.”

“I’ll ask Harriet on Monday,” I said. “So what do you want to do for tomorrow then?”

“I’ll cook unless you want to go out to eat,” AJ offered.

“That sounds good. What would you like me to bring?”

“Just you, Jingo, and a change of clothes,” he whispered seductively.

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