“Not really,” Hallie said and glanced at their brother. “The party’s only two weeks away. And on top of that we must figure out Dad’s health care and his finances because any second now you’ll bolt, and Shane and I will be left holding the bag.”

“I’ll bolt?” Colleen exhaled the words with a cough of disgust. “Are you kidding me? That’s how you want to start this, when I’m here to help?” Hallie’s comment was a preemptive strike and Colleen knew that—she was being told she’d ignored her sister for far too long.

Hallie waved away Colleen’s retort. “There’s a lot to do.”

She was right—there was a lot to do. The table was littered with calendars and lists and pages highlighted with various colored markers. Hallie, the organized one; she always had been. Even her college degree was in hospitality management—event planning her specialty. One calendar was labeled “Family” and the other “Dad’s Party.” On one were slots for ballet and art camp and babysitters, and on the other were slots for caterer, band and guest list. Then there was the large blue folder labeled “Medical.”

“Let’s get started,” Shane said. “Now that the happy reunion is over.”

Neither sister laughed or addressed his, once again, terrible joke. He tried again. “As the Irish say, be sure to taste your words before you spit them out.”

“Shane!”

“Shane!”

The sisters said his name in unison.

An awkward silence passed and Shane spoke up. “Okay, well, we can’t let someone else make decisions for Dad. This is up to us. We have a lot to talk about, to unravel. And listen, this is going to be a great party. We haven’t given a big bash in a long while. I think the last time the town saw something like this was when that movie from Hollywood filmed and opened here. We want to make it special. Aunt Rosie and Fred are coming in. Old friends of Dad’s from Virginia. Probably half the town. I don’t know how the hell we’re going to keep it a secret, but there’s a lot to do.”

Colleen nodded. “We’ve got this. We’re all here together. This is ours to figure out. This is our family.”

Hallie set her glasses carefully on the table. “Our family? Now you want to call it yours?”

Colleen opened her mouth for a quick retort, but was silent. For years, Hallie had begged for reconciliation, and Colleen had ignored her, shunned her. Sure, in the privacy of Colleen’s room or in the middle of a dark night, she’d thought of the terrible things she wanted to say to her sister, but she’d never uttered any of them. Now she felt those withheld words rising and she did her best to swallow them.