Aunt Ruby laughed and took the pie carrier out of my hands. "Well, if we go by you, it will be when she's thirteen, or when she discovers boys don't have cooties, whichever comes first."
I kissed her cheek and followed her in, comforted by the familiar scent of her floral perfume. My Aunt Ruby was five-three in heels, pink-cheeked, blue-eyed, and "If God wanted me to go gray, he wouldn't have given me such a great hairdresser" blonde.
She'd also taught me everything I knew about cooking and baking, and I appreciated that every time I took a pie out of the oven. Speaking of which…
"Apple and pecan, as promised, and half a lemon meringue I hid from Jack."
She shook her head, but she was smiling. "That boy loves his pie."
"Thatboyloves anything food," I grumbled. "He ate twenty-one donuts for breakfast!"
"Tess!" She rounded on me, looking concerned. "You atethreedonuts?"
I sucked in my tummy and gave her a wounded look. "Hey! I think you're missing the point, here. You're supposed to be on my side!"
"I am always on your side, dear. But we know which one of us has a tiger's metabolism, and it isn't you or your uncle, no matter how hard he tries to keep up with Jack at the dinner table."
I had to laugh. Uncle Mike fighting with Jack over who got the last piece of pie, strictly for the sake of "manly competition,"hadput a few extra pounds on my uncle over the summer. Aunt Ruby had put her foot down with not-so-subtle hints about health and heart disease, and Uncle Mike had grumbled a bit but gone along, and he was back to what he called his fighting weight.
Aunt Ruby put the pies on the table and turned to face me, crossing her arms and putting on her deceptively sweet, "I will have my way on this no matter what," expression.
"Okay, honey. Let's talk about your birthday."
"Nope." I am at least as stubborn as she is and have had many years to perfect my strategy for dealing with Aunt Ruby on a mission. The least said the better, because that way there's less for her to argue with.
"What do you mean, nope? We can at least talk about it," she said, in her best "I'm your aunt, and I know what's best for you" voice.
Lucky for me, I caught on tothatwhen I was a teenager.
"Nope. No talk, no party, no birthday." I started pulling dishes out of the fridge. "Are we making potato salad? Jack's on his way, bringing the steaks, so—"
"Don't avoid me with potato salad, young lady."
Oh, boy. She pulled out the "young lady." If she three-names me, I'm in real trouble. I, like millions of others, learned at a young age to fear my own middle name. Not my actual middle name, which is Lenore and a little scary all on its own. No, the "Tess Lenore Callahan" of it all, which only got pulled out when I was really in trouble.
"I don't want a party. I'm probably going out of town with Molly for a few days for my birthday."
"Won't you have plans with Jack?"
"It's not a big deal. I just think I'm going out of town, so—"
"What?" The question, filled with indignation and maybe a little hurt, entered the house before the questioner. "What do you mean, it's not a big deal? It's your first birthday since I met you."
I sighed and turned to watch Jack enter through the back door holding a small cooler, which was probably filled with twenty pounds of meat.
The hurt—and it was definitely hurt—disappeared from his expression when he grinned at Aunt Ruby. "Brought enough steaks for even Mike to enjoy. I know how much he eats."
Uncle Mike walked in from the living room just then, as tall and strong as ever and looking just the same to me as he had when I was a child, despite his now-white hair. "I think we know who eats all the steaks around here."
Aunt Ruby laughed. "Steaks, phooey. I roasted a chicken, and I've already made potato salad and three-bean salad and—"
"Please don't say Jell-O salad," I muttered.
"—Jell-O salad."
I sighed. My childhood described in three salads. She'd be pulling out the green bean casserole any minute.
"But no green bean casserole, since Thanksgiving is coming up fast, and we know how much Tess loves those French onions and green beans with her turkey," she said.
