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  Then she went to the stove to check the potatoes.

  I looked to Brock in time to see him jerk his chin up at his father, pass him, and turn in the same direction Levi went. Austin and Fritz guided Cob out.

  Elvira came to me.

  “Shoo, girl, big ole honkin’ W… T… F? Your bad boy’s family is whacked. Makes my brother with his skinny, skanky, natty-’fro ho and my sister with her inability to return that fabulous dress she borrowed without red wine stains seem tame.”

  I didn’t think a ho in the family was good news but definitely Brock’s family issues were more intense than a dress returned with wine stains.

  “Um…” I mumbled. “Brock’s family is working through some issues.”

  “Issues?” she asked, leaning back a bit and then again leaning in to confide, “I knew it. Got me a premonition. Woke up and it said, ‘Thanksgivin’ with Tess.’ Tellin’ you, girlfriend, this is better than TV.”

  Well, it was good someone was enjoying themselves.

  “I can’t wait to see what happens next,” she muttered, then moved away and the away she moved was in the direction of the plethora of wine bottles on the counter.

  I could. I could wait to see what would happen next.

  And with what did, Elvira was probably not disappointed.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  The Coolest Move Ever

  AN HOUR AND a half later, I found that, upon calculating the need for dessert, I had not taken into account children who had bottomless stomachs, men who had high metabolisms so they didn’t really need to worry about how much they shoved down their gullets, and women who were experiencing one of six days of the year they could let it all hang out (the others being Christmas, New Year’s, Easter, the Fourth of July, and their birthday).

  Let’s just say, even though Fern provided a plentiful and delicious Thanksgiving spread, there weren’t a lot of dessert leftovers.

  For dinner, at the big table I was sandwiched between Fritz and Austin, who made it clear, after Levi’s earlier show, that they cast themselves in the roles of my protectors. It was all for one and one for all when it came to being hooked to a member of the Lucas family.

  It was also seriously cool and obviously very appreciated.

  Brock sat at the head of our table, Fern sat at the foot, and Cob, Jill, Kalie, Laura, and Elvira rounded out our company. Cob being at the big table meant Levi, who Brock somehow talked into rejoining the family festivities, commandeered Lenore and he sat among the card tables set up across the way in the living room with Kellie and her younger cousins.

  Although a fair amount of wine and beer were being consumed, the tense atmosphere had not lightened and the only person who seemed oblivious to it was Elvira.

  Therefore, I engaged Elvira in conversation, knowing from experience that anytime Elvira spoke, interesting if somewhat surprising and possibly inappropriate things would come out. I did this in the hopes it would lighten the atmosphere.

  It did.

  Austin and Fritz clearly thought she was a hoot, Cob not far behind, Jill, Laura, and Kalie shortly joined in, and finally Fern melted. For his part, Brock mostly studied Elvira like she was an unknown creature he didn’t know what to make of but I could sense he was relaxed and pleased his family was enjoying dinner. I could sense this because that was the mood he filled the room with.

  Further making things seem almost festive was the fact that Uncle Levi, although having a short fuse, was clearly the funny uncle and much beloved by his siblings’ progeny because laughter rang from the card tables across the way with a lot of giggled “Uncle Levi!” shrieked from Ellie.

  Since we made it through dessert without another scene, I relaxed and unfortunately let my guard down.

  Therefore, I wasn’t prepared to feel the snap and crackle of Brock’s mood hitting the room.

  My head swiveled to him to see his back straight, his face like thunder, and his eyes pointed out the window.

  Then I heard from the card tables, “You are fuckin’ shitting me.”

  This was Levi.

  Suddenly there was motion and that motion was Brock and Levi folding out of their chairs and the rest of us craning our necks to look out the window.

  When we saw what we saw, I froze and stared.

  Fern, Jill, and Laura didn’t freeze.

  Fern hissed, “Oh no, I do not think so.”

  Jill snapped, “I do not believe that woman.”

  And Laura bit off, “On Thanksgiving.”

  They jumped up and followed Brock and Levi, Cob going with them, and both Fritz and Austin scooted closer to me, with Fritz saying, “Kalie, honey, you and your sister get your cousins downstairs, yeah?”

  Kalie turned her own angry face from her contemplation of the window. Kalie and Kellie, I had noted, much like their younger counterparts, had a close relationship with their Uncle Slim. They had also, it would appear, been old enough to have some dealings with Olivia. And, it would also appear, had not liked those dealings. She headed to the living room to do what she was told.

  I hadn’t moved.

  That was because Olivia was outside.

  What on earth?

  “Uh… who’s that?” Elvira asked the window, still looking out, and now Olivia was standing on the front walk confronting the full force of the Lucas Brigade.

  “Brock’s ex-wife,” I whispered.

  “Oo lawdy,” Elvira whispered back.

  She could say that again.

  Half a second later, we heard Laura shriek, “Bitch!” and we saw her lunge at Olivia.

  Elvira repeated a whispered, now emphasized, “Oo lawdy.”

  Austin muttered, “Fuck,” at my side, pushed his chair back, and took off.

  It was then I watched Brock plant a hand on his sister’s chest. Cob wrapped his arm around his daughter’s waist and pulled back. Olivia lifted both her extraordinary hands to her face and melted into beautiful woman tears, which every woman on the face of the earth knew held magical powers over any man who was breathing as long as that man wasn’t blind.

  Oh man.

  “I’m just going to, uh… start to clear the dishes,” I heard Lenore whisper.

  Fritz muttered, “Good idea, Lenore. Elvira? Tess, honey, why don’t you two help? I’m gonna go on outside.”

  And outside words were being exchanged while Brock was leading a still-sobbing Olivia down the walkway with a hand at the small of her back and I decided Lenore’s idea was an excellent one.

  So I nodded, got up, and started to help her as Fritz headed out.

  “I got your back, sister. I’ll keep an eye out,” Elvira told me but I didn’t answer. I started loading my hands with plates.

  After trip two, when I was in the kitchen, I heard the reentry of the Lucas Brigade and this included Jill’s “I do not, do not, do not believe that bitch.”

  “Jill, sweetheart, shush,” Cob shushed her.

  “She’s a piece of work!” This was Laura and it wasn’t shushed. It was loud.

  “Laurie, quiet… Tess.” This was, surprisingly, Levi.

  I waited several seconds and walked into the hall. They were all standing at the front door and all their eyes came to me.

  “It’s okay,” I told them when I got nearer. “I’ve met her. It’s okay.”

  I went back to the table and started clearing, but try as I might, I couldn’t keep my eyes from straying to the window. When I looked out I saw down the way that Brock and Olivia were standing by a silver Mercedes. Olivia was still sobbing but now she was doing it with her face planted in Brock’s chest and his arms were around her.

  Damn.

  Damn.

  Elvira got close and I tore my eyes away from the window.

  “Why don’t you take Ellie and watch the movie?”

  “I’m okay,” I whispered.

  “I think that’s a good idea.” Fern was now also close. “Just go on up. I’ll send Ellie up with the DVD.”

  “Really, I’m fine,�
�� I lied.

  Fern looked at Elvira. I gathered plates and went to the kitchen.

  The men disappeared and the women all hit clearing mode. When the tables were nearly empty and I was going back to gather napkins and bits and bobs, Brock came in.

  His eyes came to me and I saw at once they were not angry, not impatient, but conflicted.

  I’d seen him look conflicted before and it wasn’t a good memory.

  “Hey,” I whispered as I moved to him.

  “Hey,” he replied, distracted.

  Oh man.

  “Everything okay?” I asked.

  “We’ll talk later,” he muttered. “Where’re the boys?”

  “Downstairs.”

  He nodded, his eyes going down the hall. He lifted his hand to my neck and after a short, preoccupied squeeze he walked down the hall and disappeared through the door to the basement.

  I watched.

  And while I watched, it was not lost on me in any way that not once, not even in the beginning when he was Jake, he was undercover, and all sorts of shit was going down, had he ever been distracted and preoccupied with me. I always had his full attention. Always.

  I helped the girls do the dishes. Then Elvira said good-byes to everyone, gave her thanks, and I walked her to her car.

  “Your bad boy is hot,” she stated bizarrely, standing with me at her driver’s-side door.

  “What?” I asked, having walked with her while in my head and finally focusing on her.

  “Your bad boy is hot,” she repeated. “She instigated a play.”

  “Sorry?” I asked, feeling my brows draw together.

  “Tess, hon, her ex-bad boy, ex-hot boy just hooked his star to a brand-new, bright and shiny moon. He’s into his new moon. He traded up. He likes it. He’s gonna stay awhile. She knows this probably from her boys. She don’t like it. She instigated a play. Looks of her, she’s got a big playbook. She may not want him but she doesn’t want anyone else to have him. Or she thinks she’s all that and never thought he’d move on and doesn’t like it that he has. It shook her awake and she’s finally lookin’ around and sees what she’s missin’. I’ll give it to her. It was a good play, drama, tears, family as an audience. But if he got shot of her ass, he’ll see through it. You just need to keep your chin up.”

  I stared at her, wondering if it was actually true that people did that kind of thing.

  So I asked, “Do people actually do that kind of thing?”

  “Uh… yeah,” she answered.

  “They have children,” I told her.

  “Right, Tess, and heads up. Right now, to her, whatever her game is, those two boys just stopped bein’ boys and they became pawns.”

  Oh my God.

  “She wouldn’t,” I whispered.

  “Mark my words, girlfriend, that bitch has got bitch written all over her. You got your hands full, hon. Lucky for you, you got your posse and his family at your back. After she made that play, they were all whispering, worried about you. Not him. They know your boy sees it for what it is. They were worried about you ’cause they know her for what she is and they know this is play one and right now she’s got her nose in her playbook, decidin’ what to do for play two. Chin up. He’ll see her play for what it is and he’ll be on the lookout for her next one. You just gotta ride that wave.”

  Kentucky, for the first time in a while, was looking good again.

  This time, though, I was packing up Brock, Joel, and Rex to take with me.

  I said good-bye to Elvira, walked back to the house, and was struck by Ellie Lightning the minute I made it through the door.

  “Tangled!” she screeched.

  I pushed aside my thoughts and smiled down at her.

  “Tangled,” I agreed.

  Thus I found myself up in Fern’s bedroom lying across the foot of the bed with Ellie in her princess dress tucked in front of me.

  Kalie and Kellie wandered up and camped out on the floor. Jill and Fern came as well and lay behind us in the bed. Lenore and Laura were with the boys watching football.

  Tangled turned to Beauty and the Beast, which was one of my favorite movies ever, animated or not.

  Still, I’d just had Thanksgiving dinner and it was Thanksgiving law to pass out shortly after consumption of said dinner and therefore I zonked out in the middle of the movie.

  Therefore, when I heard Ellie whisper loudly, “Uncle Slim, she’s sleeping,” I woke up.

  I blinked my eyes, surprised that I had drifted off, to see Mulan playing behind Brock, who was crouched by the bed. My eyes opened right before his hand curled warm around my neck.

  “Time to go, sleepyhead,” he said softly to me. “Gotta get the boys home.”

  Home. To Olivia’s.

  I nodded, pushed up from the bed after giving Ellie a brief snuggle, tried to pull myself together through hugs and farewells, and then found myself in the passenger seat of my own car, Brock driving, the boys in the back, the same arrangement as when we arrived.

  They chatted about football.

  I stared out the window.

  We drove into the elegant drive of a big house in Cherry Hills Village, which meant that when Brock said Olivia’s new husband was loaded, he actually meant loaded.

  “Later, Tess,” Joel said to me.

  “Later, honey,” I said to Joel, turning to the backseat.

  “Later, Tess. Thanks for the pecan pie and the pumpkin pie and the cheesecake I ate during football,” Rex shared his gratitude.

  I smiled at him.

  “I was in the mood for cake, so thanks for the three pieces I ate,” Joel put in, so I smiled at him.

  “Anytime, baby,” I said softly. “See you guys later.”

  They waved and got out.

  “I’ll be back, babe,” Brock muttered, waited for me to look at him and nod and he got out and followed his boys.

  I watched.

  Olivia met him on the front step.

  I kept watching.

  Joel and Rex gave their dad hugs and disappeared inside. Olivia didn’t look once at the car as she engaged Brock in conversation. Brock started to look my way but didn’t get his head fully turned when her hand came up and curled around his bicep. She stepped in closer so his head turned back to her.

  I stopped watching.

  I was staring out the side window when I heard Brock get in, put the idling car in gear, and reverse out of the drive. I kept staring out the side window as he pointed us home.

  About ten seconds later, his fingers curled around mine and he pulled them to his thigh as he asked quietly, “You okay?”

  “Just tired,” I lied. “Too much food.”

  “Right,” he muttered, giving my hand a squeeze and saying no more but not letting my hand go.

  He took us to my house. We both got out, walked up, and I let us in. I shrugged off my coat and took it to the hall closet. Brock shrugged off his and threw it on the sofa.

  He went to the fridge for beer.

  I went to the island and looked at him.

  “If you’ve got football to watch,” I said. He turned from the fridge and his eyes came to me. “Go ahead. I’m going to read up here for a while.”

  He stood in the opened fridge door and held my eyes.

  I knew why he did this.

  Unless he was with his boys, we spent every night together and we woke up next to each other every morning.

  And when we were together, we were together, watching TV, a movie, if he was watching a game. We were up together and when we went to bed, we went to bed together.

  He did not go downstairs and watch a game while I stayed upstairs to read.

  Perhaps, in future, this might change, but now, I liked it like this. I liked being with him. He was attentive, touchy, we cuddled or were close and it felt good.

  The fact that Brock was attentive, touchy, and we cuddled meant he liked it too.

  And, clearly, from what would happen next, Brock was not ready for us to move on to a dif
ferent kind of relationship.

  I knew this when he closed the fridge and walked around the island. He came to me, grabbed my hand, pulled me into the living room, sat on the couch, and pulled me to sitting astride his lap.

  Once he had me in position and his hands settled on my hips, he said, “All right, babe, what’s up?”

  “Nothing, I—” I started to lie, his fingers dug into my hips, and he interrupted me.

  “I got a new job, a new house, new fuckin’ furniture, and a new woman in my life. That woman comes with a motherfucker of an ex who’s poising to strike—I know it in my gut and I gotta be prepared. My dad’s sick, he may be dyin’, and my family’s fucked up about it. Somethin’ is goin’ on with my boys and I gotta look into that. And today, my bitch of an ex-wife shows up on Thanksgiving to inform me her husband is steppin’ out on her, she doesn’t care, and she knew it was a mistake before she signed the marriage certificate.”

  I gasped at this news but said nothing mostly because I didn’t have a chance.

  Brock kept talking.

  “She went on to say she fucked up with him and me. She sees this clear now, feels that time is of the essence, considering our boys are growing up without a stable family unit, so, upon a great deal of reflection, her fuckin’ words, regardless of the holiday, she felt it prudent she didn’t delay in informing me she wants me and our family back. With all that, you gotta see I do not have it in me to play guessing games. All I got left in me for today is to have a beer with my woman, watch a game, take her to bed, let her fuck me sweet like she always fucks me then go to sleep.”

  I stared down at him thinking there was a lot there, a lot, a lot, but I honed in on one thing.

  So I asked, “She told you she wants you back?”

  “Yeah, if you can believe that shit.”

  I kept staring down at him.

  Then I stated, not a question this time but still a question, “She told you she wants you back.”

  His fingers dug in again and he said, “Yeah.”

  “She walked up to your mother’s house on Thanksgiving and told you she wanted you back,” I, yet again but with some added detail, stated.