Maggie looked amused by the situation as she worked on a little salad she’d made, being careful to add a nice helping of the chicken, so as not to offend. She had a big gray cardigan worn over her Lucero T-shirt and blue jeans. Her hair was up in a messy bun and her eyes looked so tired that Quinn didn’t dare complain about his day.

“How’d she do?” Quinn asked.

“Finally sleeping in the next room,” Maggie said. “Thanks to your mother.”

“Maggie needed a little break,” Jean said. “I was glad to help. Halley can’t help that she’s just excited to see everything. Wants to be up every second. Don’t blame her a bit.”

Brandon had already left the table and moved into the TV room. He watched Teen Titans Go! while Quinn updated them a little on his day, asking Raven if she’d heard anything about the boy with the busted leg.

“Leg was broken in four places,” Raven said.

“Damn,” Boom said.

“Doctor was about to set it as I left,” Raven said. “His daddy was mad as hell. He thought the kid had a real future as a kicker for the Wildcats. Broke the good leg, too.”

“Those boys out low riding?” Boom said.

Quinn nodded, taking a bite of the chicken and dumplings, his favorite of his mother’s meals. She made everything from scratch and used whole pieces of chicken. The perfect meal on a cold, rainy night.

“Glad me and you didn’t do nothing like that,” Boom said.

Jean nearly spit out her boxed Chablis. She remembered too many times of calling in favors to her brother after Quinn and Boom would get caught doing mischief out in the county. Jean always had to set things straight, smooth things over with the law or someone Quinn and Boom had mistakenly wronged, before Boom’s daddy, an old-school fire-and-brimstone preacher, found out. Boom’s daddy’s answer to everything had been to “jerk a knot in that boy’s ass.”

“You got a second to talk?” Quinn asked, motioning down to Raven’s empty plate.

“Can’t this official business wait a second,” Jean said. “Did you know Raven hasn’t seen a single Elvis movie? Not even Blue Hawaii?”

“Damn shame,” Boom said.

“He was a good man,” Jean said, smiling sweetly, lifting her wineglass halfway. “That Elvis. Remind me to tell you a story of going up to Graceland with Quinn’s daddy back in ’76. That was a hell of a time.”

“Daddy nearly got killed,” Quinn said.

“Elvis and his boys saved him.”

“Wait,” Maggie said, holding up her hand. Looking as if she might’ve choked on her peach cobbler. “What happened?”

Quinn got up, kissed his wife on her cheek, and motioned for Raven to follow him outside. “You tell her, Momma,” he said. “I heard it all before. Raven and I need to talk a little shop.”