“Hello, sugar pie.” Parr reached down to pick up his cousin’s little girl and toss her playfully into the air. When his strong arms caught her to him in a hug, she rewarded him with a wet kiss right on his jawline. “That happens to be my assistant, Ms. Cash, if you really need to know.”

“Oh.” Satisfied with that answer, the child kicked her chubby legs as Parr set her back down on the floor.

“Hey,” Bobby Joe called out teasingly to Gail. “You’re looking good. So how do you like working for my hardheaded brother?”

“Never a dull moment.” She fended off his flirtatious interest with a wave of her hand. “Does that pretty lady on your lap know what a hopeless flirt you are?”

The sudden silence was deafening. Everyone seemed to be waiting for Mary Beth’s reaction to the unintentionally tactless comment.

Parr’s voice broke the tension. “Bobby Joe doesn’t do that anymore, Gail.”

Relief spread through the room like the smell of honeysuckle on a warm spring night.

“Unlike his big brother.” All heads turned, surprised by Mary Beth’s caustic remark.

Parr responded after a slight pause. “I’m not engaged to the girl of my dreams.”

Mary Beth squirmed on Bobby Joe’s lap, putting an arm around his neck. “Is that what I am to you?” she asked her fiancé softly. Irrationally, she wanted Parr to envy his brother, to still desire her. Would he try again to persuade her to do wrong and cheat on Bobby Joe somehow if he got her alone?

“Baby, you’re every man’s dream.” Bobby Joe gave her an affectionate peck on the cheek.

“I wish AJ still said things like that to me,” a very pregnant Eve Ross sighed. She rested a hand on top of her belly, her topaz eyes moving from the engaged couple cuddling in the recliner to the couple still standing.

There was a murmur of masculine protest from elsewhere in the room. Parr realized that his cousin-in-law, AJ Ross, was attending the party via video when a male voice came from a computer screen and AJ’s face appeared.

“And I wish he didn’t have to work so much,” Eve added wistfully.

“Good Lord, girl,” Alma said with fond scorn. “Is that the biggest problem in your life? Some women don’t know when they have it good.”

Eve’s husband did his duty and assured her that no other woman had ever looked so lovely in her eighth month. Then he blew her a kiss and said good-bye to all. The screen faded to black.

“Sit down, you two,” Eve said to Parr and Gail. “Aunt Alma and I—if I can get up and that is a big if—were about to bring in Mary Beth’s birthday cake.”

“Me too,” Carrie squealed. “I get to help Mary Beth blow out the candles!”