Joe grinned at Keira, hooked her around the chest as she sashayed passed him and pulled her back to his front. Then he bent and kissed her hair. He let her go and she turned a radiant smile on him before sauntering into the study.

Bea watched him do this then her eyes came to me. I saw the sheen of tears but I also saw her smile.

I smiled back, thinking maybe it all would be okay and then I began to get down to the task of seeing to the coffee but before I could my eyes caught on Theresa.

She was staring at Joe, tears in her eyes too. She seemed locked in place even as Joe moved toward the kitchen, her eyes stayed glued to where he was when he kissed Keira.

“Aunt Theresa!” Keira called. “You’re missing the fabulous study!”

Theresa’s body jolted, her gaze moved swiftly to me then she looked away, swiping her fingers under eyes before turning toward the study.

“Can’t miss the fabulous study,” she called back, forced cheerfulness in her voice.

Vinnie gave her a look then he gave me a look then he gave Joe a look. When Theresa got close, he pulled her into his side. Keira strolled around the study, bringing their attention to the “top-notch, state-of-the-art computer system that Mr. Joe Callahan recently installed” (her words). As Keira spoke, Theresa put her head on Vinnie’s shoulder and I felt a lump of tears hit my throat.

My eyes moved to Bea who was studying these goings-on closely, her face thoughtful.

Joe got close to me and whispered, “First shock of it, baby, they’ll get used to it and it’ll all be good.”

I looked up at him and nodded. He touched his mouth to mine. Gary walked in with the pie.

“And now, Joe and Mom’s phenomenal boudoir!” Keira announced.

“Fuck,” I whispered.

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.

“I, honey… I didn’t have the money. I knew you wanted him really badly but I couldn’t afford him. I told Joe and he thought you should have a puppy so he gave me the money so you could get Mooch,” I admitted, wishing this wasn’t playing out there, in the living room with Tim’s folks and Joe’s folks looking on. In fact, wishing it wasn’t playing out at all.

Keira and Kate were both staring at Joe.

Then suddenly Keira surged up and I jumped at her movement then froze, wondering what she was going to do. Mooch yapped and ran away and I watched in stunned silence as Keira threw herself full body at Joe. She ended with her knees to the floor, her body between his legs, her torso in Joe’s lap, her face in his chest, her arms wrapped around him and, before I could open my mouth or even move, she burst into tears.

“I knew you were always lookin’ out for us,” she cried into his chest, “I knew it!”

That lump hit my throat again but it was so big this time, it choked me.

Joe’s hand dropped to Keira’s hair and he bent forward. “Baby, hey,” he whispered.

“I knew it!” she sobbed into his stomach.

What I knew was this wasn’t about Joe and the dog. This was about my sweet, crazy, strong, beautiful daughter losing her Dad and losing her uncle and living in a world that was uncertain, being afraid of that world and needing something to hold onto. They’d been strong a long time, both my girls had. And I was proud of them. But even the strongest person in the world needed something to hold onto.

And the man who bought you the dog you always wanted was the perfect choice.

Further, my daughters’ sudden connection with Aunt Theresa and Uncle Vinnie wasn’t weird. It was them grasping onto any family they could get as the bedrock of their own kept shifting. It was just pure luck that Joe provided such excellent additions.

When Keira kept sobbing into Joe’s chest, I blinked away my tears as Joe twisted and handed me his coffee mug then he put his hands in her pits and hauled her up into his lap.

“Keirry, honey, what’s this?” Joe whispered into her ear when he had her in his arms and she’d burrowed in closer. He, too, knew it wasn’t about the dog.

She yanked her head out of his neck, looked at him and demanded in a fierce tone, “Don’t ever go away, Joe.”

At my daughter’s words, I felt my breath choke me so hard I heard it too and that choking sound wasn’t just coming from me.

“I’m not goin’ anywhere, honey,” Joe replied gently.

“Promise!”

I hiccoughed with my effort to swallow back my tears and heard Kate’s small whimper in an effort to do the same.

“I promise,” Joe said, his tone just as fierce then he put an arm behind her knees and he straightened from the chair, Keira held to his chest.

I straightened too, murmuring, “Joe.”

“I got this, buddy.”

“Joe –”

“Got it,” Joe repeated and walked from the room down the hall.

I stood there, staring down the hall. Then I turned and stared at our group, seeing Bea and Theresa flat out crying. Gary and Vinnie were both looking at their laps. Vinnie had his arm around Theresa.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered, my voice sounding suffocated. Kate’s arm wrapped around my leg and she pressed in tight.

Bea got up and walked to me. Taking the mugs out of my hands, she said gently, “Nothing to be sorry for, Violet,” she gestured to a chair, “sit down, honey.”

I didn’t sit down. Instead, I bent down and pulled Kate up to her feet.

Then I told everyone, “Please, I’m sorry, we need a minute.”

“Anything you need,” Bea replied instantly.

I nodded, put my arm around Kate’s waist and led her down the hall to Keira’s room. Joe was in bed with a still crying Keira tucked into his side. His eyes came to us as we entered the room. Without hesitation, we all crawled into Keira’s double bed and curled into Joe.

It would be much later when I wondered why my girls and I did this and why it seemed so comfortable. Me, maybe, my girls, no.

And when I thought about it later, I would come to the conclusion that it just came natural because it was us and it was Joe.

In other words, the new us.

So when a situation became emotional, what else would we do?

After awhile, when the Winters girls got their shit together, I took my cheek from Joe’s shoulder and looked at his face.

“That didn’t go as planned,” I told him.