div align="center">

"	Gene's Story or How I Gained a Cousin < A novel by Karen Lockhart Copyright 2016

CHAPTER 50

Steve showed up at the site five minutes after we did, but he had brought coffee and muffins from the Dunkin Donuts down the street.

“No offence Ellen, but I like double D's coffee a lot better than that Kurig stuff, besides, we needed muffins.”

That's Steve. He'll never change. Thank Goodness!

“I suppose you lovely ladies are wondering why I'm here so early? That's because I'm leaving for Puerto Rico in two hours, not to be seen here again until next Tuesday.” Steve smirked at me and said, “After all, look how hard I work, I need the time off.”

“Good, may I have the key to the condo in Waterville Valley? And we need to talk.”

He handed Ginny the key, looked at me, smiled, and asked, “Now what, beautiful?”

“Steve, you're aware of Ginny's true condition, and her given name, but did I ever tell you the whole story?”

“No, not really Ellen.”

“She saw and overheard a major drug deal being planned. Ginny also saw Vincent Morales giving orders to a major distributor of cocaine and money in New England. She ran into our office to hide from Morales himself, because he thought she'd overheard him. Now it turns out, his daughter takes riding lessons with me, and if you can believe it, Morales tried to pick her up!”

Steve looked at Ginny and grinned. “He'd be a damned fool not to try.” he said.

“You can't believe how much she appreciates the ID's you got her, but now's the time to get legitimate licenses and charge cards. To do this, she has to have a legal name change in Probate Court. She'll stick with the SSN card for now, but may change the name on her original card.

“She needs to file a request with a Probate judge, and take out a newspaper ad stating the name change. For this, I think Ginny should use a lawyer. Do you know a lawyer that could help?”

“Girly, I know just the guy. He plays golf with my brother, Jim. I've got his phone number in my truck, hold on, I'll get it.”

With that, Steve ran out the door. He missed the sound of me grinding my teeth over the word “Girly”, but I'll guarantee he was grinning as he went to his truck. A moment later, he bounced back in with the number written on a business card.

Ginny looked at me in wonder. “How did he do that so fast?”

I just shrugged.

“Here's his number, tell him you work for me, and he'll take good care of you. Now, I'm off to sun and sand. Happy Thanksgiving.”

Ginny and I finished the muffins, apple and spice, my favorite after blueberry.

Wednesday couldn't come fast enough. Tuesday afternoon, we shopped for a cute, warm ski jacket and several heavy sweaters. Ginny was delirious with joy. I was just with her.

The Explorer was packed, Tina's and my skis on the roof rack. We told Tina to wait for us, no sense having her carry a suitcase across the busy street. I drove around back of her apartment where she and the suitcases were waiting, and ten minutes later we were headed north for Route 93 and New

Hampshire.

With three girls in the car, there was no lack of talking for the two hour ride. Soon we arrived at Steve's condo with plenty of daylight left to unload the SUV and make a fire in the living room fireplace.

Ginny had a large cardboard box in the backseat, marked 'Thursday'. When she went to retrieve it I asked what was in it. She smiled, and answered, “Not cook for Thanksgiving dinner? What kind of chef do you think I am? That's tomorrow's dinner!”

I was flabbergasted, “Ginny, I planned for you to take it easy, no dinners, just skiing and restaurants.”

“Creating a feast for Thanksgiving is a joy, not work. Besides, we'll eat leftovers for the rest of the weekend. I hope you and Tina like turkey.”

“Ginny, you are amazing, I was planning for us to ski all day tomorrow, and had reservations for dinner.”

“You and Tina go, I'll cook and watch the Macy's parade. On second thoughts call and cancel the reservation, we won't need it. As a matter of fact, I have tonight's dinner all set. If you can eat it again, lobster salad and seafood chowder. I cheated, The chowder is Legal Seafood's.”

Supper in front of a fire is the finest kind. I just love the seasons in New England. Then we headed to bed. Ginny and I would share the master bedroom, while Tina had the small bedroom to herself.

Thanksgiving dawned with a gentle snow falling, perfect for skiing. Tina and I had a breakfast of coffee and toast. We gave Ginny a hug and said we'd be back by three in the afternoon.

“Perfect! I'll have dinner ready, with only carving the bird to do. Be careful driving, it looks slippery out there.”

Tina and I headed for the slopes. After buying a lift ticket we got hot chocolate before skiing. The chocolate finished, we started with the intermediate slopes to warm up. Neither of us had skied for a while.

Soon we were worn out. Tina checked her watch. “Perfect timing, let's head back, it's almost 2:30, dinner's at three don't forget.”

We walked in to the aroma of roasted turkey, and pumpkin spices from a fresh pie cooling on the counter.

Dinner was absolutely wonderful; the turkey was moist, the gravy like silk, and Ginny's stuffing was delicious. While watching the late NFL game we had pumpkin pie with whipped cream.

Tina looked at Ginny and me and groaned, “I don't know about you two, but I'll be happy to walk, let alone ski tomorrow. I ate far too much.”

We laughed at that and helped with the left-overs and washing the pots and dishes.

The alarm went off at 7am. I reluctantly crawled of bed and headed for the loo, beating Ginny by a nose. I came out and she rushed in. I wondered, was there a second bathroom? I went toward Tina's room, listening for the sound of a shower.

There it was, Tina had her own bathroom!

I found Steve's coffee maker and a can of Maxwell House coffee. I made six cups, figuring a second cup each. I'd leave breakfast to Ginny to dream up.

Soon Tina and Ginny joined me, both thankful for the strong coffee.

“I've got bacon and eggs for today, and pancakes for tomorrow. Unless you want the eggs tomorrow?”

“Eggs today,” Tina and I said in unison. “And toast,” I added.

In no time we finished breakfast and packed up for a day's skiing. Tina and I stuck together, while Ginny trolled for young ski instructors at the double diamond trails.

A little later, it looked as if she hooked one; a tall, blonde, twenty something seemed to be smitten, following her every move.

Tina got a charge out of this. “I need to get some tips from her. Look at me, I'm skiing with you, not him.”

“You're a fine one to talk, what am I, chopped liver? Where's my date?”

Tina and I finished our ski runs for the day, and were in the chalet coffee shop waiting for Ginny. We were surprised when she showed up sans beef-cake.

Tina was cute, asking if Ginny was done with him, then could she have him to play with?

We opted for pizza for dinner on Friday, but planned for a turkey dinner on Saturday night.
I woke up Saturday to the odor of turkey stew on the stove. What time did Ginny get up?

“This will be for Sunday night, I have enough for turkey and stuffing sandwiches, not just dinner tonight.”

“Ginny, why don't we open a small restaurant of our own? We'll call it “Chez Virginia”, or “Ginny's Restaurant Service”, you know, GRS for short.”

She hit me with a wooden spoon. “Shh, Tina will hear.”

“Take it easy, kiddo, she won't know what GRS is, all she would have heard is SRS.”

Tina came out, looking like a million dollars. “Are you two ready? Let's go, breakfast is on me.”