Georgia smiled and reached up and pushed Joey’s hair back behind her ear. “You are just so beautiful,” she said. “You have worked so hard to put this meal together for everyone. You’re amazing and smart and wonderful. And we worry that you don’t know it.”
Joey thought of a very similar situation where she’d found Adam standing in front of her, demanding that she tell him how amazing she was.
“I’m working on it,” she said.
“We worry,” Daddy said, as he joined them with a muchslower step. “That because he’s older than you, and you’re not quite ready for a serious relationship, that this is going to end badly.”
Joey switched her attention to him. “You think I’m not ready for a serious relationship?”
“Baby,” he said in the kindest voice Joey had ever heard him use. “I think you’re the most amazing person in the world, but I don’t thinkyoubelieve that, and until you love yourself completely, I don’t think you can love another person the way they deserve to be loved.”
Joey nodded and looked away, because her father was most likely correct. “Like you and Momma,” she said with a sniffle.
Daddy stepped in front of Georgia and drew Joey into his chest. “If I had been ready for a serious relationship, your mother and I would still be together,” Daddy said. “I just don’t want to see you have to go through any of that same pain.”
“I know, Daddy.” She clung to him, glad when Georgia joined them and made it a three-way hug.
“We just barely started dating.” She stepped back and wiped her eyes. “Like, a month ago. He’s not going to be proposing anytime soon.”
“We know a lot of good counselors,” Georgia said, but Joey shook her head.
“They’re not going to do anything that you haven’t already done for me,” she said. “And you know what? Adam tells me how great I am, too. And I think if I keep working on it, I’ll definitely start to believe itmyself.”
Georgia stepped back a little bit and glanced over her shoulder. “I really don’t think we can leave the food alone like this. You guys finish up quickly.” She gave Joey a knowing look. “Adam’s out there alone.” She crossed the room and opened the door.
The office sat too far from the living room for Joey to hear any talking, and Georgia didn’t close the door again. She looked at her daddy. “If this was going to be too weird for you, you should have said something.”
“It’s not too weird for me,” Daddy said. “It’snew, and I’m sorry I teased you.”
Joey nodded. “I am an incredible chef,” she said with a smile, the words moving all the way down through her, ringing with truth. “And Georgia’s right, I can’t really leave the food. That’s not what a good chef does.”
Daddy grinned and chuckled and hauled her in for another hug. “You are my favorite person on the whole planet,” he whispered. “And I want you to know it, and I want him to know it. Okay?”
Joey nodded, and together, she and her father went back into the kitchen. The table had been set, and Adam now sat on the couch with OJ on his right and Anaya pressed in on his left, while he held OJ’s tablet. He looked up and met Joey’s eyes, plenty of questions in his. Joey smiled at him, the gesture feeling somewhat timid on her face. She glanced into the kitchen, where she found Georgia stirring the creamed corn and only a few minutes left on the rolls.
“The potatoes in the pressure cooker are done,” Georgia said over her shoulder.
“All right,” Joey said, but she didn’t join her. A couple of days ago, Adam had told her to take ten seconds to be with him, and she walked around the huge sectional couch that separated the living room from the kitchen and dining room. She leaned over his shoulder and looked at the tablet. “What are you guys doing here?”
“I’m just showing him a gallery of all of our animals,” OJ said. “He didn’t believe that we had a parrot, but I have picture proof.”
Joey laughed. “You sure do, bud.”
“And when Bailey gets here, she’s gonna check on the ducks,” OJ said. “She called on Monday and said she would.”
“Right,” Joey said. “But we’re going to eat first, OJ. Remember?”
“Yeah, I remember.” He reached up and swiped on the tablet. “This here was a dog Momma brought home once.”
Joey pressed her cheek to Adam’s, glad when he leaned into her touch, then she straightened and faced the kitchen again.
“All right,” she said, a new sense of purpose streaming through her. “I think we have to whip the potatoes, make the gravy, brush butter on the rolls when they come out, and finish up that creamed corn.” She surveyed the food already on the counter. “Daddy, you’re totally in charge of this candied ham. It needs to be sliced and arranged on a platter. Graham, can you come carve the turkey?”
“Yes, ma’am,” he said, and he got off the couch where he’d been sittingwith his wife.
“Table is ready,” Joey said, as she turned to look at it. “We got the drinks made.” She took in the Tang, lemonade, wild cherry punch, and huge vat of root beer—the brown offering for this autumnal feast—and then she met Georgia’s eyes. “What else?”
The doorbell rang before anyone could say anything, and Laney popped to her feet at the same time OJ started to squawk, “That’s her. That’s her.” He ran around the back of the couch and toward the front door.
