find Lottie Tanner standing with her sister Verda, holding a huge covered pan and the strange little doll that had been fastened to the door since Addie had hosted the stinky sisters to wave burning sticks around the place.
“Mrs. Tanner, hello,” I said, taking the voodoo doll and sticking it into my back pocket.
Her face narrowed as if she was going to say something nasty, but then her eyes fell on Daniel at my shoulder, and she managed a smile instead. “Hello, Tuckers. Thank you for inviting us.”
“I’m telling you, Lottie, this is a bad idea,” Verda hissed in her sister’s ear.
“Why don’t you come in?” I asked, waving them into the foyer.
“I can take that for you,” Daniel said, reaching for the roast pan. My heart swelled a bit with pride.
“What excellent manners,” Lottie commented, turning to her sister as if to say, “see? It’ll be okay.”
“He’s too young for the Tucker evil to have taken hold yet,” Verda said, giving Dan an evaluative look.
I showed the ladies to the kitchen and offered them each a glass of wine, which they accepted somewhat graciously. Lottie made herself at home in the kitchen while Verda asked Daniel to give her a tour, and she busily oohed and aahed over the way Addison had decorated.
Soon, Addie had appeared at her mother’s side, and she looked gorgeous in a thick white sweater and slim jeans, with her hair tied up on the back of her head and glowing skin. We exchanged a few secret smiles when no one was looking, but soon we were both busy hosting a house full of guests.
Wiley and Amberlynn appeared next, carrying a potted plant and a bottle of Half Cat. Then Paige and Cormac arrived with his two little girls in tow and a wrapped package, which Addie set aside until the littlest girl demanded we open it. Daniel did the honors, revealing a taxidermied raccoon. Daniel looked impressed.
“We heard about your troubles, and Cormac has some connections in the taxidermy world,” Paige explained. “Thought this was appropriate.”
“Um, okay,” I said, trying to be gracious about the dead stuffed animal Daniel was now settling onto the hearth near the front door. “Well, thank you.”
My uncle arrived next, with Virge and Emmett at his side, and while my uncle was freshly shaven and acting oddly polite, my cousins scowled around the place and refused to mix, choosing to sit on the front porch with glasses of whiskey and keeping to themselves.
A little later, I was surprised to find Lottie and Victor laughing together in the kitchen, their heads close together. The feud, I sensed, might be coming to an end across multiple generations. I just needed to convince my cousins it was over.
Soon, we were all sitting around the huge dining room table, warm lights glowing on the wall and candles in the middle, right where I’d had sex with Addie for the first time.
I sipped my wine and smiled, feeling a strange sense of wholeness I wasn’t sure I’d ever felt before as this huge mixed family gathered around me. I caught Addie’s eyes across the table and grinned at her, and my heart soared when her twinkling eyes and beautiful lips returned everything I was feeling as she held her glass up to me.
28
Sunday Silliness
Addison
I would never have believed it, but Sunday dinner with the Tuckers and Tanners all at the table was a success. Verda graciously chose to leave her moose-related gripes at the door, and even Emmett and Virgil were tolerable once they’d had a few glasses of whiskey.
Everyone commented on the way we’d finished the downstairs, and I glowed with every compliment. I’d wanted the chance to design a real space for years, and the apartment I’d shared with Luke in New York had been all him. But here, the fresh paper I’d hung in the dining room and the striking paint in the foyer all worked together to make the house feel coordinated yet fun. It made me happy, seeing my family appreciate my choices—the big plush rugs, the kitschy bright fabrics and framed art.
Daniel was a huge help in the kitchen, even helping me wash dishes once the whole thing was over, and I was developing a fondness for the boy that I’d never expected to feel. I wasn’t sure what Michael had told him about us, so I made a point of avoiding longing gazes, and didn’t touch Michael when Dan was around.
As the evening wound down, everyone smiling