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The doorbell rang at exactly 5:30. Through the kitchen window, I watched Angelica's red Corvette convertible in the driveway while Bonnie went to answer the door.
"You're on time!" Bonnie's voice carried from the front hall. "I wasn’t sure you would be. Jase told me he told you 6:30."
"He did tell us 6:30." Angelica laughed. "But I know better than to trust my brother with dinner times. I trusted your text."
The two women appeared in the kitchen doorway. Katherine had changed since this morning, trading her Stanford hoodie for jeans and a simple green sweater that made her blue eyes even more vivid. She'd pulled her blonde hair back in a ponytail, no makeup that I could detect. The Hollywood polish was still there, but muted, making her look more accessible.
"Uncle Code!" Lachlan burst through the back door, Scout right behind him. "Tyler's here! We're teaching him how to throw a curveball!"
A skinny kid with red hair and freckles followed him in. "Mrs. Drakos, my mom says thank you for inviting me to dinner."
"You're always welcome, Tyler." Bonnie pulled a massive pan of lasagna from the oven. The smell of garlic, basil, and melted cheese filled the kitchen. "Wash your hands, all of you. Amber! Dinner!"
The chaos descended immediately. Kids thundering up and down stairs to wash hands. Scout trying to steal food from the counter. Jase appeared from his office, kissed Bonnie's cheek, then grabbed plates to set the table while simultaneously telling Lachlan to stop letting the dog lick his face.
Katherine stood frozen in the doorway, that perfect Hollywood smile fixed in place but her eyes showing something else. Panic, maybe. Or the kind of exhaustion that came from maintaining a facade when your world was crumbling.
I caught her eye. Tilted my head slightly toward the back door. Want to run?
The corner of her mouth twitched. A real reaction, not the practiced one. She shook her head minutely. We're trapped, she mouthed.
"Sit wherever," Bonnie called over the noise. "Except Tyler, you're between the twins so they don't kill each other."
The table barely contained everyone. Amber on one side of Tyler, Lachlan on the other, both competing for his attention. Jase carved the lasagna while Bonnie passed salad and garlic bread. Angelica told a story about some actor who'd shown up to set in a llama costume for no apparent reason. Multiple conversations happened simultaneously, Bonnie was somehow able to keep track of all of it. It must be a mother thing.
Katherine sat beside me, her shoulder occasionally brushing mine when she reached for something. Each time, she pulled back slightly, maintaining that careful distance she'd probably perfected over years of navigating Hollywood's complicated social dynamics.
"Mom, can Tyler spend the night?" Lachlan asked through a mouthful of lasagna.
"Chew, swallow, then talk," Bonnie said automatically. "And no, it's a school night."
"But tomorrow's teacher development day!"
"Which means you have that book report due Wednesday that you haven't started."
"I've started it!"
"Writing your name on a piece of paper doesn't count as starting."
"That's more than Amber's done!"
"I finished mine yesterday," Amber said, superiority dripping from every word.
The chaos continued. Angelica tried to help by asking the kids about school, which launched three different simultaneous stories about recess drama, a science experiment gone wrong, and something about a lizard in the cafeteria that I couldn't quite follow.
Katherine's hands stayed folded in her lap between bites. She responded when spoken to, smiled at appropriate moments, but I recognized the signs. She was overwhelmed. She needed to process information in quiet, not surrounded by this much stimulus. It kind of surprised me. I would have thought that movie sets would have been just as chaotic. When I glanced at her again, I saw a sheen of perspiration on her brow. It wasn’t just the activity swarming around us, it was the case.
Katherine Lord was drowning in my cousin's domestic chaos, too polite to escape but desperate for an exit strategy.
"I need to go over some technical findings with Ms. Lord," I said during a brief lull when everyone was chewing. "We'll take a walk."
Jase looked up, confused. "Now? During dinner?"
"Time sensitive." I stood, looked at Katherine. "If you're finished?"
She practically launched herself from her chair. "Yes. Absolutely. Thank you for dinner, Bonnie. It was delicious."
