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“Guess who’s coming home for Thanksgiving?” I ask her. “Tabitha!”
“Oooh, Auntie Tab.” She smiles. She thinks it’s fun knowing someone on TV, especially since Tabitha is Creekville’s only celebrity who isn’t a Civil War hero.
“And Grace,” I add, “which means—”
“Unc!” she shouts and jumps up to do a happy dance.
“Yes,” I tell her. “Uncle Noah is coming.”
“And they’ll sleep at our new house like I always used to sleep at his?”
“Not this time, Eves. We don’t have a room ready for them yet, but they can come over as much as they want, and you can come here to visit as much as you want.” I shoot a quick glance at my bonus parents to make sure that’s okay. They’re both smiling.
“Yay, yay, yay! I can’t wait to show them my sea monkeys!”
“Speaking of which, it’s time to head home and check on them.” I don’t know if I’ll ever get used to saying “home” and meaning our own little house, but so far, I love it every time.
“Awww,” she says. “But I want to stay.”
I look at her, surprised. “I thought you’d want to check on your tank.”
“I do, but I can do that later. If I leave the Dubs, I can’t come back all the way until tomorrow.”
This makes Bill laugh and sweep her up into a spin hug. “How about if you let her stay until just before bedtime, and I’ll bring her back. We’ve got a football game to watch anyway.”
I agree to this plan because I’ll never feel like Evie has enough family in her life, and I want to give her all of it I can. “One condition: no whining about tooth brushing at bedtime. Promise?”
“Promise!” Then she trots off with Bill to watch the game.
“Why don’t you go get some quiet time?” Lisa asks. I know she’s not trying to get rid of me; downtime as a single mom is a rare thing, and she’s offering up two hours of it.
“Thanks, Lisa.” I leave her with a hug, and I’ll make sure Bill gets his when he drops off Evie.
“Say hi to the handsome professor for me,” she says, walking me to the door.
“Lisa!” I turn and gape at her. “It’s not like that.”
“Maybe it should be.” And she shuts the door on me with a laugh.
Chapter Seventeen
Henry
Istepoutside,intendingto go to Paige’s house, when she materializes out of the dusk on the sidewalk.
“Hey,” she calls. “Beautiful night.”
There’s a nip in the air that speaks of autumn and adventure without the biting cold that sometimes creeps in deep into the wet winter months.
“Hello,” I say in return. “I was heading to your house to see if you’d like to come over to dinner.” I peer past her. “Where’s Evie? I made pizza on a pizza stone. Thought she might like it. I doctored ours up a bit.”
“She’s with the Dubs. We have Sunday dinner with them every week, and I told her she could stay until bedtime.”
“You remind me of the Balkans.” I’m not sure what to say next.
“The Balkans? Like in Europe? Croatia and whatever else is around there?”
“Yes.” It sounds asinine coming out of nowhere, so I try to explain. “Joint family is common there. Parts of India too. It’s when extended family all help with the raising of children. That’s what you and the Winters family remind me of. It’s . . . nice.”
