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flashed a smile before completing Madison’s sentence. “Her husband.”
     
    ***
     
    Everybody crowded around them. You could tell the family resemblance because all of the Allens had high cheekbones and some had emerald eyes like Madison. In attendance were Madison’s two brothers, Gerald and his wife April, and Jerry and his wife Janice. Her two sisters, Pam and Adrienne, were also there with their husbands, Louis and Edward. Madison’s father stayed in the background and observed from his dark green lazy-boy chair that sat positioned in the middle of the room. Her nieces and nephews were running throughout the house.
    Each member of Madison’s family reached out to Ethan with open arms. The men gave him a hearty handshake, while the women gave him tight hugs. Finally, Gerald led him to their father.  Madison’s mom, Ethel, directed her to the kitchen. Her sisters walked right behind them while her sister-in-laws went to see about the children who were making their way through almost every room in the spacious house.  It was the same house Madison and her brothers and sisters had grown up in.
    Ethel flashed an approving smile. “ Madison baby, he looks like a winner. Why did you hide him from us?” she said as she walked over to the refrigerator and took out a pitcher of lemonade and then a pitcher of tea, placing them both down on the newly updated black and gray marbled kitchen counter.
    Madison cleared her throat. “I was selfish. We don’t get to spend much time together, so I wanted him all to myself.”  She began assisting her mother by gathering glasses from the cupboards.
    “I see why, because he is gorgeous. He makes Brad Pitt look like mince meat,” Pam said while everyone else laughed.
    “I can’t put my finger on it, but something doesn’t feel right.” Adrienne frowned as she sat down at the kitchen table, the table that was now used as the kid’s table while the adults dined in the formal dining room.
    Madison ignored her comment and proceeded to get plastic cups for the kids.
    Pam, who sometimes instigated the sibling rivalry, asked, “Adrienne why do you say that?”
    A wicked looking smile spread over Adrienne’s face.  “Madison, you’ve only known him a short while. Nobody in the family has met him until now and so we’re supposed to accept him into the family? Are you sure you really know him? He looks like one of those playboy types. Why did you go to Vegas when everybody knows in this family, we always have church weddings?”
    Ethel jumped in before an argument started. “Adrienne, it doesn’t matter, he’s family now. So please keep your comments to yourself.  Ethan is part of this family now, and if your sister is happy, then that’s all that matters.”
    Madison hugged her mom. “Thanks, Mom.”
    “Now ladies, I didn’t work all day at this hot stove for my food to get cold. Pick up one of the bowls or platters and help me get everything on the table,” Ethel ordered.
    They each filled their hands with glasses, beverages and platters and headed towards the dining room. Ethel cooked a big southern dinner fit for royalty. She had baked a ham, roast, made mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, fresh green beans, candy yams with fresh dinner rolls and a peach cobbler for dessert.
    “I think you out did yourself this time,” Madison stated as she placed the glasses she had carried in her hands down at a setting and headed back to the kitchen.
    Adrienne walked back into the kitchen and stood next to Madison and whispered, “You’re hiding something and I’m going to find out what it is.”
    Even as kids, Adrienne always stayed on the other siblings heels in an attempt to catch them in the act of something that was sure to land them punishment or embarrassment.   It was clear that she s till hadn’t grown out of her childhood tactics as a result of sibling rivalry.
    “Whatever. Just because your marriage isn’t what you want it to be, there’s no reason why