“They taste better in the fall, anyway,” Aunt Maddie commented as she took the chair across the table from Dulsie.

Mom sat at the end of the table, to Dulsie’s right, and Shad sat in the chair on her left. Uncle Pax took the chair beside Aunt Maddie and across from Shad.

“If I’m gonna slow roast them in the oven, I definitely prefer to wait for cooler weather,” Mom commented to her sister.

“I like it to be cooler even if I’ve got one tender enough to just fry,” Aunt Maddie replied.

Uncle Pax smiled as he leaned forward and rested his elbows on the table while clasping his hands together. “You two are giving me a hankering for squirrel meat.”

Dad grinned as he glanced at everyone around the table. “As we say grace we can thank the Lord for His wisdom in making an animal that deserves to be shot to taste so good.”

Everyone bowed their heads and after about a minute of silence Mom murmured, “Amen.” The rest of the family responded in kind, then began spooning up food and passing around the dishes.

The conversation jumped from hunting stories to animal antics to childhood memories. Shad as always didn’t contribute much other than to respond to a direct question. Mom as always never acknowledged Shad was even sitting at the table.

Uncle Pax finished a story about the time his Grandpa Ward was a kid and found a black snake in the chicken house on the farm where Quaid and Grace Delaney, who were Ward’s grandparents, lived. Ward had moved in with his grandparents during his adolescence to help them run the farm during their waning years. In return they willed that property to him. After Ward received his inheritance he quickly sold the place and had a very nice down payment on the current Delaney farm.

Without it ever being his intention, Ward Delaney set something of a precedent. Uncle Pax’s dad got a job down in the southwestern part of the state while Uncle Pax was still in high school. Since the lad was already in the habit of helping his grandparents around the farm it wasn’t a difficult argument for him to make that he should be able to finish his junior and senior years at the same school if he just stayed with them. So Uncle Pax moved in with his grandparents and wound up taking over the family farm. Of course Aunt Maddie was another incentive for Uncle Pax to want to stay around.

“Say....” Dad leaned back in his chair and leveled his gaze at Uncle Pax. “We aren’t messing up any plans of yours by selling this place to Shad and Dulsie, are we?”

“I left enough in the will for all three kids to fight over.” Uncle Pax smirked.

“Well, I don’t know how much actual use Erin and Iona would be able to get out of your place.” Dad’s gaze veered toward his son-in-law. “Shad’s the only one who hasn’t moved away, nor do you seem to have any intention to.”

“Not since I became a turkey farmer.” Shad glanced at Dulsie.

“You didn’t have to remind me of that.” Dad leaned forward. “You know, the kind of turkeys Dulsie raises don’t need to be confined to barns like mine do. She could do something like that on your dad’s place.”

Dulsie leveled a pseudo frown at her father. “Is there something you’re trying to not tell me?”

Dad waved away her question. “Don’t worry, you’re still getting this place.” Dulsie didn’t miss the glance he shot toward Mom. “But I know you always thought your aunt and uncle’s place was even better.”

Dulsie shrugged. “It’s got lots of great outbuildings. And I’ve always loved that old house.”

Mom spoke up in a tone that mocked betrayal. “Your dad and I put a lot of work into this place.”

“And Shad and I are gonna put a lot of work into this place, too.”

“And you know what the first thing is she’s gonna do?” Dad leaned forward with apparent eagerness. “She’s gonna break your rule that there can be no liquor in this house! Probably stock up half the pantry with the stuff.” He turned toward Shad. “The first time we come to visit you after you guys move in, I want you to offer me a beer.”

Shad had a bit of that deer-caught-in-the-headlights look as he stopped chewing and his gaze moved from his plate toward Uncle Pax. Mom had stuck to her family tradition of being a teetotaler. She didn’t bother trying to forbid Dad from imbibing, but Mom was also firm there would be no such spirits brought under the roof of her house. Aunt Maddie shrugged off that tradition when she married a Delaney, and Dulsie had already been corrupted by Dad, so Mom stood alone on that issue. Dulsie wasn’t sure what help Shad thought he was going to get from Uncle Pax, but he finally swallowed with what seemed like more effort than required.

“Deal,” Shad muttered.

Dad leaned forward to gaze at Mom again. “Whaduya think of that?”

“When it’s Dulsie’s house she can do whatever she wants,” Mom replied nonchalantly.

“Shad’s gonna offer me a beer. Right here under this roof.”

This was not the first time Dad tried to get Mom to acknowledge Shad’s existence, but Mom made a pretty formidable opponent. If nothing else, Dad’s needling might remind Shad of the task he was supposed to be working on.

Dad’s attention was locked on Mom. “Whaduya have to say to that?”

Mom looked up from her plate and leveled a look at Dad that was almost chilly. “You’ll finally be able to drink somewhere else besides Maddie’s, but you’re still not gonna drink in our new house.”

Yep, Mom was good, especially when she could deflect somebody like Dad, who sat back in his chair and pursed his lips while Mom resumed eating with the same indifference. And Shad no longer seemed concerned about the skirmish that just occurred.

Dad, as irreverent as ever, had to add another comment.

“You know, I can’t understand how a woman with that much Scotch in her could be so much against drinking.”

Dulsie waited only until she backed the car out the driveway and began the drive home to speak her mind. “Did you forget?”

Shad frowned slightly. “I must have. Forget what?”

“You had many opportunities to say something to Mom during the day today.”

A few seconds passed before he exhaled and responded. “I’m sure there was. You know I tend to miss those kind of things.”

“Be that as it is, you could’ve made your own opportunity as well. It’s nothing harder than anything else you’ve already done.”

It took Shad a few seconds again to respond. “I’ve never done any of them quickly.”

“That’s fine. I’m just a little curious on when you intend to start.”

“First I’ve got to figure out how to start.”

Dulsie shook her head. “Just start a conversation with her. You get to pick the topic.”

“You know, the last time I had a conversation with her, Jill told me she had nothing more to say until she accepted an apology from me.”

Dulsie pursed her lips. The only reason she knew about the discussion Shad just mentioned was because Mom, who had assumed Shad already told Dulsie all about it, let it slip shortly before their marriage. Even as his relationship with Mom got flushed, Shad made it a point not to damage what Dulsie had with Mom. Dulsie pointed this out to her, but Mom remained dubious.

“Maybe you should try an apology,” Dulsie suggested.

She was accustomed to Shad’s habit of considering his answers before speaking. “The chance to apologize is long gone. I married you. And I’m not sorry I did it.”

Dulsie couldn’t resist smiling. Shad wasn’t trying to be charming, but his blunt honesty sometimes came out that way.

“You could try a different angle.” Dulsie glanced at him. “Say you’re sorry you’ve waited for so long to try to patch things up with her.”

Shad took time to think again. “Jill specifically said I had to apologize for being so selfish I would put you at risk.”

Dulsie’s exasperated exhale was caused less by what Shad said than by what she knew about his history. As wonderful a man as he was, as much as he had overcome, Shad still occasionally exhibited results from having once been an abused child. He was no longer a victim, but in his effort to be protective Shad was willing to do anything short of exposing his soft underbelly if it meant keeping peace in the family. And he probably believed he deserved Mom’s ostracizing because Shad had dared to “defy” her. For someone whom survival once meant being unheard and unseen, Shad had perfected it to an art form in regard to Mom.