Hannah nodded. It was all she could do. She was still chewing her bite of pizza and her mouth was filled with sausage and pepperoni.

“Hi, Mike,” Norman said once he’d picked up the receiver. There was a pause and then he laughed. “Just a lucky guess. We’re all here eating pizza and there’s plenty for you. Where are you?”

There was another pause. Mike was obviously answering Norman’s question. And then Norman spoke again. “Sure. Just come on up and we’ll set another plate.”

Once Mike had joined the group, they all ate in silence for several minutes. Then Delores turned to Hannah. “Doc has something to tell you, dear.”

“Not now, Lori,” Doc said. “We’re eating.”

Delores looked puzzled. “Is it something we can’t discuss while we’re eating?”

“Yes.”

“Then it has something to do with that man Hannah hit?”

Doc looked around the table apologetically. “Sorry,” he told them. And then he reached out to take Delores’s hand. “This isn’t twenty questions, Lori. And it’s not appropriate conversation for the dinner table. We’ll discuss all this after dessert.”

Hannah turned to smile at him. “How do you know there’ll be dessert?”

“There has to be dessert. You always make dessert. And I’ll bet it’s something you want us to test. Am I right?”

“You’re right,” Hannah said. “It’s vanilla ice cream with a new cookie I just made.” She stopped speaking as she heard a familiar sound. It was a loud thump followed by a quieter thump as the cats jumped from her bed to the floor of her bedroom. “Uh-oh!” she said, reaching for the basket of garlic bread and closing the lid on the closest pizza box. “Feet up, everybody! They’re coming fast!”

Everyone knew the essentials when there was a call for “feet up.” Norman finished closing the pizza boxes, Michelle steadied the salad bowl, Lonnie put the cover on the containers with the extra meatballs and the freshly grated mozzarella, Doc picked up the extra pitcher of iced tea that sat on the table, and everyone grabbed for their drinking glasses or coffee cups. Almost in unison and just in time, they tucked up their feet as the cats came racing into the room with Moishe in the lead and Cuddles chasing him.

There was another thump as Moishe lost purchase with his claws on the carpet and skidded into the table leg. Whether it was a planned ploy or a simple accident didn’t matter. Hannah had given them enough warning to secure everything so that none of their dinner fell to the floor.

“No steak this time, Moishe,” Lonnie said, remembering the time his steak has fallen to the floor at Norman’s house and the cats had made off with it.