Joe grinned.

Theresa, Vinnie, Bea and Gary all looked at Joe and me.

Joe remained silent.

I resisted the urge to kick him and announced, “Um… by the way, Joe moved in last week.”

Kate came up beside Joe and me and unusually declared very publicly and with a drama that would make Keira proud, “Yeah, and thank God he did, seein’ as my ex-boyfriend, Dane, the Jerk, was a jerk and since Joe was here, he took me for a ride in his Bullitt car.” She looked at Bea and explained like she knew everything about the history of Ford Mustangs (which she might, who knew what she and Joe talked about when I wasn’t around). “That’s a 1968 Mustang GT, Gram,” then she went on to everyone, “and Joe told me that we Winters girls were the best women he’d ever met and if Dane didn’t get with the program he was gonna lose his chance because I shouldn’t put up with anything less than my man handin’ me the world.” This was okay, until she finished. “And, he said if Dane ever hurt me again, he’d break his neck!”

“Oh shit,” I muttered but before I could intervene, Keira skipped toward the living room and carried on with the storytelling.

“Yeah, and when our mean, nasty, loud neighbor bleached Mom’s yard with a dirty word, Joe and me fixed it and Joe said I was the best assistant he ever had and he’s gonna teach me security so I can install systems like he does for people like Nicole Bolton and Jarrod Francis.”

Kate looked at Joe and breathed, “You installed Nicole Bolton and Jarrod Francis’s systems?”

“Not Bolton, babe, but Francis, yeah,” Joe told her.

“Wow! Is he as hot as he is in the movies?” Kate asked.

Joe grinned. “Can’t make that call, Katy.”

Kate grinned back and suggested, “Maybe next time you do a job for him, you can take me along and I’ll let you know.”

Joe shook his head, still grinning then changed the subject. “You called Dane your ex.”

Kate’s grin faded and she said, “Yeah.”

“You make that decision?” Joe asked as if he and Kate didn’t have an audience of six.

“Yeah, last night,” Kate answered, also not concerned about her audience of six.

“You tell him?” Joe asked.

“Texted him,” Kate answered.

“He text back?” Joe went on.

“I turned my phone off,” Kate told him.

Joe wrapped his hand around her neck and stated proudly, “Good play, babe.”

“I can’t wait to get a boyfriend,” Keira sighed dreamily and I heard Bea laugh.

This startled me and my eyes went to Bea to see she was looking at Keira.

“Don’t grow up too fast, honey,” Bea said softly. “It’s not near as fun as it seems.”

“Dane’s hot, Joe’s hotter. I wanna be just like Mom and Kate, lassoing all the good ones in and wrapping them around my finger,” Keira replied ingenuously.

“Someone kill me,” I muttered and Joe burst out laughing, dropped his hand from Kate’s neck, turned to me and wrapped it around mine. Then he pulled me to him for a quick kiss.

Then he turned to Keira. “Finish the tour, Keirry.” His eyes went to Kate. “Get the pie from your grandfather.” Then he turned to the coffeepot and grabbed the handle.

The next ten minutes were spent with Keira finishing up her tour; Kate engaged in the impossible task of finding space in our fridge for the pie; Joe and me handing out coffees; me cutting up a coffee cake, putting it on a plate and setting it on the coffee table; and everyone settling in the living room.

Vinnie and Theresa sat on the couch, Gary with them. Bea sat in an armchair. The girls sat on the floor. Joe sat in the other armchair and I perched on the arm.

Everyone stared at everyone else and sipped their coffee.

Vinnie had eaten two pieces of coffee cake before I said, “Bea, the girls need to go to get their school supplies. We waited for you to get here because we thought you’d like to come with.”

“Yeah, we need notebooks and pens and rulers and stuff. You always came with us to get our school supplies,” Keira reminded her and Bea smiled at her granddaughter.

“That’d be just fine.” Then she pulled in a visible breath, her smile turned timid and looked at Theresa. “Theresa, would you, uh… like to come with us?”

Theresa glowed. “I’d love to.”

“Good,” Vinnie declared, “gives Cal and Gar and me a chance to do man stuff.”

I bit my upper lip, wondering how Gary would take to being nicknamed “Gar”, not to mention being sucked into “man stuff” with two men he didn’t know when he’d come down to see the girls and me.

“Like what?” Kate asked.

“Anything that doesn’t include shoppin’,” Vinnie answered and Kate giggled.

“You can look after Mooch,” Keira suggested, Mooch in her lap squirming to get out in order to lay waste to something. “He doesn’t like to be in his box much.”

“What kind of dog is that?” Gary asked his granddaughter.

“American Husky,” Keira answered and Gary’s eyes came to me then they went back to Keira.

“What else?” Gary asked and Keira tipped her head to the side.

“What else?”

“Yeah, he got anything else in him?”

“Nope, pure bred,” Keira replied proudly and Gary looked back at me.

“That’s luck, Vi, finding a pure bred puppy at the pound,” he commented, knowing I didn’t have the money to buy a pedigree dog.

“We didn’t get him at the pound. Keira’s friend’s dog had a litter. She fell in love with them so Joe bought him for her,” I blurted, not thinking, too freaked out by the morning to watch my words.

“What?” Kate and Keira asked in unison.

“Shit,” Joe muttered as my body tensed and I looked at my girls.

“Um…” I started.

“Joe bought him?” Keira asked and the look on her face was a look I’d never seen before on my daughter. She had a great number of expressions. Her face always spoke volumes most of which I was fluent in. This one I was not.

“Um…” I repeated trying to read her expression and Keira looked at Joe.

“You bought him?” she whispered.

“Vi,” Joe murmured on a prompt, clearly not wishing to wade in this time.

I made a split second decision and it was the same decision I almost always made with my girls. Complete honesty.