Bear objected.
She ignored him.
Tucker offered to help.
Ruth handed him a bag of potatoes.
Dean volunteered to set the table.
Luke washed vegetables and checked that Ruth could move comfortably around the kitchen.
Bear stood beside the stove looking useless.
Finally, Ruth turned toward him.
โCaleb.โ
โYes, ma'am?โ
โCan you open that jar?โ
He looked toward the counter.
Then grinned.
โAt last. Something I understand.โ
She laughed.
The sound surprised her.
She hadn't laughed like that in weeks.
As the kitchen filled with the smell of roasting chicken, the house gradually changed.
The silence disappeared.
Tucker and Dean argued about whether the biscuits were supposed to be round or square.
Luke discovered that the kitchen faucet leaked slightly and asked Ruth whether she'd like him to arrange a repair.
Bear found a crooked cabinet door and spent ten minutes examining the hinges before Ruth told him to stop working and sit down.
By six thirty, the five of them were gathered around the old oak dining table.
Ruth insisted they use the good plates.
The ones with blue flowers around the edges.
The ones she'd received as a wedding gift in 1969.
Bear looked toward the empty chair at the head of the table.
โThomas sat there?โ
Ruth nodded.
โYes.โ
Bear hesitated.
Then pulled out the chair beside it instead.
Ruth noticed.
She smiled.
โYou can sit in his chair.โ
Bear shook his head.
โNot tonight.โ
She understood.
The men ate.
For the first time all afternoon, the conversation drifted away from the property company.
Dean told a story about accidentally bringing the wrong motorcycle to a charity ride after spending the morning repairing two identical bikes.
Tucker described a disastrous camping trip involving rain, a collapsed tent, and a raccoon that apparently developed a taste for expensive trail mix.
Luke explained that his sister had once threatened to sue him for borrowing her car without permission.
Ruth laughed until she needed to wipe her eyes.
Then she told them about Thomas.
How he burned pancakes every Sunday because he insisted the pan needed to be hotter than she thought.
How he planted tomatoes in the wrong place three years in a row.
How he once built a birdhouse so large that a family of squirrels moved into it.
Bear listened carefully.