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“How immensely
flattering.”
    “Me too. I mean, I got to know Gabe by us working together
too,” Mira said, as always a little flustered when everybody looked at her.
“Sort of.”
    Dixie waved a liver-spotted hand. “Same difference, or maybe
even better. You met him where you could see him day in and day out, see how he
treated other people, how he acted when things didn’t go right. It’s easy to
act all nice and lovey-dovey taking a girl out on a date, trying to impress her.
It’s a whole different thing to do it every day.”
    “You’re right there, not that I’d ever argue against church
as the best dating service,” Dave said. “But if you want a marriage to work,
you have to be able to work things out when the going gets rough. That’s where
I’d disagree with you, Dixie. Joe doesn’t have to talk much, but he has to talk
some. You can’t fix things if you can’t talk them over.”
    “So true,” Alec sighed. “I can attest to that. Rae tells me
I’m wrong, and I tell her she’s right, and there you go, we’ve talked it over.
Problem solved.”
    “I do not,” Rae laughed. “We don’t argue much because I’m so
good at knowing what you want, I’ve already made it happen.”
    “Also true,” he said. “And in Mira and Gabe’s case, Mira
thinks Gabe’s perfect, so they’ve got no differences to work out at all. That’s
the other approach.”
    “That is not true,” Mira protested. “We have differences. I
know he isn’t perfect.”
    “All right,” Alec challenged. “Name my brother’s
imperfections.”
    “Well . . .” She hesitated. “He doesn’t like to use his turn
signal,” she finally produced with triumph.
    “Uh-huh. He doesn’t like to. But he does?”
    “Well, yes,” she admitted. “If he’s driving me. Because I
don’t like him not to.” Even Mira had to laugh at that one, which put her in
company with the rest of the room.
    “Oh, yeah. He’s an outlaw,” Alec said. “And let’s hear
Mira’s flaws, Gabe. Since we’re sharing.”
    “Not critical enough,” Gabe said with a smile. “Come on. I’m
not answering that. I may only have been married six months, but I’ve already
got the cardinal rule down. Girlfriend: sometimes right. Wife: usually right.
Pregnant wife: always right. And wife pregnant with twins: infallible.”
    That caused an outburst that didn’t die down for a full
minute, during which Mira was laughing, pink with pleasure, and Susie had come
around to hug her, and Gabe had put his arm around her, looking, Alyssa thought,
like he’d personally done something incredibly clever and talented, because he
was obviously pleased as punch and twice as proud of himself.
    “You’ve got that one right,” Dave said at last, wiping his
eyes on his napkin. “Twins. The fun is just beginning.”
    “Let’s see, Mira,” Alyssa said, pulling her sister-in-law up
from her chair and taking both her hands, standing back to check out her
waistline. “I thought you were
looking pudgy.” Which caused everyone to howl even more.
    “What’s your due date, Mira?” Susie asked when the laughter
had died down.
    “July twentieth,” she said, sitting down again, still
looking flushed and flustered, but so happy.
    “Oh, perfect,” Susie exclaimed. “Halfway through my summer
break from school. Though twins will probably come early. Even better.” Her
mother still worked at the elementary school secretary job she’d held for
years, seemingly happy to stay. “I do get to come and help, don’t I?” she asked
in sudden alarm. “Before the babies, and afterwards? I could stay in the trailer,”
she began to plan, “so I’d be out of your way, and Dave could come down from
time to time.”
    “And just like that, I’ve lost my wife of thirty-six years,”
her husband said in resignation. “I can see I’m going to be spending the next
six months saying, ‘Repeat after me. These are Mira’s babies. Not your babies. Mira’s