Lee tapped on the back door and stepped inside. "Hi, Jamie. Hi, Phillip."
"Hey, Lee. You know, you don't really have to knock anymore – you practically live here. You can just walk in like the rest of us."
Lee gave a quick smile at the friendly teasing. It had taken time but he and Jamie had gotten closer with time, especially once Amanda had gently pointed out to him how similar they were. The realization that he'd fallen into the trap of thinking of the boys as a block set had made it easier for him to adjust his approach – and she'd been right of course. Jamie's quiet manner and quick wit was far more like Lee than his playboy persona made most people think.
"Your mother doesn't like it when I sneak up on her," he grinned.
"That's not what Grandma says," deadpanned Phillip.
"Your grandmother has a lot to say about a lot of things," laughed Lee.
There was a sudden exclamation from the other room that made Lee look around, instantly on alert.
"Oh yeah. Stay clear of the dining room," Jamie advised him. "Mom and Grandma are making ornaments for the church craft fair."
"And why do I need to stay clear of it? Is there something dangerous about ornaments I don't know about?"
"It's not the ornaments, it's the making," explained Jamie, not that his explanation made anything clearer.
There was another yelp, making Lee start. "What is going on in there?"
"They're using the show gun."
"The what gun?"
"No, Lee, not a gun, a shogun – you know, like the Japanese emperor."
Lee shook his head – four years of learning to understand Amanda was still not always helpful when it came to conversations with her family, so he headed into the dining room, despite the boys' warning. Amanda and Dotty were surrounded by bows, trim, bottles of glitter and Styrofoam balls, along with a basket of finished ornaments. Amanda was fixing something on one of the balls with a pearl-headed pin while Dotty was holding up some kind of trim against another as she decided how it looked.
"Could someone please explain to me what a Japanese emperor has got to do with all this?" he asked, still confused.
"Nothing," laughed Amanda. "That's just what we call the glue gun."
Lee sighed heavily. "Okay, I'll bite – what's a glue gun?"
Dotty picked up a small implement from the table that Lee noticed was plugged into the wall between the two women. "One of these. It heats up glue and then the gun part lets you apply it exactly where you want it."
"Okay… And why do you call it a shogun?"
The two women exchanged a smile that he knew from experience meant something devious. "Well, when Jamie was little, we were using it and I didn't realize he was nearby and I called it by the nickname we usually use. And of course, he asked why we called it that, so I told him it was a "shogun" because it was very powerful and held everything together – just like a king does with his kingdom."
Lee was instantly suspicious. "Why do I have the feeling that's not the whole story?"
"Well, I thought of that excuse because that TV miniseries was on at the time, but really, he just misheard me."
"So what's it really called?"
Dotty, looking much too innocent, held out the hard foam ball and the piece of trim. "Lee Darling, can you take the gun and just put a little drop of glue right there and then stick this bow into place for me? It just needs the littlest drop."
"Mother!" Amanda scolded her but didn't stop Lee from taking it, and watched with a smile that told him he was missing something.
He carefully squeezed the trigger on the glue gun, watching as the mechanism pulled the solid tube down the barrel, and applied a large drop of glue to where Dotty had indicated. Picking up the small bow, he stuck it on, not taking any particular care. A millisecond later, as the scalding hot melted glue hit his fingertip, he yowled and dropped the whole thing, but of course, the scalding glue was still on his finger. "Oh shit! That hurt!"
Amanda and Dotty had collapsed with giggles. "And that is why we call it the Oh-shit gun!"