“But…then I spotted Daniela in a booth. With her ex-girlfriend. And they were, well, wrapped around each other.” She looks down at her plate.

“Oh, hell,” Griffin says. “I’m going to kill her.”

“Honey,” Ruth says quietly. “Are you sure you interpreted that correctly?”

“She absolutely did,” I put in.

Pity rises in the room like a mist, and I can feel May’s embarrassment from all the way across the table.

“Did you confront her?” Griffin asks.

“You could say that.” May looks up, her eyes finding mine, her cheeks going pink.

“Oh-oh!” Zara says. “Were their fireworks?”

“Nah,” I say at the same time May says, “Unfortunately.”

Cue another curious silence.

“Well, fine,” I admit. “May yelled. But who wouldn’t?”

“I may have used some very colorful language,” May grumbles.

“Oh, honey,” her mother says. Maybe the Shipley women aren’t supposed to curse.

“I called her a…” May closes her mouth quickly, realizing that she doesn’t want to say “cuntmuffin” in front of my niece.

A bark of a laugh escapes me, and for a split second our eyes meet in a silent exchange of humor.

“Well.” Ruth sighs. “I’m so sorry. I guess it’s better to know what she’s done.”

“True.” May picks up her fork and plays with the food on her plate. “Anyway. Here I am. Alec took me by the house and helped me make a quick getaway.”

“She was cheatin’?” Grandpa Shipley hollers. “On you? What a super bitch!”

“Grandpa,” several Shipleys say at once.

“A bitch is a female dog.” Grandpa sniffs. “Not a curse word.”

“If you put super in front of it…” Dylan starts.

“Quiet, boy,” Grandpa snarls. “I’m quite worked up. I think a slice of pie might calm me down.”

“I like how you think,” I say, and then shove another piece of ham in my craw so I won’t add, “About Daniela as well as the pie.”

“I’ll start the coffee,” Audrey Shipley says, lifting her pregnant belly out of her chair.

“I got it!” three other people say at once. This little race to save Audrey a trip to the kitchen is won by Zara. “We need to wiggle anyway,” she insists, setting Nicole on the floor.

“Wow.” Audrey eases down into the chair again. “I should have gotten pregnant before now.”

“The way you two go at it it’s kind of a surprise you didn’t,” Grandpa mumbles into his water glass.

Who knew the Shipley’s Thursday dinner was so entertaining? Grandpa is my favorite. He doesn’t have the same stick up his ass that Griffin does. Maybe it skips the occasional generation.

I shovel in more of my excellent food and hope they’ll leave May alone now. And maybe I can help by changing the topic. “Hey, Audrey? How’s your new employee working out?”

“Oh!” She pats her round belly and gets a soft expression on her face. “He’s dreamy.”

Griffin snorts beside her. “Tell ’im why.”

“I get to sleep in most mornings now! He opens the coffee shop four days a week. And he’s begun making fresh bread along with the pastries we were making before. Not only is it profitable, but the coffee shop smells like heaven when I roll in every morning at ten.”