Dominique met Jake’s other brothers—Johnny and Mike—and their wives, and shortly after that names became a blur. Amid turkey with all the trimmings Dominique met no less than thirty people, all Jake’s kin. By the time they enjoyed desserts of pecan, sweet potato, and pumpkin pie (and a tangy lemon pound cake if pie wasn’t your thing) her head was spinning, partly from the whir of activities and partly from the two glasses of homemade muscatel wine that Miss Bernie insisted she drink. In just one day of being around them, Dominique totally understood where Jake got his strength, his warmth, and sense of family. Where she’d grown up in a single-parent home—made that way because her father walked out—Jake had grown up surrounded by people with stable marriages. After dessert, the men retired to the game room for a rousing game of pool and darts, while the women gathered in the kitchen.

“Miss Bernie, you put your foot in this food today,” Dominique said, spooning leftover greens from the pot to a storage container. “I don’t think I can eat another bite.”

“And look at her,” Susie said, cocking her head toward Miss Bernie but talking to Lillian, Mike’s wife. Susie was married to Harold and, at fifty-seven, was ten years Harold’s senior. They’d met when he was seventeen and she was twenty-seven and to everyone’s surprise, had married a short time later. “Talking like hers was the only hands working in the kitchen.”

“We all helped,” Lillian said, cosigning on Susie’s statement. “But Miss Bernie was the orchestrator, though. If one person is going to get the credit for today’s meal, it would be her.”

“Thank you, Lilly,” Miss Bernie said, her hand on an ample hip, the other grasping a wooden spoon being pointed at Susie. “It’s good to know somebody in you all’s generation has some manners.”

“Our generation?” Lillian looked at Susie with feigned indignation. “I’m in the generation after you.”

“Ha! Girl, you know you’re flying toward fifty. Don’t start none, won’t be none.”

The women laughed.

“On the real tip, though, Dominique, I was so glad to see you walk through the door.” Susie wiped her hands on a dishcloth and paused to take a drink of sweet tea. “I’ve only met a couple women Jake has dated since Robin passed and they were snooty, skinny heifahs who couldn’t see the floor in front of them for their nose in the air. You’re real people. I like that.”

“Yeah, and she won’t blow away in an Alabama breeze,” Miss Bernie added. “I like that, too.”