side dishes made a circuit around the table, all for CJ’s benefit, and because everyone was watching he took more food than he otherwise would have. When the last casserole dish returned to its spot on the table, CJ was left with a mountain of food he would never be able to eat. Nevertheless, he picked up his fork and dug in.
As he chewed, he looked around the table. Graham and Meredith sat directly across from CJ and Edward, along with Maryann and her husband. Maryann gave him what he could only call a lewd smile, which sent a shiver down his back. He tried to recall the names of the people he couldn’t quite place, but except in a few cases, most of the ones he didn’t know remained that way. When he looked the other way, he found his father was watching him with an expression as inscrutable as the ingredients of the tasty noodle concoction CJ was enjoying.
“Hey, Pop,” he said.
George held his gaze for a few seconds, then gave his son a curt nod before returning to his dinner.
Over the next several minutes, the various conversations around the table, and the noises of clinking glasses and utensils on plates, provided the background sounds as CJ worked his way through the food on his plate. What amused him was that, although he’d been invited to sup with them, no one in his immediate family seemed inclined to say anything to him. In truth, they weren’t saying much to each other either, but that could also have been the result of his presence.
Farther down the table, though, sat the Baxters who were more distant from the seat of power. Their conversation was relaxed, comfortable. CJ wondered if anyone on his end noticed, but suspected they didn’t. They were too wrapped up in their grand scheming to notice something like that—to notice that a lack of grand scheming resulted in happier people.
“So, CJ,” someone said from down the table, “how’s your latest book doing?”
CJ didn’t catch who’d asked the question, so he directed his answer to the general vicinity of the inquiring voice. “Not bad,” he said. “It’s not my bestseller, but it’s holding its own.”
“Would it be selling more or less if you hadn’t clocked that critic?”
CJ didn’t need any help identifying the man asking this follow-up question. Richard seemed pleased with himself for having posed it. Next to him, Abby stared down at her plate, using her fork to pick at the minuscule amount of food left there.
CJ let the silence that had settled over the table linger. Then he sent a sly smile his cousin’s way. “I guess you’d know all about clocking someone, wouldn’t you, Richard?” Turning his attention to Richard’s wife, he said, “Nice to see you, Abby. You’re looking well.”
Richard’s face darkened, and it looked as if he might come out of his chair, but a single look from George kept him in his seat. Richard aimed daggers at CJ before picking up his fork and resuming his dinner.
After that, an uncomfortable silence fell over the gathering. As CJ dipped his spoon into the delicious sweet potato casserole, he glanced over at Julie and Ben. Julie’s husband gave him a wink and a half smile, and CJ could only assume it was for what he’d said to Richard. It was the sort of validation he’d been hoping to get from Ben’s wife, and once again the dynamics of this thing made him uneasy. He was the first to look away.
When he glanced toward his father, he saw the old man watching him with disapproval in his eyes. In response, CJ borrowed a gesture from Ben and winked at him.
Edward chose to break the tension with a war story. Even though it was one that everyone had heard, it was a welcome distraction. And since Edward never told a story the same way twice, there was no telling what he would come up with now.
When Edward’s story ended—a new ending this time, judging from the reactions of those who had heard it before—pockets of conversation started up, although no one sitting around CJ seemed willing to say a word. The exception was Maryann, who, upon seeing CJ look in her direction and rarely able to resist the urge to stir things up, said, “So who left whom?”
She asked the question just as Graham took a bite of green beans, and CJ thought he heard his brother make a small choking sound.
When CJ didn’t answer