December 19th 2022

Chapter 353
Our Future to Build

Lucas could look back on the past several years he'd spent on his team of fellow doctors, nurses, and paramedics as being an instant of chance leading to an unimaginable wealth. It wasn't just that it allowed him to play basketball on a team again: it was this small community he'd been allowed into, him and his family, and it meant a great deal to him that he had it, had them. It was their lineup of players at the heart of it, but then beyond them, there were their families, which led to lunches, and dinners, gatherings that instantly felt like parties… Maya joked that it was like the end-of-year parties at the Shelby house when they were in high school, only here they were allowed to bring people, if those people were their spouses and children. The most notable link to her would naturally be that, no matter what, it always, always veered down the path of them holding a shoot off. Here, it would be two shoot offs, one for the adults, and one for the kids.

They'd had one of these gatherings just that afternoon, at the ranch. It had been a special occasion, as they were saying goodbye to a couple of their players – who had to withdraw for reasons all their own – and selecting who would be captain for the next year. That was their way of it. They alternated captains from year to year. This year, Lucas was finally getting his turn of it, and he was very thankful to have been selected, even as he found himself having to follow up this appointment with refilling their ranks. He had some ideas, and he was open to suggestions from his teammates, too, if any of them knew anyone who could have been a good fit. So far, they were still looking.

"What do you think? I'd take you on if you wanted it," Lucas told Bishop with a grin as his friend and colleague helped him clean up after the gathering had ended. Everyone had offered to help, but Lucas had told them to go on ahead home. Maya had taken off to bring the girls to their grandparents' before she'd return.

"Oh, no, you wouldn't want me on a team," Bishop assured him, laughing.

"Come on, you can play, I've seen you."

"Not like that, you haven't," Bishop pointed out. "I wish I was your guy for this, I do, but I'm not. I might know some people though."

"Well, send their information my way then," Lucas nodded. It would have to do, he supposed, though he wasn't giving up outright either.

They were stopped in their tracks, very literally, as a truck came along ahead of them. They'd had plenty of those come around over the last several weeks, all of them headed up to the house, colloquially called Mel's B&B instead of Melinda's Bed & Breakfast. Those had been deliveries, the furniture, the appliances, everything the place needed in order to be ready to receive guests. This truck was different. This one brought the people who would be calling this house their home. Lucas was surprised to see that Cristina Vega herself was at the wheel, which he pointed out to Bishop. At once, they moved to meet the truck when it came to a stop. Cristina hopped out of the driver's side even as Rafa was exiting from the passenger side. She had not spotted the two men until then, and she reacted with surprise and a smile.

"Hey, I wasn't sure whether you two were coming in today or tomorrow," Lucas told her. "Do you need a hand or four?" he asked, indicating himself and looking to his college friend. He'd had no doubt of the answer, which was why he'd made the offer before getting the answer, and he was pleased to see that he'd been correct. In the next moment, he realized that the two of them had yet to actually meet. They hadn't managed to cross paths in all the process of her selection and hiring, but that was all changing, which demanded some introductions. Bishop and Cristina shook hands, even as Rafa appeared, demanding another round of the pair exchanging names.

The Vega mother and son didn't have a whole lot that they were bringing over. They were moving into a couple of neighboring rooms on the ground floor, and they had storage in the basement, which was off limits from guests save for access to the washing machine and drier, but beyond that they were just living out of the house as it was set-up to receive their guests when they would have guests. Lucas knew that while Rafa was beyond excited for them to move into the house and on to the property, excited to get his new room all set up, Cristina couldn't help but be a bit apprehensive. She was still having to discover the line, the balance that would exist between this place becoming her home and also being the business which she'd be in charge of, reporting to Lucas as he'd be in charge of the property at large. She wasn't doubting her choice to take the job, not at all, but she needed to adjust to this change in a whole other way than her son would.

Lucas and Bishop had offered to help with the unloading of the truck, and they did, but it didn't take long for them to guess that mother and son had done most of if not all of the loading themselves without assistance. They were a great team, as they had always been, and that was something that both Lucas and Bishop had to respect. They followed Cristina's lead, seeing to the moving of the bigger furniture pieces before busying themselves at getting all the items set aside for basement storage into the basement. By the time this was accomplished, the rest of the truck had been emptied. Cristina was helping Rafa reassemble his bed, as they'd already taken care of hers, and as soon as they finished, the boy was digging into his boxes, the better to unpack them. Cristina wanted to return the rented truck, so while Bishop went back to the dog retreat, Lucas pitched in with Rafa and his room where he could.

