Kara snuggled closer to him, suddenly unconcerned with the stares of her extended family. “I love you, Sweety,” she whispered.
“You are not leaving this party, Kara!” Mama told her.
Al cleared his throat, drawing the attention of everyone in the small parlor. “Actually, your Mother's right, Kara,” he said.
Kara frowned, even while her mother smiled in triumph.
“If not for the reason she thinks she is,” Al continued. “This is Ruth's and my house and that makes it our party and we don't want you to leave.”
Mama's triumphant grin faltered.
Al bravely stepped up into the thick of the gathering in front of the door. It was crowded with all of them standing there—Mama with Bobby, Kara with Ron and now Al pressing into the thick of things. “Bobby, you're not welcome here anymore. You had a great thing with Kara and you blew it. I'm asking you to leave now.”
“Albert!” Mama snapped.
Bobby was clearly as surprised as Mama by this turn of events. “Al,” he said. “I thought we were friends.”
“My friends,” Al said, “do not treat my sister-in-law the way you did!”
Mama changed her tactics. “Ruth!” she hissed. “Control your husband.”
Ruth did not like suddenly being the center of attention. She glared at Kara for a moment and then looked beseechingly at Al.
“Ruth!” Mama demanded.
“I have to check on dinner,” Ruth said and hurried back to the kitchen.
"Ruth!" Mama called after her.
Al took the reins back into his hands. “Bobby, you're spoiling our Christmas,” he said. “It's time for you to leave.”
“I'm not doing anything,” Bobby protested. “All I did was accept Mrs. Brennan's generous invitation.”
“Oh, for God's sake, Bobby!” Kara interjected. “Are you really saying you thought I'd be glad to see you here? Are you really pretending you didn't know I was still with Ron? We're living together! How could you possibly think it was all right for you to come to our family Christmas party and try to break us apart?”
Aunt Edie shook her head and stoked Mama's anger. “Living in sin,” she muttered. “You didn't mention that before, Margaret. I am so sorry for you! The trials our Lord puts upon us.”
Mama's eyes burned with fury. “Albert, Robert is staying!”
“No,” Al told her, “he is not!”
He turned back to Bobby. “I've asked you politely to leave. Now I'm telling you! I don't care where you go, but get the hell off of my property!”
Bobby took a step backward. “I, um, really?”
His eyes flashed around the room and settled on Kara. The smug look was gone. He seemed to be completely ignoring Ron. “Kara?”
“Get out of here!” she demanded.
Bobby took another step back.
Al slammed the door in his face. “That man!” he muttered.
Kara slipped out of Ron's arms to hug him. “Thanks, Al!” she said. “You were wonderful.”
“You think nothing of it!” he told her. “You're family here! I'm just glad you found out what he's really like before you married him.”
Kara stepped back so Ron could shake Al's hand. “I owe you!” Ron told Al.
“No, you don't,” Al told him. “I'm just glad you didn't actually hit him. It would have gotten ugly if we'd had the police out to the house.”
“Not many things do it,” Ron said, “but when someone disrespects Kara I see red.”
Kara decided it was time to properly introduce Ron to her aunt and cousins. She slipped her arm back into his and used the gesture to prompt him to turn around and face the parlor. “Ron, this is my Aunt Edie,” Kara said, “You sort of met all ready.”
Ron flushed with embarrassment again as he held out his hand. “I am very sorry about that, Ma'am. It's a pleasure to finally meet you.”
Aunt Edie appraised him carefully before sticking out her hand. “I suppose the good Lord would want me to give you a second chance.”
“Thank you, Ma'am,” Ron said.
“He's a fine looking man, Kara,” Aunt Edie said. “A bit young and aggressive, but many women like those qualities in their men.”
Kara blinked. Had Aunt Edie just approved of Ron? She glanced at the glower on her mother's face. She had! Aunt Edie was not going to side with her mother against Kara's man.
