You can’t ride two horses with one hind end. Her Poppa’s words came back to haunt her. You got to choose which one to ride so choose carefully, darlin’.

“Gather round and start building your burgers to suit you,” Jasmine called out as she lifted a basket of fries from the hot grease, shook them a few times and then poured them out on a tray.

Ace was first in line and loaded a plate with two burgers and fries, then headed to the table. When everyone was seated, he held up his iced tea glass. “Here’s to burgers, fries, good times like tonight, and most of all good friends.”

“Hear, hear!” Raylen raised his glass and sent a sly wink toward Liz.

It’s always been Raylen. Liz remembered what she’d said to Jasmine a few weeks before.

“Y’all are so cute,” Jasmine said.

“And I’m jealous.” Gemma dipped a french fry into ketchup and popped it into her mouth.

Dewar grinned. “Won’t do you,” he glanced at Raylen and then shifted his gaze back toward Gemma, “or you any good. You know Dad’s rule. I’m next, and I’m going to be a cranky old bachelor.”

“Who needs a marriage license?” Raylen asked.

“That’s right!” Gemma chimed in.

“I’ll marry you, Dewar,” Jasmine offered. “We can get married one day and divorced the next. That way these two won’t have to live in sin and upset Grandma.”

Ace groaned dramatically. “Oh, no, you won’t! I’m going to marry you someday, Jasmine. When I’m too old to chase women, I’m going to settle down with you.”

“Why me?” Jasmine asked.

“Because you can cook,” Ace said with a grin.

Liz loved getting her house decorated and presents wrapped for her carnival family party, but not even that had been as much fun as sitting around the table with friends.

Dewar raised his glass and said, “An Irish toast to us all: May the best day of our past be the worst day of our future.”

Gemma’s glass touched his and then Raylen’s. “May luck be your friend wherever you go and may trouble never be your friend.”

Ace raised his and chuckled. “May you live as long as you want, and never want as long as you live! May you live to be a hundred years, with one extra year to repent.”

Raylen held his glass up, looked right into Liz’s eyes and said: “Wishing you a rainbow, for sunlight after showers, miles and miles of Irish smiles for golden happy hours, shamrocks at your doorway, for luck and laughter too, and a host of friends that never ends each day your whole life through.”

Liz leaned over and kissed him. “I love every one of those toasts. I’ll add the one that hangs in my mama’s travel trailer: Even with fire in our blood, an unbridled spirit, and a wild heart, home will always be where the heart is, whether on the road or sitting still. So, here’s to home.”