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“So I think we’re gonna have a good dinner,” I said. “But you know, I don’t think there’s any pasta.” I said. I looked between Daniel and Addie.
“Did we need pasta?” Addie looked worried.
“Oh God, no, don’t encourage him. It’s a dad joke,” Daniel moaned.
Addison turned and raised an eyebrow, waiting for the joke.
“What do you call a fake noodle?” I asked them.
“Don’t do it, Dad. I’m begging you.”
“Animpasta,” I told them. When they were done groaning, Dan and I went outside.
Daniel and I focused on the yard, and though I had to divert about thirty requests to take the Corvette for a spin (I was still a little uncertain about what we needed to do with the collector car in the dilapidated garage, and definitely wasn’t going to drive it around town. If people had forgotten it was there, that was for the best for now), we spent a pretty enjoyable day together.
At four o’clock, the front door knocker sounded through the house, and I went out to answer it, since Addie was in the shower upstairs.
I opened the door to 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
Iwould 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.
