“Sorry, love, but that’s not going to be possible,” Lincoln said.

“You reap what you sow, my dear,” Elmer said to his daughter.

“I did not sow them to use words like that in my house!”

“It’s because you let them run wild, Mom,” Hannah said gravely. “We got all the rules, but by the time the babies came along, you were worn out.”

“Ahhh, I love game night,” Colton said from his post, stretched out on the living room floor. “Every year it’s a big fat disaster.”

“Spoken like one of the younger ones who got to run wild,” Will said.

“Not our fault you guys wore them out,” Colton replied.

Landon used his thumb to point to Colton. “What he said.”

“Maybe they’ll get called into work,” Hannah said.

“No such luck, sis,” Landon said. “We’ve got the whole week off.”

“Awesome,” Charley said. “We need a petition against them for charades and Pictionary. Who’s with me?”

All hands went up except for two.

“I feel discriminated against,” Lucas said to his twin.

“Me, too. Screw them. Let’s get drunk.”

“With you, brother.”

“This is when the drinking portion of the evening usually begins in earnest,” Grayson told Emma. “When people start quitting in protest.”

“It’s amazing they all speak to each other the rest of the year.”

“Isn’t it?”

“Does your family do stuff like this, too?”

“Not like they do. It was different for us after my dad left.”

With the others engaged in conversation and friendly arguments, Emma had the privacy to ask, “Do you have any idea where he is?”

“Nope. None of us have heard from him in years.”

“So he tried to keep in touch?”

“At first we got the occasional effort, but we were all so angry with him for what he’d done to us and Mom that he stopped trying after a while.”

“Did you ever find out why he left?”

“Not from him. Over the years, my mom has hinted at not being as surprised as she should’ve been when he bailed on the marriage. She never expected him to bail on us, though. Henry and Sarah, the youngest in our family, barely remember him living at home. They’re the lucky ones.”

That last part said a lot about how much his father’s desertion had affected him. Not caring who might be watching—or who might disapprove—Emma reached for his hand.

He glanced at her, seeming surprised by the public display of affection.

“I’m sorry that happened to you.”

Shrugging, he said, “It was a long time ago.”

“Still…”

“Yeah. Still.”