“Why would you say something like that to your dad? You’re such a hard worker, Telly. We all know it. You’ve never let us down. Never. Rowan, you should apologize right now.”

Rowan dragged his knife back and forth through the potato salad so it was tic-tac-toe. “You guys were talking about having an honest day and all. Well, I was just being honest too.”

Then Telly threw a rib bone down into his plate. “Jesus, Glow. You didn’t tell me I was walking into a goddamned trap.”

It got dark in that room fast. Like night came and no one noticed.

“It’s the age, Telly, darling. You see what I’ve been dealing with here? He’s tetchy all the time.”

“Still. No reason for him to be acting so ugly.”

“No reason? You can’t blame him after everything’s gone on. It’s going to take some time. Once you’re all settled away, things’ll get back on track.”

“Settled away?”

“Yeah. The drawers’re empty. Not like I filled them up with someone else’s stuff.”

Something jabbed at my leg. Hot and sharp. I yelped and tears came out. Gloria looked at me hard. She touched my arm with one hand and pulled the other one out from underneath the table and put her fork down.

“What is it, sweetheart? What’s got you so upset?”

“I got stung. My le—”

“It’s Telly, isn’t it? Such a relief to have him back.” She was nodding and nodding and soon my head was nodding too. “Isn’t it, Bids.”

“Mm-hmm.” I hiccuped and wiped my face. I rubbed the spot on my leg.

“A relief. I know it is. For both of you.” She smiled.

Telly sniffed and licked at the red around his mouth. “I can try better. Row? Bids? We can do more. Go for a drive. A bite to eat. Out for a movie. They just built that new cinema over by Stafford’s, right, Glow? We could go check it out, if that’s okay with everyone.”

“ ’Course it is, Telly.” Gloria made a purr. She sounded like a cat nobody owned. “You don’t need to say that, but I know it’s music to their ears.” Then she got shy. “To my ears, too.”

“But, Glow?” He cleared his throat. “We need to get a couple things out of the way first.”

“Won’t be a big deal. Not like you got a lot to bring in. Bag of clothes and your guns.”

“That’s not what I meant. My boss says you got to stop calling. That’s a big part of why I’m here. I figured we could try to be civil about things, for the sake of the kids. I want to make sure you get that message about calling the garage loud and clear.”

“What message?”