Further making things seem almost festive was the fact that Uncle Levi, although having a short fuse, was clearly the funny uncle and much beloved by his siblings’ progeny because laughter rang from the card tables across the way with a lot of giggled, “Uncle Levi! ”

shrieked from Ellie.

Since we made it through dessert without another scene, I relaxed and unfortunately let my guard down.

Therefore, I wasn’t prepared to feel the snap and crackle of Brock’s mood to hit the room.


My head swiveled to him to see his back straight, his face like thunder and his eyes pointed out the window.

Then I heard from the card tables, “You are fuckin’ shitting me.”

This was Levi.

Then suddenly there was motion and that motion was Brock and Levi folding out of their chairs and the rest of us craning our necks to look out the window.

When we saw what we saw, I froze and stared.

Fern, Jill and Laura didn’t freeze.

Fern hissed, “Oh no, I do not think so.”

Jill snapped, “I do not believe that woman.”

And Laura bit off, “On Thanksgiving. ”

Then they jumped up and followed Brock and Levi, Cob going with them and both Fritz and Austin scooted closer to me with Fritz saying, “Kalie, honey, you and your sister get your cousins downstairs, yeah?”

Kalie turned her own angry face from her contemplation of the window (Kalie and Kellie, I had noted much like their younger counterparts, had a close relationship with their Uncle Slim and had also, it would appear, been old enough to have some dealings with Olivia and, it would also appear, had not liked those dealings) and she headed to the living room to do what she was told.

I hadn’t moved.

That was because Olivia was outside.

What on earth?

“Uh… who’s that?” Elvira asked the window, still looking out and now Olivia was standing on the front walk confronting the full force of the Lucas Brigade.

“Brock’s ex-wife,” I whispered.

“Oo lawdy,” Elvira whispered back.

She could say that again.

Half a second later, we heard Laura shriek, “Bitch! ” and we saw her lunge at Olivia.

Elvira repeated a whispered now emphasized, “Oo lawdy, ” and Austin muttered, “Fuck,”

at my side, pushed his chair back and took off as I watched Brock plant a hand in his sister’s chest, Cob wrap his arm around his daughter’s waist and pull back and Olivia lift both her extraordinary hands to her face and melt into beautiful woman tears which every woman on the face of the earth knew held magical powers over any man who was breathing as long as that man wasn’t blind.

Oh man.

“I’m just going to, uh… start to clear the dishes.” I heard Lenore whisper.

Fritz muttered, “Good idea, Lenore. Elvira? Tess, honey, why don’t you two help? I’m gonna go on outside.”

And outside words were being exchanged while Brock was leading a still sobbing Olivia down the walkway with a hand at the small of her back and I decided Lenore’s idea was an excellent one.

So I nodded, got up and started to help her as Fritz headed out.

“I got your back, sister, I’ll keep an eye out,” Elvira told me but I didn’t answer. I started loading my hands with plates.

After trip two when I was in the kitchen, I heard the reentry of the Lucas Brigade and this included Jill’s, “I do not, do not, do not believe that bitch. ”

“Jill, sweetheart, shush,” Cob shushed her.

“She’s a piece of work!” This was Laura and it wasn’t shushed, it was loud.

“Laurie, quiet… Tess.” This was, surprisingly, Levi.


I waited several seconds and then walked into the hall. They were all standing at the front door and all their eyes came to me.

“It’s okay,” I told them when I got nearer. “I’ve met her. It’s okay.”

Then I went back to the table and started clearing but, try as I might, I couldn’t keep my eyes from straying to the window and when I looked out I saw down the way that Brock and Olivia were standing by a silver Mercedes, Olivia still sobbing but now she was doing it with her face planted in Brock’s chest and his arms were around her.

Damn.

Damn.

Elvira got close and I tore my eyes away from the window.

“Why don’t you take Ellie and watch the movie?”

“I’m okay,” I whispered.

“I think that’s a good idea.” Fern was now also close. “Just go on up, I’ll send Ellie up with the DVD.”

“Really, I’m fine,” I lied.

Fern looked at Elvira. I gathered plates and went to the kitchen.

The men disappeared, the women all hit clearing mode and when the tables were nearly empty and I was going back to gather napkins and bits and bobs, Brock came in.

