“Fifteen minutes and then we’re going to gather them in and have some lunch. I still make the girls wait half an hour after eating before they go back in the water,” he answered.

“I bet that’s why they wanted to get wet before we eat, right?” Fanny Lou said. “If we do this again, I’m dragging out my old yellow-and-black suit from the seventies. I’m just itchin’ right now to get into that water.”

“Not me. I’d sink like an anchor,” Harry said. “Delores was half fish. She loved any kind of water—the ocean, the lake, even a backyard pool. She taught Mitzi to swim when she was only two years old.”

“Really?” Graham raised an eyebrow. “I thought about putting a pool in for the girls, but they don’t want it. They say that the lake is bigger, deeper, and lots more fun.”

“I like a pool because it’s private,” Mitzi said.

Graham immediately reconsidered putting one in his backyard. There was plenty of room, and the yard already had an eight-foot privacy fence around it. He was imagining a cute little cabana-type atmosphere when the four ladies climbed back onto the boat.

“We’re starving now for sure.” Dixie grabbed a towel and dried her face before wrapping it around her wet hair.

Alice set about getting the food from the cooler—fried chicken, potato salad, coleslaw, and thick slices of dark rye bread. Then she opened another cooler and brought out icy cold cans of root beer. Tabby pulled paper plates from under the bench on one side. Dixie handed out plastic forks.

“I’m taking two chicken legs,” Tabby said. “There’s probably eight more, and I’ll fight y’all for the last one.”

“You can have ’em,” Harry said. “I’m a thigh man.”

“And you?” Graham nudged Mitzi on the arm.

“Wings all the way.” She found four wings and claimed them all for herself. “This is really nice. I’m so glad that we came today.”

“If you changed your mind about coming today, all you had to do was call me,” Graham whispered to her. “I would have understood if you were tired from yesterday.”

“I couldn’t do that to the girls,” she said.

“What about me? Could you have done that to me?”

“Are you trying to pick a fight?” she asked. “If so, then wait until we get home, because I’m not spoiling this day for the rest of our families.”

“I’m not,” he answered, but in the course of a few minutes, his day had changed from carefree and happy to gloomy. Then, as if the universe understood the way he felt, a strong southern wind whipped at the awning. Storm clouds gathered on the far horizon, and a few streaks of lightning zigzagged through the sky.