As Hannah went off to the kitchen to pour Andrea’s wine, she wondered what her sister would have said if she hadn’t invited her to dinner. She didn’t think Andrea would have gone back home and ended her stalemate with Bill. That just wasn’t in the cards quite yet. Would she have gone somewhere else, perhaps out to her high school friend Lucy Dunwright’s place in the country? Or would she have parked in the garage and stayed in her car until she was sure that Bill was in bed? It must be terrible to fight with the man you loved. And it must be doubly difficult if you were Andrea. Andrea was as stubborn as they came and she wouldn’t back down easily. And unfortunately, although Hannah knew that Bill loved Andrea to distraction, he was just as stubborn as Andrea was and he wouldn’t be the first to back down. This could go on for weeks with neither of them giving an inch. Hannah knew that she would have to do something to get them back together soon, before the wall of contention between them became a permanent barrier.

“Here you go,” Hannah said, handing the glass of Cost-Mart’s cheapest jug wine to her sister. Andrea fancied herself as a wine snob and Hannah had taken care, over the years, never to let her see the green gallon jug she kept in the bottom of her refrigerator.

“Oh, thank you, Hannah!” Andrea said after she’d taken her first sip. “I just love this wine. It has such depth and complexity.”

“Glad you like it,” Hannah said, and left it at that. She knew that if she ever told Andrea that the wine she privately called Chateau Screwtop had cost less than ten dollars a jug, Andrea would never drink it again.

Hannah had just taken a seat next to Norman on the couch when the doorbell rang again.

“I’ll get it,” Michelle said, rushing to the door. When she came back to usher in two more dinner guests, Michelle was beaming and Hannah knew that was because one of the guests was Lonnie.

“Hi, Lonnie,” Hannah greeted him and then she turned to Mike. “Sit down, Mike. It’s been a long day for you.”

“Not as bad as usual,” Mike said, sitting down on the couch on the other side of Hannah. “I put in longer days than this when I was working for the department.”

“How about you, Lonnie?” Hannah asked him.

“This is my day off so I went down to the Cities with Mike,” Lonnie said, accepting the glass of iced tea that Michelle had brought for him.

“Tell us all about it after we eat,” Hannah said, getting up from her spot on the couch. “Please find places at the table and I’ll get us started with the salad.”