“Why not?” We walk into them facing off at each other. “If you are not nice, you get no biscuit.” I hear Kallie burst out laughing, but Olivia doesn’t stop as she walks to Casey with her finger out, pointing at his chest. “You can say hens get wet and beans in a frill, but I can’t use biscuit?”

“Okay, you two,” Charlotte says. “Take this to your house.” She looks at Casey and then looks at Olivia. “Tomorrow, we can go over the list of food that you can use and what you can’t use.”

“Let’s go, cowboy,” Olivia says and walks by him. I’m expecting him to make her walk by him, but he stops her by grabbing her hand.

“There is so much I need to say right now,” Billy says, and I just look at him sitting at the table.

“Well, then …” Charlotte claps her hands. “Would you like some tea?” she asks my mother, but Mom just shakes her head.

“What was all the fuss to get here?” my mother asks, and then she looks at Kallie, who is now holding my hand. “One week in and I see that things are back to normal.” She looks at me. “God knows how long it’s going to last this time,” she mumbles, and I’m about to snap at her, but Kallie starts first.

“The reason we called you here is to tell you firsthand about something.” She looks at me. “There are things that happened when I left and—”

“You mean when you gave up on my son and hightailed it out of town without looking back?” my mother asks.

“Okay, then,” Charlotte says, and Billy gets up with her tone and she looks over at him, “I’ve held my tongue for eight years.” She comes to stand next to Kallie, and she holds her hand. “You were my best friend,” she starts to say, “and when I needed you by my side, all you did was blame Kallie. You never once looked at the whole picture.”

“That’s because your daughter was to blame for all of this!” my mother shouts.

“My daughter carried your grandson by herself!” Charlotte yells out this time, and my mother just looks at her. “That’s right, Cristine, while you went around town telling everyone how happy you were that you were going to have a grandson, I had to hold my daughter’s hand while she buried our grandson. She did that all by herself. Carried the pain and the burden by herself. A piece of her gone forever.” I look over at Charlotte.