Page 58 of It Runs in the Family

And now I didn’t even have the excuse of my job to get out of it.

Could this weekend get any worse?

The three chairs across from Ava, Mary Ellen, and me were still empty, and I only hoped Aunt Millie didn’t sit there and try to guilt trip me throughout dinner. Thankfully, Mary Ellen and Ava’s younger half-sister, Stacy, walked up and glanced at the annoying Edward on one side, and our cousin Tim to the other. He was the oldest of all the cousins and a conspiracy theorist nutjob. Grimacing, she took the seat directly across from me, leaving two empty chairs on either side of her. I couldn’t say I blamed her.

I groaned. “I’m not in the mood for games. Just tell me.”

Just as I finished my sentence, Billy walked up and took in the two empty seats on either side of Stacy. Shrugging, he sat down next to Edward. Trinity let out a gasp. I was no prude, but I wouldn’t want my kid sitting next to him either. Trinity and Billy might be siblings, but there was no love lost between them.

As Billy sat down, he settled his attention on me, narrowing his eyes in a warning that our earlier dispute wasn’t finished.

I rolled my eyes, but then the man standing to the right of Stacy had me gaping in shock.

I knew Billy’s guest.

I was face to face with Boone.

Chapter Sixteen

Boone gave me a devilish grin as he sat down.

I started to ask him why he was here, and with Billy of all people, but Mary Ellen quickly jumped in.

“Boone, I don’t believe you’ve had the pleasure of meeting our cousin, Iris,” she said sweetly. She turned to me and gave me a pleading look. “Iris, this is Boone.”

I must have stared at her for a second too long for Ava’s liking, because she added, “He came with Billy.”

“She’s the bitch cousin I was tellin’ ya about,” Billy said in disgust as he reached for the bowl of mashed potatoes.

“We ain’t said grace yet, heathen,” Edward said in accusatory tone.

Billy shot him a dark look as he scooped a heaping spoonful of mashed potatoes onto his plate. “Didn’t your mommy tell you I’m not a heathen anymore?”

Edward hexed me for saying hell, but all Billy got was an admonishment for trying to dish up some potatoes before we prayed.

“Let’s say grace,” Granny called out at the end of the table, her eyes pinned on Billy. He had the good sense to look chastised as he put the spoon back into the bowl.

Thankfully, my grandmother wasn’t a fan of handholding, so I placed my hands in my lap and bowed my head as she said a short prayer, finishing with “amen.”

We all muttered amen with varying degrees of enthusiasm, Trinity being the loudest at our end of the table, until Billy added his own amen a second later, along with, “Dear Lord, thank you for your forgiveness and the forgiveness of my family.”

There were murmurs of appreciation up and down the table. I didn’t bother hiding my eye roll.

Stacy didn’t waste any time pouncing on Boone. With her auburn hair, she didn’t look like her half-sisters, but she’d clearly inherited some of their personality. “Soooo… what made you come to one of our family dinners?” Then she cast a quick sneer over her shoulder. “And what in God’s green earth are you doin’ here with Billy?”

Boone gave her a polite smile. “Your family Sunday dinners are infamous, so when Billy told me what his plans were this afternoon, I begged for an invite.” He shot me a wink. “Plus, it’s been a while since I had a homecooked meal.”

“Don’t they feed you homecooked meals on the ranch?” I asked, my eyebrows arched.

“What makes you think I work on a ranch?” he asked in a slow drawl.

I opened my mouth to snap at him, but Ava cut in, “Boone, how do you know Billy?”

“We met at T-Birds,” Billy said, holding a chicken leg in his hand, then taking a big bite.

“You didn’t meet at church?” I asked derisively.

Billy shot me a glare.