I was thinking there were a lot of good reasons to have Joe around but at that moment his putting the fear of God into pipsqueak boy-men (no matter how cute they were) who hurt my daughter was at the top of my list.

I crossed my arms on my chest and stared at Dane as he swallowed and his Adam’s apple bobbed. Then Dane plucked up the courage and stepped forward.

“Mr. Callahan,” his eyes came to me, “Miz Winters, I need to talk to Katy.”

“You need to talk to Kate, why you talkin’ to us?” Joe enquired and I looked at him to see his arms crossed on his chest in a new sinister, scary pose. This one was both alpha-male and man-of-the-house-slash-father-figure-you-did-not-mess-with.

“Uh…” Dane muttered, struck dumb by Joe’s sinister, scary pose.

“Your girl’s standin’ right in front of you, kid,” Joe prompted when Dane seemed frozen to the spot and this lasted awhile and that while included a number of people as his audience, all eyes on him. “You came to make a move, make it.”

Dane swallowed again, nodded and looked at Kate. “Can we talk?”

“Only one thing I want to hear you say,” Kate replied and I was proud of my girl for sticking to her guns and not letting some boy-man (no matter how cute he was) treat her like dirt.

“Can I say it out on the back deck?” Dane asked.

Kate looked over her shoulder at Joe and Joe tipped his chin at her.

This was when I realized that I’d lost a little bit of both my daughters. They’d taken it from me and given it to Joe.

Other women might be jealous of this or they might be alarmed.

I wasn’t.

Joe had given us everything. It was just our way of giving back. Not a lot of men would appreciate the gifts Keira and Kate were giving him and doing it so freely, but I reckoned Joe did.

“Back deck,” Kate agreed and turned, leading a flush-faced Dane through the living room and study and out the back sliding glass door.

“That’s Dane,” Keira announced to the room unnecessarily when the sliding door closed. “He’s Kate’s boyfriend and he’s in the dog house.”

Vinnie chuckled in the direction of Gary who was pressing his lips together.

“I need more coffee,” Theresa declared. “Bea, do you need more coffee?”

“Yes, yes, I think I do,” Bea said softly.

“I’ll make another pot,” I offered.

“No, cara mia, you sit, relax or better yet, find a place to eavesdrop.” Theresa’s eyes went to the back deck. “I’ll make it.”

“I’ll help,” Bea moved with Theresa to the kitchen.

“I can make it, that’s okay. I don’t eavesdrop on the girls,” I told them and Theresa and Bea stopped dead and turned to me.

“You don’t?” Theresa asked, her voice horrified.

“I trust my girls,” I said carefully, not wanting to be insulting by intimating she hadn’t done the same with her children.

“Well,” Theresa threw a hand out, “I guess I can see that, bein’ girls and all. My Carmella was an angel but I also had three boys. Three hot-blooded Italian boys with more hormones than the Chicago metropolitan area could contain. If they weren’t gettin’ in trouble with girls, they were fightin’ with boys. Bloody knuckles. Bras in their beds. Did my head in.”

Bea just stared at me, knowing that hormones weren’t exclusive to hot-blooded Italian boys. Hormones went both ways and they didn’t discriminate by culture, they just ran rampant through teenagers as a whole.

“It’ll be okay, Bea,” I assured her. “I had a talk with Kate and Joe had a talk with Dane.”

“Yeah,” Keira put in, “and Joe scares the crap outta Dane.”

I watched as Gary came forward and clapped Joe on the shoulder. “Saw that,” he muttered. “Liked it,” he went on, looking at his wife not at Joe and my heart turned over with happiness. Joe had Gary’s seal of approval or at least it was heading that way. “Hon, could seriously use another cup,” he said to Bea.

“Right, love,” Bea whispered and moved to the kitchen, Theresa on her heels.

Joe was looking out the sliding glass doors, seemingly oblivious to everything going on around him, his mind on what was happening on the back deck. I walked to him, put my hands on his chest and pressed him down in the armchair. He resisted but not much, especially when I climbed into his lap once I got him seated. Maybe sitting in his lap was a bit too much but I figured since we’d already had a variety of dramas, the best way forward was just to be ourselves.

If Bea and Gary didn’t like it, I couldn’t help that.

Then again with all the dramas, I reckoned they wouldn’t have any problem with it.

“We don’t eavesdrop,” I told him as his arms came around me.

“Don’t have to, buddy.”

