When he did, he whispered, “Good play, Tess. This crew is tough to crack. Twenty years and I gave them my two girls and, sometimes, they get together, honest to God, I still feel like an outsider. But me and Austin, honey, we’ll have your back.”

Before I could say a word, he squeezed my hand and headed to the door that I guessed led to the basement.

I watched even after he disappeared and I did it feeling a whole lot better.

This again lasted ten minutes. In that ten minutes, the good news was, Jill and I set the tables (plural because there were folding ones set up in the living room for the overspill). The men disappeared to watch TV. Fern got the sweet potato casserole in the oven. Laura and Elvira tackled the mountain of potatoes and they were on the stove. Kalie and Kellie had arranged my plethora of desserts on the side table in the dining room and were currently arranging my bouquet of flowers in a vase. And Fern, Jill, and Laura clearly had a good deal of experience with Levi loving them and leaving them thus they were inclusive and gentle with Lenore even though it was probably the last time they would see her.

The bad news was, after ten minutes of relative harmony, Ellie came in shrieking, “Grandpa’s here!”

The air in the room got thick as everyone in the room froze. Elvira and Lenore did it just because they felt the vibe and had no idea that Ellie’s delighted shriek heralded Armageddon.

Then Elvira muttered a premonitory, “Oo lawdy, I’m thinkin’ family drama is far from over.”

“Uh…” Jill started, “Mom, we should have, um… Laura and I should have probably told you we invited Dad.”

Oh man!

“We thought that…” Laura began then hesitated. “Well, it would be the kind of news better delivered at the last minute.”

My eyes flew to Elvira, who had her hands full with shoving potato peels down the disposal. Her eyes hit mine and her eyebrows hit her hairline.

Fern didn’t move. Fern was frozen. Fern was engaged in what fifteen seconds before was a thought she never thought she’d have and that was that she wanted to commit double homicide, with her victims being her daughters.

“Grandpa’s here! Grandpa’s here! Grandpa’s here!” Ellie shouted from the doorway, then added, “Yippee!” She raced away, shouting, “Grandpa’s here!” in what I was guessing was on her way to the TV room.

Dylan filled the doorway next and he did it tugging on Cob’s hand. “Look!” he cried. “Grandpa! Isn’t it cool? Grandpa hasn’t ever been to Thanksgiving!”

“Heya, girls,” Cob said carefully to Jill, Laura, and his granddaughters then his eyes came to me. “Heya, Tess, honey.” Then they went to Lenore and Elvira in turn and he bowed his head slightly in greeting.

“Hey, Dad,” Jill warily whispered.