"Did I hear right that you've been all packed up for like a month already?" Lucas asked as he stood back and let Rafa figure out his boxes of books for his shelves. At the question, the boy looked up and turned a bit sheepish before he nodded. "Your whole room?" Lucas asked.

"Mostly," Rafa confirmed. "They weren't all closed. I could still find my things if I needed them, I just… I don't know," he shrugged, but the answer was clear enough. He'd been anxious to get here, so much so that as soon as he'd had the boxes to do it, he'd done his packing. It didn't matter that there were still weeks ahead of the move: he'd been ready.

It was no wonder then that, by the time his mother returned, there were no more boxes in sight in his room. Everything was where it belonged, including posters and pictures on the walls. He'd even made his bed. When Cristina came and saw it, he asked if he could go and see the dogs, which he could, so off he went.

"Well, at least he's got everything in order…" Cristina reflected once he was gone, and Lucas smiled sympathetically. He asked if she needed help with anything, but she told him not to worry about it. She'd see to all of it in time. Mel's B&B was not opening officially until July, which would give her and Rafa a little while to get settled in, get used to the rhythm of their new life, so far as their new 'neighborhood' and their new home. "I don't think I could have done this if it wasn't for him," she added as they moved out to the swinging seat on the porch. Lucas knew without her saying more just how much weight this statement carried. There could very easily have been a time, a world, where she didn't have him, if she'd never gone and gotten him back so soon after giving him away.

"Hey, listen, I know you've probably had a long day with the move, but if you're up to it, we'd love to have you two over for dinner back at my house," Lucas extended the invitation when, having heard of what he'd been doing before she'd arrived, Cristina offered to help him with the last of the cleanup.

"Oh, I wouldn't want to…" she started to say, and he quickly replied.

"It wouldn't be any trouble, really. Bishop will be there, too, him and his daughter. She's at my in-laws' along with my girls, but they'll all be back there, too. We would love to have you guys over."

From there, Cristina had been left to admit that the alternative would have been her and Rafa and some take-out. It wouldn't have been a bad alternative, but this would be cozier, livelier, and so she accepted. When the time came for them to make for the Friar house, they went to find that Bishop had gotten caught up in seeing to their most recent arrival – he apologized for not returning to help with the cleanup – after which he'd been joined by the middle schooler. Bishop had gotten into telling Rafa about the retreat and its inner workings. The boy already had his small jobs he did regularly around the property, and he could always be counted on to take the dogs for walks, so now that he was going to be here a lot more, he wanted to let this be reflected in his knowledge and his means to be helpful. That was him and it had always been him, according to Cristina. Even before he could walk, he'd be sitting there, watching her every move with this look to him like he was seeking the means to be of assistance.

Soon, they were all back at the house, Rafa joining the Friar girls and Evangeline Nicholas, and for being the sole boy and near on twice as old as the oldest among the girls, he was kind and open with them as they played, which left his mother to sit and chat with Lucas, Maya, and Bishop. There was a lot of bridging of gaps to be done, as both the manager of the B&B and the doctor in charge of the dogs' retreat had heard plenty of talk about one another but had never met. Now that they had actually come to meet, it was nice to have some context to the anecdotes, whether it went to old stories of Bishop and Lucas at school together on their way to becoming veterinarians or to the entire revelation that Rafa had come oh so close to being Lucas' cousin.

It was a lovely evening all around, and Cristina was ever more thankful now that she had accepted the invitation instead of staying at the house and fussing over her boxes and the quiet of the big house with only her and Rafa in it. Bishop thanked them, too, before taking the sleeping Evie so they might start on the long drive back to Houston.

"You're thinking it, too, aren't you?" Lucas asked as they closed the door after their guests were gone. Maya turned to look at him.

"Thinking what?" she asked. He gave her a look, but he got nothing in return. She genuinely didn't know what he meant. Lucas pointed out the door. Maya looked there, then back to him, needing a moment more before… "Oh?" she blinked, intrigued.

"You're telling me you didn't see anything?" Lucas was surprised.

"I don't know, I might have had a thought… here and there… But I have been accused of being a bit of a meddling matchmaker in the past, so…"

"So, when has that stopped you?" Lucas suggested, laughing at her mock affronted look. "What do we do now?"

"Now, we get to bed. I'm beat," Maya sighed. He waited. "Tomorrow though, I'm not sure what, but we'll think of something." There it is. Whether or not something would actually happen between Bishop and Cristina, they couldn't say, not yet, but there was something about the potential they both carried, wasn't there? Who knew…

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners