As if on cue, Missy sat up and rubbed her eyes. “What? Damn.” She poked Lanie in the side. “Wake up, Lanie. We slept through the arrival of Lucy. Not surprising, considering how sneaky she is these days.”

“I am the least sneaky person on the planet. I don’t even know how to be sneaky. I wish I did.”

“That might have been true at one time.” Missy reached for a plate and turned to Tolly. “Can we eat? I’m starving. But Brantley knows plenty about being sneaky. What he didn’t know, I taught him and, apparently, he’s passing it on to you. Though I don’t know why you have to be so secretive. You and Brantley are perfect for each other. I don’t know why I didn’t think of it myself.”

Lucy filled her plate with one tart, one crab cake, and a generous portion of salad. There would be no cookie, not if she wanted a second glass of wine. Life was about choices. “As I have already told y’all,” she said patiently, “Brantley and I are not involved. All there is between us are old bricks and paint samples.”

“You do have to admit,” Lanie said tentatively, “that the two of you are perfectly suited. Same friends, same religion, same professional interests.”

“Not that she devil, Rita May Sanderson,” Missy said around a crab cake.

“Who he will, no doubt, return to any moment,” Lucy said.

“I’m not so sure about that,” Missy said.

“It’s wishful thinking on your part,” Lucy said. “There has to be something he likes about her, even if you do detest her.”

“No ‘if’ about it,” Missy said.

“Be that as it may, it’s all beside the point. Rita May or not, there is no Brantley and me.” Brantley and me. That phrase made her stomach turn over, and not in a good way.

“There was the matter of the fork,” Lanie said. “What was that all about anyway?

Hell and double hell! They knew about that?

“Forget the fork,” Tolly said. “I am much more interested in why he sent you a Jack-O-Lantern a week before Thanksgiving.”

They all gave her questioning looks. If they knew about the cake, they didn’t ask. “How am I supposed to know why Brantley Kincaid sends such weird gifts? Missy ought to know more about that than I do. She knows him better. Hell, she created him.”

“I did not. I tried. He would not be turned.”

“Turned to what? Tolly asked.

“My minion,” Missy said. “I’ve been trying to get a minion for years and haven’t been able to manage it yet. I cannot put anyone onto the Missy way of doing things. Tolly and Nathan aren’t even coming to my Iron Bowl party. They’re going to the game just to watch Kirby standing around redshirted.”

“That’s right,” Tolly said with no apology in her voice. “We’re very proud of Kirby for being redshirted. It means they are saving him so he will have an additional year of eligibility. You can go with us; I know Harris has tickets.”

“He does,” Missy said with a sigh. “And to tell the truth I would kind of like to go. But you know how Harris feels about it. He likes to watch the Alabama/Auburn game in his own house. But he did say that next year, when Kirby isn’t redshirted anymore, we will go. Beau will be old enough to go by then. And Kirby is family.”

Tolly and Harris, the children of identical twins, looked enough alike to be siblings. They practiced law together and were closer than most brothers and sisters.

Tolly laughed. “We’ll just see if he gets to play.”

“But the rest of you?” Missy looked from Lanie to Lucy. “You’ll be at our party?”

“Yes,” Lanie said.

“Of course,” Lucy said but it might be a lie. Depended on how Brantley was acting.

“Missy,” Tolly said, “I do appreciate that you are willing to uproot your whole family and come to Tuscaloosa for Thanksgiving. I know turkey in a restaurant is no one’s idea of a great Thanksgiving.”

Missy shrugged. “Kirby’s not allowed to leave until the game is over. The Bragg/Lee/Harris contingent does what it needs to. But I am bringing pies. We are having homemade pie, even if we have to eat it in our hotel rooms, right in bed.”

Relieved for the change of subject, Lucy jumped in. “What about the Heaven/Avery contingent? What are your Thanksgiving plans?”

Lanie smiled a sleepy smile. “Everyone is coming. My family, Luke’s parents, of course. Luke’s sister, Arabelle. We haven’t seen her since she got back from that Doctors Without Borders stint. Oh, and Luke’s cousin Sheridan and her husband. They’re bringing the baby they adopted last year, so John Luke will have a playmate.” She laughed. “As much as a ten-month-old and eight-month-old can play together.”

“That’s a lot of people, even for that big farmhouse,” Tolly said. “Are you cooking for all those people?”

“It will be a combined effort.” Lanie turned to Lucy. “How about you? I assume you’re parents aren’t coming back from Tibet. Are you going to those cousins in Charleston?”

“No.” And Lucy was thankful for it. It was a long drive and none of those people were anywhere close to her age. “It’s just Annelle and me this year.”

There were audible gasps from everyone in the room.

“No!” Lanie said. “You and Annelle come be with us at the farm. You have to.”

“It isn’t much to offer, but you can certainly come to Tuscaloosa with us. Annelle too, of course,” Tolly said.

“Absolutely,” Missy said.

Lucy laughed. “No. I think Aunt Annelle is kind of excited about what she is calling a ‘quiet, elegant, little celebration.’ She’s printed some recipes off the Internet for smoked turkey and wild mushroom bread pudding and pumpkin crème brulee.”

Missy sat up. “You can’t eat that! Not on Thanksgiving. It’s not traditional.”

“If you can eat canned cranberry sauce and dry turkey in a restaurant, I can eat whatever I want.” Plus there would be excellent wine, classical music, and they would dress up for the meal. She was rather looking forward to it. “And let’s not forget that we will have fabulous traditional Missy Bragg Iron Bowl party food two days later.”

“That’s true.” Missy nodded. “And best of all? Brantley will be there this year.”

Oh, joy. He’d been there last year too; he’d come unannounced. And she’d gone out the back door as he came in the front. But she was done running from the runner. Probably.

Missy was about to say something else when her cell rang.

“Sorry,” she said, and answered. “Oh? Well, can’t you—Okay. Yes. I’ll be right there.”

She turned her phone off and got to her feet. “Lulu is pitching a fit. I think she’s cutting a tooth and apparently Harris, Luke, and Nathan have done everything they can think off.”

“I’m sure Nathan was a great help,” Tolly said. “What did he want to do? Toss her around like a football?”

“Harris sounded just frantic enough to try it.”

Lanie was also on her feet. “I’ll go too. I rode over with Missy.”

“You don’t have to,” Lucy said. “I can take you to Missy’s to get your car and your family later.”

“No.” Lanie was putting her shoes on. “I’ll get my gang out of there so Missy can deal with Lulu. I would bet in all that excitement, Emma and Beau are wound up. That never helps anything.”

While Tolly was seeing Missy and Lanie out, Lucy gathered up the dirty dishes and took them to the kitchen. Tolly had used her good china and crystal. It shouldn’t go in the dishwasher so Lucy filled the farmhouse sink with warm soapy water.

“Well, that was short lived.” Tolly entered the kitchen carrying trays with the leftovers. “Will you take some of this food home with you? Nathan is not impressed with what he calls ‘tea party food.’”

“No,” Lucy said. “It was good, but I cannot afford the calories. You know how hard I fight.”

Tolly smiled. “You’re beautiful.”

“Well, I don’t feel like it. Not long ago I was at the mall and I looked up and saw a woman. I thought, ‘if only I looked like her.’ Then I realized it was me, in a mirror. But I never think of myself as that woman in the mirror. In my head, I’ve got another forty pounds.”

“We all have our demons.” Tolly began moving the tomato tarts into storage containers. Then she laughed a little. “What did you do with that chocolate cake? I know you didn’t eat it.”

“You heard about that? I’m not surprised.”

“I talked to Sandy when I stopped in the Bake Shop to pick up these cookies.”

“Lord.” Lucy put a hand to her forehead and discovered too late that there were soapsuds on her fingers.

Tolly laughed and came toward her with a towel. She dabbed it away. “There.”

“Thanks,” Lucy said.

“Lucy.” Tolly laid a hand on her arm.

No. Not a serious talk. Anything but that.

But Tolly went on. “I know we always joke that the four of us are one big double date, with you and Missy as a couple, and Lanie and me as the other. But we’re all sisters. You know that, don’t you?”

Lucy’s eyes filled with tears and she covered Tolly’s hand with her own. “Better than sisters. You don’t pick your sisters. We are friends of the heart. I would have even worn an ugly bridesmaid dress for you. But thank goodness what you picked was gorgeous.”

Tolly smiled. “I know you and Missy tend to confide in each other, as do Lanie and I. But I get how it might be hard to talk to Missy about this thing with Brantley, given how close they are. I’m here; you can talk to me.”

Lucy went back to her dishwashing. “Tolly, there is no Brantley and me.”

“That’s fine, if that’s what you want.” Tolly picked up a clean towel and started to dry. “But he is pursuing you. Rather relentlessly, from what I hear. You can’t deny that.”

Lucy was quiet for a moment. “I guess not. But, Tolly, Brantley is a runner. And for him, it’s about the chase. He thinks he can’t have me, so he’s interested. The minute that changed, he’d be done. Probably run back to Rita May.”