Thea seemed to take her mother's words of approval as permission to step forward herself. “You can't believe how interested we've been to finally meet you,” she told Ron. “We've been talking about you for a year now, but Kara's kept you away from the rest of the family.”
“I'm sorry you're not seeing me at my best tonight,” Ron told her.
“Are you sure about that?” Thea asked before leaning in closer to Kara and whispering. “Wow! He was going to punch Bobby, wasn't he?”
Kara still had mixed feelings about that.
Thea moved on to make room for her sister who wished Kara a Merry Christmas and followed Aunt Edie and Mama into the kitchen to greet Ruth.
Suddenly, Kara and Ron were left alone in the parlor with only Al keeping them company.
“Whew!” Al breathed. “I'm glad that's over!”
Kara found herself smiling—a warm and genuine appreciation for how the almost disastrous evening had just straightened out. It didn't make a great deal of sense to her, but she found the chaos they'd just survived strangely reassuring. Ron had rushed to her defense and Al had stood up for her. “It could have gone better,” she admitted, “but at least Bobby left.”
Ron seemed far more upset by what had happened then Kara now felt. “At least I didn't hit your aunt,” he said.
Al chuckled. “But that would have made this Christmas so much more memorable.” He patted Ron on the shoulder. “Come on,” he said, “let's let Kara help Ruth make nice to her aunt and cousins. You and I can hide in the garage while we finish working on that basketball hoop.”
* * * *
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Chapter Fourteen
“With all the craziness out front,” Kara said, “I just realized I don't see Jamal, Becka.”
They were sitting in the kitchen. Ron and Al had made good on their escape to the garage while Marc and Jenny were boxing on the new Kinect. This had initially troubled Kara when she'd first peak in on her niece and nephew, but she'd decided it wasn't a problem when she realized little Jenny was kicking her older brother's butt. So she'd entered the crowded kitchen and taken a seat at the table with the others while Ruth stirred pots on the stove.
Becka frowned, making Kara wonder if Jamal had gotten into some sort of trouble everyone had forgotten to warn her about.
“He's with his father this year,” Becka told her.
Aunt Edie frowned. “That man is not a good influence on that child.”
“But he is his father,” Becka reminded her, “and the courts say Jamal gets to spend half of his holidays with him. This year, he got Christmas Day and I got Christmas Eve.”
“That must be hard,” Kara sympathized. “Christmas is really about the kids. Please tell Jamal we missed him when he comes back home.”
“I get him back tomorrow,” Becka told her.
“If Wilson were a gentleman,” Aunt Edie announced, “he would have let Jamal stay with you so the child could see his relatives tonight.”
“Jamal did not want to stay with me,” Becka reminded her, “and no matter what I might think of Wilson after the divorce, I have no reason to complain about his mother and sister. They were always good to me and I'm glad Jamal is getting to spend some time with them.”
Aunt Edie made a harrumphing noise that reminded Kara of Ebeneezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol. “I don't see why you're always defending him,” she muttered.
“And I don't see why you can't just let the matter drop,” Becka told her.
“So Kara,” she said, changing the subject, “at the risk of getting every
one upset again, tell us a little about Ron. You didn't attend our Fourth of July barbecue this summer and well, it's been a year and we still haven't met him.”
“We haven't met Liz's new boyfriend either,” Thea added. “What's up with that? We don't live all that far away.”
“Too interested in their new men to pay proper attention to their families,” Aunt Edie observed. She patted her sister's arm in apparent sympathy, which caused Mama to stiffen and bristle.
“Fourth of July we spent with Ron's family,” Kara explained.
“Ron insists that Kara choose his family over ours whenever there is any pretense of conflict,” Mama lied.
Kara smothered a sigh and forced herself to smile. “It may feel that way to you, Mama,” she said, “but in actuality there have been a total of six real conflicts in the past year and Ron's family won over ours in precisely two of them.”
“Our family event was one of those two,” Aunt Edie observed.
