Boss jumped up, happy to get in on the fun. “I grewed all them watermelons with Mrs. Foxy!” He pointed to the table lined with the fat melons. “God provided us a good dessert today, Pa.”

Pa tipped his head, grinning ear to ear. “He sure did, Boss.”

Boss sat and Jinx rose to his feet. “My lady and I want to thank our good Lord for the news we got from Louisiana. Our niece just had us a great-niece.”

Everyone oohed and aahed at his news as Foxy smiled with pride. I’d let my nosiness get away from me once and had asked her why they didn’t have children of their own. She said it wasn’t in the cards for them and left it at that, but the sadness that small confession produced said there was so much more to it.

Once we settled down from congratulating them, Walynn took her turn. She wore a floral sundress over her bikini and looked ready for a day of frolicking in the water, except her hair was perfectly teased to the heavens and she had on a full face of makeup. “The women at the beauty shop invited me to their girls’ night.” Her cheeks blushed underneath the artificial pink. “I think they’re finally accepting me.”

“Well, why wouldn’t they?” Pa asked. Then, quick to make sure she knew her place with him, he added, “You’re a great friend.”

But her smile didn’t dim. “Thank you, Dave. It’s good to feel like you belong somewhere. Y’all made me feel like that from the start, and now the women at the shop are too, and . . . it’s just really nice.”

As Walynn sat, Raleigh stood, which surprised me. He normally kept to the background, as I preferred to do. He looked at me and his lip wobbled. “I’m real thankful God saw fit to heal Austin’s leg last year.” His voice grew hoarse.

Charlotte popped to her feet, coming to her twin brother’s rescue as she always did. “And we’re thankful it didn’t fall off! It was looking iffy for a while there.” She wrinkled her nose, causing the group to laugh. Thankfully, we’d gotten to a point where we could joke about it, even though I still had a scar.

I stood to help move on from that for Raleigh’s sake. My poor brother still carried a heavy burden of guilt over my snakebite, no matter how much I reassured him he shouldn’t. “God has provided us all with health this year. I want to celebrate that today.”

I motioned for the twins to have a seat. As we did, Vance stood. He gave my shoulder a soft squeeze before speaking to the group. “So I’ve been calling Austin my girlfriend for over a year now, but she finally agreed to it last week.”