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man. What do you think?” She tossed it in the sink and joined Faith at the table to ladle gravy, pouring it on thick.
    Faith’s chuckle merged with her mother’s. “So, Katie, you never did say what you have against poor Cluny. To be honest, I always felt sorry for the little guy. Goodness, abandoned by his mother, raised by a grandmother who wasn’t much better, and then shipped off to New York to live with an aunt he barely knew. Other than his brief stay with Brady before Lizzie and Brady got married, he’s had a life of sheer misery.”
    A grin curled on Katie’s lips as she placed the rolls into a napkin-laden basket. “Which explains why he’s so good at it – he made my life miserable.” She sighed. “Okay, maybe he wasn’t all that bad, I suppose, but the little beggar just had a way of getting under my skin.”
    “So does Collin, but you still love him,” Faith said with a smile, never missing a beat as she swatted Charity’s fingers from picking at the chicken.
    Katie grinned at Charity’s threatening gestures behind Faith’s back. She toned it down to a smile and forced herself to focus. “But Collin is family – I have to love him. Cluny McGee was just so . . . so . . . annoyingly cocky.” She pictured the puny street urchin that Brady had brought to dinner the Easter she was ten, and the memory of her instant dislike roiled in her stomach like indigestion. Despite his age of fourteen, he looked younger than her and yet he flaunted the same controlling air she’d seen in every bully she’d ever known. From the moment she’d met him, he teased her and baited her and pushed his way into her family and her life, winning the affection of everyone but her. A shiver traveled her spine. No, to her he was little more than a gnat, buzzing around every summer like those annoying fruit flies hovering over the bananas in her mother’s kitchen. Tiny, taunting, and impossible to swat. Katie sighed, suddenly ashamed at how she had resented him so. “I don’t know, the little twerp barely came to my shoulders, and yet he strutted around like he was ten feet tall, always trying to boss me around. I guess he just got on my nerves.”
    “Well, you will be civil to him tonight, won’t you?” Lizzie asked in a pleading tone. “It is Brady’s birthday, and you know how much that husband of mine has always loved Cluny.”
    Charity commenced spooning green beans on each of the children’s plates. “Civil? Our Katie?” She chuckled. “She barely treats Jack civilly, and she actually likes him.”
    Lizzie tucked an arm around Katie’s shoulders. “Katie, please. Give me your word. Tell me you will be nice to Cluny – just for tonight.”
    “Just for tonight?” Katie asked. She grinned. “Well, since the likelihood of ever seeing the little brat again is completely remote, yes, I promise you, Lizzie. I will be on my best behavior with Mr. Pain-in-the-Knickers McGee. Consider it my birthday gift to Brady.”
    “Mmm . . . Katie’s ‘best behavior.’ Sounds a tad risky to me,” Faith said, her tongue rolling inside her cheek.
    Katie gaped. “Faith McGuire – I’m shocked! I expect that from Charity, but you ?”
    “What can I say – she’s a bad influence,” Faith said, licking potatoes from her finger.
    The kitchen door flew open as Faith’s husband strolled in, a tall, dark-haired man who made a beeline for the icebox. He stashed two tubs of ice cream next to the block of ice, then turned to press a kiss on the back of Faith’s neck as he snatched a piece of chicken from the plate, all in one fluid motion. “Marcy, Cluny’s here, so Brady said you can serve dinner anytime.”
    Faith slapped his hand and spun around. “Collin McGuire, you’re going to lose an arm that way, mister.”
    His wife’s annoyance prompted his trademark smile, along with a little-boy twinkle in his gray eyes. “But not the lips, eh, Little Bit? Wouldn’t want to risk those, would we?” With a tug to her