This time Kara did sigh. “That's right, Aunt Edie, we gave Ron's parents the Fourth of July rather than coming out to visit you.”
“It's just disrespectful,” Mama complained. “I raised you better than that.”
“Better in what way?” Kara asked. “Are you saying you raised me to tell my boyfriend that what my family wanted to do would always be more important than what his family desires?”
In point of fact, Mama had raised her daughters to believe that, but Kara didn't think she would be willing to state the fact so boldly.
“You're such an impertinent girl,” Mama told her. She turned to her sister. “Another thing I blame on Ronald. When Robert was dating her, she was much more respectful.”
Kara caught Thea rolling her eyes and couldn't resist smiling.
Mama didn't like that of course, but Becka reentered the conversation and forestalled her rejoinder.
“So you met him last Christmas?”
“Yes,” Kara told her. She knew she couldn't tell her everything that had happened last year, but the bare outlines of the story wouldn't scandalize anyone. “We were sitting next to each other on our flight back to Detroit but the snow wouldn't let the plane leave the airport. So he overheard me call Bobby asking him to pick me up, and he was still there when I discovered that Bobby was cheating on me with someone else. You can imagine how I felt about that—Bobby letting me come out to visit him while he was already in a relationship with another woman.”
“Yes, I can,” Becka told her, and Kara remembered that her husband, Wilson, had carried on an affair for the entire time they'd been married. Long enough to make any sane person wonder why he'd married Becka in the first place.
“Well, you know it hurts,” Kara said. “And Ron stayed with me the whole time in the airport, talking to me, making sure I ate, distracting me from my problems.” She had a strange impulse to share just how Ron had distracted her in the airport, but fortunately Mama interrupted before Kara could say something she'd later regret.
“Ronald took advantage of Kara's emotional vulnerability,” she explained to Aunt Edie.
“Why would you say that, Aunt Margaret?” Thea asked. “Maybe if they'd had a one night stand you could say that, but they've been together for a year now. I don't see how Ron is taking advantage of her.”
“He's living off of her!” Mama said. “He moved out of his apartment so he wouldn't have to spend money on rent.”
“Oh, Mama,” Kara said. “Don't you ever get tired of stretching and bending the truth?”
“Kara!” Mama snapped. Then uncharacteristically she turned to Ruth for the second time that evening, seeking support. “Ruth, are you going to just stand there by the stove and let your sister talk about me like this?”
“I'm working on dinner, Mama,” Ruth said, “by myself, as usual.”
“Can I help you, Ruth?” Kara asked.
“Oh, no!” Ruth said. “You do not get to use me as an excuse to get out of the hole you've dug yourself into. You have to do that all by yourself.”
Kara sighed. It was almost impossible to get along with Ruth. Whether you offered to help or didn't offer to help, you were always in the wrong. Too bad Liz wasn't here to help her, but Kara's little sister was visiting Travis’ parents this Christmas and using Kara as her excuse to get away. Kara missed Christmas last year. What's wrong with me missing it this year? Of course she forgot to mention that Kara had been snowed in at the airport trying to catch a flight home.
“So what's your point, Kara?” Becka asked bringing her thoughts back to the conversation Mama had succeeded in interrupting. “If you're supporting him—that does sound like he's taking advantage of you.”
Kara frowned at her, wondering why Becka was joining Mama in attacking Ron. “Because I'm not supporting him, Becka. Mama knows this. She just chooses to conveniently forget so she can make Ron look bad.”
“Kara!” Mama began, but Kara ignored her and kept talking.
“Ron pays half the mortgage, half the cable and utility bills, and buys half the food—more if you count all the times he treats me to a night out for dinner.”
“It's still not proper,” Aunt Edie said. “You're living in sin with him.” It was impossible for Kara to tell if the full account of Ron moving in with her improved her impression of Kara's boyfriend or not.
“That's a different issue, Mom,” Thea said. “All Kara is saying is she's not supporting Ron. He picks up half the bills.”
