The kids came screaming into the house but got quiet when they caught sight of Matt sitting at the table. Tim gave her a subtle eyebrow raise and Susan chuckled quietly.

“This is Danny. Danny, this is Matt Chase.” Her nephew took a bowl of ice cream and pie and sat at the small table kitty corner to the larger one. He eyed Matt carefully, making sure the stranger wasn’t going to snatch his pie. Nodding his head in a very fine imitation of his father, he got down to eating.

Matt nodded solemnly, eating his own pie.

“And this is Shaye.” Three-year-old Shaye waltzed into the room wearing a tutu and clutching her bowl.

“I don’t like cherries. Tate made me peach pie ‘cause I’m special. And you can’t have none either.”

Matt stifled his smile. “Pleased to meet you, Shaye. I promise not to steal your pie.”

She re-introduced him to everyone else and explained that William and Cindy were home with their sick twins or there’d have been four more people there.

“Sit down, sweetness.” Matt patted the chair next to where he sat and she did. He looked around the table and she knew what was coming next. “Hey, let me go and get you a slice of pie.”

She put a hand on his arm to stay him. “No, I don’t want any. I’m having coffee.”

He narrowed his eyes at her and held a forkful of pie toward her mouth. “Take a bite of this pie and tell me why you aren’t having a slice. Because I’ve never tasted better.”

“Don’t bother,” Tim mumbled. “She won’t.”

“Don’t interfere,” his wife, Susan, murmured.

“He’s right. Why we all sit here when she does this is beyond me. Tate, take a bite of the pie.” Anne glared at her and Tate widened her eyes and then narrowed them, sending a non-verbal back off to her sister. One her sister ignored with a snort.

“Because she doesn’t want any pie. Why are you all talking around me? I don’t want any pie. It’s not a national tragedy that Tate Murphy isn’t having pie. Let it go.” Shame and anger roiled in Tate’s head. This wasn’t something for outsiders. She hated it enough when it was just them but it didn’t concern Matt and she didn’t want him in the middle of her damned business. She’d have told them to shut up and f**k off but Danny and Shaye were there a few feet away and she didn’t want them involved.

“Is this a regular thing? The not eating of pie?” Matt asked Tim.

“My father made us all messed up in our own special way.” Her older brother looked at her totally unrepentant. Triumphant even that he’d gained another ally in his war against her refusal to eat dessert. It was stupid.

She crossed her arms over her chest and glared at them all. None of them seemed to care, which only made her angrier. It was her damned body, what she chose to do with it was her business. She didn’t let her father control it and she wouldn’t let anyone else either. If not eating pie pissed anyone else off, too bad. It had taken an awful lot of years to be okay with her shape and her size and she was! She didn’t deny her own issues, she knew she had them, but they were hers and she’d deal with them in her own way.

Matt felt her tense up next to him. He glanced at her, noted the blush and looked at Tim. Relieved, he saw the concern on her older brother’s face before remembering the moment in The Sands and her reaction to the pie there—her comment that she didn’t eat dinner when she was around her father. His heart ached for the wounds she’d been dealt by her own damned father. Instead of railing about it, he sighed and thought about how he’d handle it.

“Tate took the brunt of it all for us. To protect us. He did the worst to her.” Nate kept his eyes on his pie as he spoke and a chill worked its way down Matt’s spine.

“Nathan, Tim, stop it now. You too, Anne. We don’t need to relive it. I don’t need to. All of you stop talking about me like I’m not here! While you’re at it, remember the children are listening to everything we say.”

“Well then, you talk to me.” Lowering his voice, he turned to her, seeing her eyes spark but feeling enough spark of his own. He’d be damned if he let her ass**le of a father abuse her when he wasn’t even there.

“I don’t want any fuh…freaking pie.” She looked quickly at the children, who happily ate their pie and ice cream, before turning back to him. “That’s all. I’m full. I had dinner and I sampled when I made it. It’s not like I’m in any danger of wasting away.” She made a frustrated motion at her body.

“And you’re not in danger of exploding if you have a bite of this heaven on a fork either.” Matt danced the fork in front of her but she was not amused.

“You need to stop this now, Matt,” she told him softly and he reluctantly pulled the pie away but not before he saw the look of approval on her siblings’ faces. Well, they liked him and were on his side in this thing.

“Fine. For now.”

He finished as he visited with her family, getting to know them all, liking them tremendously. There was a great deal of familiarity there and he approved. They loved each other, made jokes and took care of each other. Tate would fit into his family just fine, and he would hers.

Everyone helped clean the kitchen and Matt didn’t fail to notice Tate kept busy, avoiding being alone with him. Silly woman. She couldn’t win when he wanted something. And he wanted her.

Tim and Susan left first with the kids and everyone else followed. Matt ignored her looks suggesting he go each time someone else left and he liked seeing her siblings ignore the hints too.