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him?” Ethan asked, laughing.
    “ Softened and on the verge of melting. He’ll be running McDowell Financial one day if he’s not careful.”
    “ I wonder what he’d like to eat while he’s here?” Marc pondered, almost to himself.
    “ Are you telling me that Vincent gets to determine the menu?” Vicki protested. “ It’s my house and I never get to decide what we eat.”
    “ Get her,” Marc said to Ethan. “See how well she plays the role of lady of the manor? As if she weren’t just little ole’ Vicki Locke, New York actress, a mere three years ago. Besides,” he continued, his attention back to Vicki, “You’ll eat anything. Vincent, however, strikes me as the type who might be very particular. I just want to make sure that he doesn’t go hungry.”
    “ We’re going to get very tired of this,” Vicki uttered under her breath to Ethan.
    “ Yes we are,” Ethan agreed with a sigh.
    “ And I’m still the New York actress Vicki Locke by the way. It’s just that now I’m able to enjoy some of life’s luxuries, like a bigger apartment, a country house, and a cantankerous cook.”
    “ So let’s run down the cast of characters,” Marc said, ignoring the two of them as he opened his ever-present planner and began making notes. “I suppose Harold Fiske will be here since he wrote the damn thing. We’re all going to have to be on booze patrol around him all weekend. You know how insufferable he gets when he’s in his cups. Billy will be here, but when isn’t he? You know he now leaves clothes in the armoire in his room? For all practical purposes, he’s moved in. Still, he’s charming and he’s a good director, so I suppose I don’t mind too much.”
    “ You don’t know how much Teddy and I appreciate your flexibility, Marc” Vicki said, attempting to keep a straight face.
    Marc, totally focused on his planner, continued as if she hadn’t spoken. “So now we have Phoebe and Vincent joining the Broadway riff raff we usually entertain. Well, it’s not actually our usual crowd,” he amended, “since we seem to be making history by seating Roz Whiting, Sir Tony and Dame Caroline Dupree at the same table for the first time ever. Poor Juliet, it is absolutely the family reunion from hell, isn’t it? I mean, come on,” he exclaimed dramatically, popping one of the cucumber and feta cheese sandwiches into his mouth, “having Roz and Tony for parents is bad enough, but when you throw in Dame Caroline as the wicked stepmother … well, it gets positively Grimm … and that’s with two m’s not one.”
    “ It is pretty remarkable Juliet turned out as normal as she did.” Ethan was sitting on the floor rubbing Clementine’s ears. “Other than being a little on the quiet side, she seems pretty well-adjusted.”
    “ You’d be on the quiet side if you’d been raised by that group,” Vicki said, her mouth full with her third sandwich. “I mean, Roz is bad enough when it comes to dominating a conversation …”
    “ But she does it so well,” Marc interjected.
    “ Which is why you forgive her, “ Vicki continued. “In fact, they’re all so damned entertaining that you forget no one else has spoken for two hours. Still, I’ve watched it shape Juliet over the years. Thank God she’s had Meg around to listen to her and provide some semblance of a normal life.”
    “ Not to mention that Catholic upbringing, which stopped just short of the poor thing’s being sent to a convent,” Mark added disapprovingly, as he generously refilled everyone’s Martini glass. “Why do you think Roz allowed that ?
    “ Spoken like a true lapsed Catholic,” Ethan said, winking at Vicki.
    “ I mean she’s certainly no Mother Teresa,” Marc continued as if he’d never been interrupted. “In fact, I don’t think she could even play Mother Teresa. Not on film, at least; the camera is too close; she’d never pull it off. She might be able to do it onstage,” he added, as if truly contemplating the