“And so I'm able to save a lot of money because Ron's living with me,” Kara added. Her family had always respected thrift. It ought to be worth a few points to mention that.
“Dinner's ready!” Ruth announced, blessedly terminating the conversation. “Kara, would you call the men? Thea, could you get the kids?”
Maybe, Kara thought, Ruth was willing to be more helpful than she had thought.
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Chapter Fifteen
Dinner was excellent—not at all like the parsimonious overly-elegant fare they'd had last night at the Miller house. Whatever else Kara could say about Ruth—and as the middle child of three daughters, she could say an awful lot about her older sister—Ruth was a really good cook.
“Ruth,” Ron announced, “I've said it before and I'll say it again. When the kids are old enough to get themselves to school and back by themselves, you should open a restaurant!”
Ruth tried to hide how much this complement pleased her. “I'm not really that good,” she said, “and think how expensive a venture like that would be.”
“We'd all help you,” Ron said. “Heck, I'd invest in you! We'd look for a building that Al and I could fix up. Kara could keep your books. Liz could get all your permits. It would still be a lot of work, but we could handle it if you're willing to handle the kitchen.”
Kara was never quite certain if Ron was serious or if he were teasing her sister when they talked about the restaurant. She liked Ruth's cooking, but she really wasn't certain that it was restaurant caliber fare. She did like the way her sister beamed, however, when Ron praised her.
“Ron's right, honey,” Al told his wife. “This is excellent!” To make his point, he shoveled a large forkful of turkey, smothered in mashed potatoes and gravy, into his mouth. Most people ate the turkey with some gravy or the mashed potatoes with some gravy, but Al like to combine all three into one serving.
“Well, if Albert's not making enough to support you,” Mama said, “there are less risky ventures you could try to bring in some money.”
Ruth visibly deflated at her mother's barb.
“Their finances are fine, Mama,” Kara said. It was the simple truth. She ought to know, she did everyone's taxes for them. “We're talking about dreams and ambitions.”
Mama did not look convinced. “No one is fine in this recession,” she said. “We're all family here. There's no need to put on airs or false fronts.”
“Actually,” Al volunteered, “a garage like mine does pretty well in a recessi
on. People can't afford to get rid of their cars and buy new ones so they have to get the old ones fixed. We're doing better now than we were five years ago.”
Mama, of course, turned this into a bad thing. She shook her head. “That sounds a lot like taking advantage of other people's misfortunes.”
“I suppose,” Thea said, “that it's all a matter of your perspective. When my little Escort broke down last summer, it was a Godsend that Al was able to get it running again for me.” She smiled sweetly at him. “And of course it's especially nice that he never charges me for the work.”
Al shrugged. “You're family, Thea.”
“You're a credit to this family, Al,” Aunt Edie told him. Ruth's eyebrows shot up in surprise at the seldom heard complement from the usually negative older generation. “Ruth is lucky to have found you.”
Kara's sister opened her mouth to thank their aunt for the praise when the older woman spoiled it with a disapproving glance at recently divorced Becka.
Ruth closed her mouth again without speaking.
Kara decided to help out by changing the subject. “Is it still snowing outside?” she asked. In her mind, she could hear her mother say, It's certainly not snowing inside, is it? But fortunately Mama remained silent as she turned with the rest of the extended family to look out the kitchen window through which huge flakes of snow could be seen peacefully falling to earth.
“The roads were quite treacherous on the way over here,” Aunt Edie observed.
“They really weren't that bad yet,” Thea disagreed. “We'd only had an inch or so more since the snow last night, but that looks a lot heavier now.”
“What's the forecast?” Kara asked. “I thought the snow was pretty much finished last night.”
“I don't know,” Ruth told her. “I've been listening to iTunes all day—not the radio.”
“We had the radio on in the garage,” Al told her. “They've been watching a storm out over the Great Lakes but they weren't predicting it to get bad until after midnight.”
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