“Roderick did give her a tour of the room and the patio area, plus she met with the chef and made some suggestions to the menu. She also helped me with the seating arrangements and insists on hand painting the place cards to commemorate the special holiday.”

“Well it certainly sounds like you’ve included her. Is she OK about it now?”

“I think so but I could still see the initial disappointment. The last thing I wanted to do was upset her especially after the meeting with Jeffrey Rains.”

“She’ll get over it once she takes the emotions out of it and realizes the practicality. It’ll be so much better this way. We can all relax and just enjoy the company instead of playing hostesses. She’s going to be meeting a lot of new people. You know everyone will be curious to know everything about her. Our friends can be exhausting to say the least. She’ll have enough going on without having to worry about cooking.”

“You’re right plus we’ll make it up to her at Christmas. She and Peter can cook and bake to their hearts content on Christmas Day. You know Angie is holding them to their promise to bake a gingerbread house from scratch. I think she wants one big enough to fit her dolls.”

“That should be fun. I’m sure they will be up for the challenge. She can have Suzie and some of the other kids to help decorate it.”

“I’m really glad my mother has Peter for companionship. I think we’ll be seeing a lot more of him around here even past the holidays.”

“He’s a good man. He seems to care a lot about her.”

“I think he has a lot of regrets about not doing more for her back then, but he’s certainly stepped up to the plate. He was pretty tough on Rains this afternoon.”

“What about Rains babe. Do you think he’s telling the truth?”

“I don’t know Tee. He’s got a lot to lose. He might just be protecting his own ass by laying it all on a dead man.”

“But you said he doesn’t think that Phillips is dead or at least he doesn’t believe that he died in that boating accident.”