I cocked my head to the side. “We don’t?”

“Dane isn’t stupid. He’ll do right by Kate. He doesn’t, Kate isn’t stupid. She’ll dump his ass,” he paused before finishing, “again.”

I got closer to his face and whispered, “You ready for at least four straight years of teenage girl boy drama?”

Joe’s face shifted to tender then his eyes moved to Keira and I saw humor light them.

Then he looked at me. “Keira’s up next so we might need to talk to Doc about Valium.”

“You think you’ll need Valium?” I asked, surprised.

“Was thinkin’ for you.”

“I’ll be all right.”

“Keirry’s a bit wild, baby.”

I got closer. “That’s okay, I’ve got you to help me deal.”

The humor left his eyes and they went intense. I held my breath because I was certain he was going to kiss me and do it hard. I was certain of this because he’d looked that way before, right when he kissed me and did it hard.

To stop Joe kissing me hard in front of Gary and Bea (and Theresa), something I figured they might have a problem with (especially the way Joe did it), I continued. “And to scare the bejeezus out of any boy who gets ideas.”

Joe grinned at me right when we heard Gary ask, “What in the hell?”

I looked in his direction. He’d moved to stand at the back of the couch by Keira but he was looking out the window.

“Granddad!” Keira shouted and jumped off the couch as I stared through the window at my father walking along the front of the house.

“Oh my God,” I whispered, my body solid, hoping my mother wasn’t with him and also wondering what was next. The sky falling? The earth standing still? Perhaps a meteor would crash into the Atlantic Ocean and a tidal wave would wash half of the continental United States into the sea.

“What the fuck?” Joe muttered tersely but his body was not solid. He was not thinking of meteors. His thoughts were something else entirely.

He surged up, his arms still around me taking me with him. He planted me on my feet, let me go and stalked to the door.

By the time he got there, me hot on his heels, Keira had it open and she was giving my father a big hug.

“It is a family reunion!” she cried with excitement then asked, “Did you bring Mel with you?” and she looked beyond my father out the door. I noted she didn’t ask if Dad brought my Mom but instead she asked after Mel. My girls weren’t big fans of my mother. No one was, of course, since my Mom was a bitch. But Madeline Riley had been a cold, hard, disapproving mother and she was no less of any of those things as a grandmother – even not having been around very often.

Joe came to stand behind Keira and the second she cleared my father, his arm hooked around her chest and he stepped back, taking Keira with him and not letting go. His eyes were on my Dad and they were far from welcoming.

I moved to stand by them. “Dad, what’re you doin’ here?”

Dad was looking at Joe then his eyes came to me and I noticed belatedly that something wasn’t right about him as in really not right. He didn’t seem to process that Joe was looking unwelcoming and pretty much no one but a blind person could ignore Joe’s unwelcome look.

Therefore, I braced.

“Left your Mom,” Dad announced, straight out.

“What?” I whispered.

“Fuck,” Joe muttered.

“What!” Keira shouted.

Dad yanked an agitated hand through his hair, shaking his head from side to side, not even aware he had a further audience than just Keira (who shouldn’t be hearing this), Joe, (who he didn’t even know) and me (who didn’t want to hear this).

“I… I can’t take it anymore, Vi. She… with Sam… and when Tim…” His eyes shot to Joe then came back to me and I watched as his face crumbled and he whispered, “Jesus, sweetie, I lost my son.” Then his hands covered his face and he dissolved into shoulder shaking sobs.

My heart right back in my throat threatening to choke me, I moved forward and wrapped my arms around my father.

“Dad,” I whispered.

“I lost him, I lost Sam,” Dad moaned into his hands, not taking them from his face. “And because of her I didn’t have you, I didn’t have the girls, my boy was gone and I didn’t have anything.” His head came up and his watery eyes caught mine. “You kids, both of you, living with that woman, you were my shining lights. The way she was when you… with Tim…” His breath hitched. “Then you were gone and my world dimmed but I still had Sam. Now I don’t have Sam and you come to the funeral and you don’t even look at me and my grandchildren are nearly grown and I barely know them!”

He ended on a shout and ripped out of my arms.

“Dad,” I muttered, trying to get close again but he took two angry steps into the house and turned with a jerk to face me.

“This morning she found out about the money, that money I gave Sam to give to you and she went berserk,” Dad yelled. “Sam’s dead not even a month and she finds out I gave you and the girls a little something and she acted like I sold State secrets!”