John leaned in for a kiss. “Falling into a rut while living in this house with your father is not even in the realm of possibility.”

Polly and some other women cut through the kitchen carrying what looked like pieces of a bed. A platform bed. A round platform bed. A red vinyl round platform bed.

“It even has LED lights,” one of the women said.

“Of course it does,” I said.

Billy Jr. and his wife Moira came through the kitchen next carrying a rolled and shrink-wrapped mattress. Maeve and Sydney brought up the rear, giggling and trying to balance king-size pillows on their heads.

“Where’s Dad?” I said.

“Supervising,” Billy Jr. said.

While there was a break in the traffic, John and I made a run for the cat room. I placed Pebbles’ dish on her shelf. John put Horatio’s dish near the entrance to the room. The kittens were sleeping together, curled into a single ball of fluffy fur. As soon as we put their tiny bowls on the repurposed boot tray, they rolled away from one another and staggered toward the cat food, mewing away.

John put his arm around me as we sat on the couch. I rested my head on his shoulder while we watched our brood eat. I could have watched them forever.

“The only thing missing is dessert,” I said. “But if one of us tries to sneak into the dining room, someone might see us and put us to work.”

John considered this. “Do you think there will be leftovers if we just wait it out? I mean, everyone has to leave eventually, right?”

“You never know,” I said. “That round bed looked like it could hold a lot of people.”

The door creaked open. Carol came in holding a bottle of wine and some wine glasses. Johnny followed with an entire Boston cream pie and a handful of forks.

“Sit,” Carol said. Horatio sat.

“Not you,” she said. “The other one.”

Johnny sat. He reached over and put the Boston cream pie on the coffee table, handed us each a fork.

Carol poured wine all around, gulped some down. I handed her a kitten.

Johnny twirled his glass, took a sip, stared straight ahead. I handed him a kitten, grabbed the other two for John and me.

“You need to find homes for some of these kittens,” Carol said. “And not mine.”

“They already have a home,” I said.

Carol looked back and forth between Johnny and me a few times, then aimed a searing gaze in my direction.

“What?” I said, in the exact same wimpy voice I’d been using with my big sister since childhood.

“So,” Carol said. “What are you going to do to keep Dad and that assistant teacher of yours apart?”

“Me?” I said. “Why should I have to do anything? Dad and Polly are both adults. Nothing’s going on between them. I have no idea what you’re talking about.”