“If you ever so much as look at another mussel,” said Lulu, “I shall personally ram it down your throat, shell and all. You nearly died tonight, Soph.”

“So you said,” said Sophie. She blinked dazedly at Jamie, who had possession of the hand that Emma had not.

“You look awful,” she said.

“Of course he looks awful,” said Lulu. “We all look awful. We’ve been through hell.”

“I feel fine,” said Jamie. “Better than I’ve ever felt in my life. I feel really, really great, Sophie.”

“You see?” said Sophie to Lulu. “Did you call an ambulance?” she asked him then.

“You had the works,” he told her. “Flashing lights, wailing sirens, people rushing round with stretchers shouting things like ‘vital signs’ and ‘stat.’ It was all the most incredibly dramatic thing I’ve ever seen.”

“Cool.” She smiled, and then frowned. “I’m going to be okay, right?” she asked Emma.

“You’re going to be fine,” Emma said.

“I’ll be out of here by Thanksgiving?”

Lulu sighed and shook her head.

“Yes, Sophie,” she said. “You don’t have to worry about that, you’ll be out of here by Thanksgiving.”

“Good,” said Sophie. “Because someone has to make sure that Jamie leaves some turkey for the rest of you.”

“I think,” said Fee the following Thursday, as they sat over the feast of turkey and trimmings that Lulu had created, “that we all know what we have to give thanks for this year.”

She raised her wineglass to Sophie, who sat at the other end of the table, a little pale and quiet, with Jamie glued devotedly to her side while wolfing his meal with enthusiasm.

“I’m not giving thanks for her,” said Lulu. “She’s just annoying. She’s been annoying me ever since she was born. I didn’t even think it was possible for her to be more annoying than she already was, but last week she managed it.”

“She kept saying she was going to kill her,” said Emma. The sisters were still telling the story of the evening, to their parents, to Charlie and Javier, and to each other, repeating the events, trying to adapt their minds to what had happened and to what had nearly happened. “I kept trying to tell her to shut up, but she just wouldn’t. It was driving me mad.”

“I am going to kill her,” said Lulu. “Not today, not tomorrow, but I’ll pick a time. And now I know the method I’ll use, too.”

“You can make as many jokes about this as you like,” said Fee. “Just not in my hearing, please.”

“Sorry, Mom,” said Lulu. She turned her head away from her mother and towards Sophie. “Bouillabaisse,” she mouthed.

“I’d like to propose a toast to Tom,” said Emma. “The man with the magic Scrabble board who kept us all sane.”

“To Tom,” agreed everyone, while Tom looked embarrassed.

“And next,” continued Emma, “I’d like to propose a toast to Lulu, who is seriously the most amazing cook I know.” She smiled at Tom, and then at Lulu. “Isn’t the food amazing, Tom?”