His eyes came to me and I saw at once they were not angry, not impatient but conflicted.

I’d seen him look conflicted before and it wasn’t a good memory.

“Hey,” I whispered as I moved to him.

“Hey,” he replied, distracted.

Oh man.

“Everything okay?” I asked.

“We’ll talk later,” he muttered. “Where’re the boys?”

“Downstairs.”

He nodded, his eyes going down the hall, he lifted his hand to my neck and after a short, preoccupied squeeze he walked down the hall and disappeared through the door to the basement.

I watched.

And while I watched it was not lost on me in any way that not once, not even in the beginning when he was Jake and he was undercover and all sorts of shit was going down, had he ever been distracted and preoccupied with me. I always had his full attention. Always.

Then I helped the girls do the dishes. Then Elvira said good-byes to everyone, gave her thanks and I walked her to her car.

“Your bad boy is hot,” she stated bizarrely, standing with me at her driver’s side door.

“What?” I asked, having walked with her while in my head and finally focusing on her.

“Your bad boy is hot,” she repeated. “She instigated a play.”

“Sorry?” I asked, feeling my brows draw together.

“Tess, hon, her ex-bad boy, ex- hot boy just hooked his star to a brand new, bright and shiny moon. He’s into his new moon. He traded up. He likes it. He’s gonna stay awhile. She knows this probably from her boys. She don’t like it. She instigated a play. Looks of her, she’s got a big playbook. She may not want him but doesn’t want anyone else to have him or she thinks she’s all that and never thought he’d move on and doesn’t like it that he has, it shook her awake and she’s finally lookin’ around and sees what she’s missin’. I’ll give it to her, it was a good play, drama, tears, family as an audience. But if he got shot of her ass, he’ll see through it. You just need to keep your chin up.”

I stared at her wondering if it was actually true that people did that kind of thing.

So I asked, “Do people actually do that kind of thing?”

“Uh… yeah,” she answered.


“They have children,” I told her.

“Right, Tess, and head’s up, right now, to her, whatever her game is, those two boys just stopped bein’ boys and they became pawns.”

Oh my God.

“She wouldn’t,” I whispered.

“Mark my words, girlfriend, that bitch has got bitch written all over her. You got your hands full, hon. Lucky for you, you got your posse and his family at your back. After she made that play, they were all whispering, worried about you. Not him, they know your boy sees it for what it is, they were worried about you ‘cause they know her for what she is and they know this is play one and right now she’s got her nose in her playbook, decidin’ what to do for play two. Chin up. He’ll see her play for what it is and he’ll be on the lookout for her next one. You just gotta ride that wave.”

Kentucky for the first time in awhile was looking good again.

This time, though, I was packing up Brock, Joel and Rex to take with me.

I said good-bye to Elvira, walked back to the house and was struck by Ellie Lightning the minute I made it through the door.

“Tangled! ” she screeched, I pushed aside my thoughts and smiled down at her.

“Tangled, ” I agreed.

And thus I found myself up in Fern’s bedroom lying across the foot of the bed with Ellie in her princess dress tucked in front of me.

Kalie and Kellie wandered up too and camped out on the floor. Jill and Fern came as well and lay behind us in the bed. Lenore and Laura were with the boys watching football.

Tangled turned to Beauty and the Beast which was one of my favorite movies ever, animated or not.

Still, I’d just had Thanksgiving dinner and it was Thanksgiving Law to pass out shortly after consumption of said dinner therefore I zonked out in the middle of it.

Therefore when I heard Ellie whisper loudly, “Uncle Slim, she’s sleeping, ” I woke up.

I blinked my eyes, surprised that I drifted off, to see Mulan playing behind Brock who was crouched by the bed and my eyes opened right before his hand curled warm around my neck.

“Time to go, sleepyhead,” he said softly to me. “Gotta get the boys home.”

Home. To Olivia’s.

I nodded, pushed up from the bed after giving Ellie a brief snuggle, tried to pull myself together through hugs and farewells and then found myself in the passenger seat of my own car, Brock driving, the boys in the back, the same arrangement as we arrived.

They chatted about football.

I stared out the window.