By rights I might have been Miss Maddie’s brother-in-law, because my eldest brother Moses intended to marry her. He told Daddy so just before he went off to Korea, but he didn’t come back. Ever since the two sisters have kept house together. If you can get Miss Maddie to invite you to Sunday dinner, I’d be pleased to come along too. I’ll bet I can get her to tell some stories she keeps for special, and I’ve got a few of my own to share. Some of them are even true.

Your name: Alfred White. I took early retirement from the railroad on account of my bad knees, so most days you’ll find me on the Liar’s Bench outside the barbershop.

At three o’clock on Saturday afternoon, just when Angie was starting to believe that she might actually survive her hangover, the doorbell rang. Rivera, who had fallen asleep on the couch with a book on her lap, didn’t even flinch at the sound. Angie might have ignored it, too, but then an image came to mind of a still-drunk Tab Darling come back to find Tony, this time with a shotgun.

She unfolded her legs with some difficulty and made it to the door, where she found Rob and Kai Grant. Until that moment she had forgotten completely about Kai’s car, but the keys were still on the windowsill where she had put them.

“Come for your Mini?”

“We have an invitation for you,” said Kai, lifting herself up on her toes in her excitement. “We are having an opened house. Will you come?”

“We just bought a house,” Rob interjected, grinning.

“Time for a celebration,” Kai agreed.

Angie said, “Now?” And: “Oh, I don’t—”

“Come on,” said Rob. “It’ll be fun.” He took the keys that Angie offered, tossed them in the air, and caught them again.

The two of them reminded Angie of kids on their way to a prom, which was both a little unfair and oddly right. More than that, she had the idea that they would come across in exactly the same way when they had been married fifty years.

“Right now?”

“No time like the present,” said Rob. “We’re paying rent until we can close, so the place is ours. You got something better to do on a Saturday night than come to a party with old friends?”

Angie heard Rivera’s feet hit the floor.

“Party?”

“Oh, come along, too,” Kai called. “Please come to our opened house, it will be good fun.”

“I never say no to a party,” said Rivera.

“But I—” Angie started, and felt Rivera’s hand on her shoulder.

“—and neither will Angie. Can we ride with you?”

Rob took off in one direction in the Mini and the three women got into his old Volvo, Rivera in the front and Angie spread out on the backseat.