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"Badly."

"He wrapped them badly," Lis says. "I'm going to go get dressed."

She hands me Hildie on her way past. I end up with both of them again. Mackie pours herself a cup and sits down across from me with both hands around it.

"I'll get out of your way," I say. "You'll want the day."

"You don't have to go yet."

She drinks some of her coffee and sets the mug down, and she turns it in a slow circle on the table.

"Mom said eighty acres."

"Yes."

"Is it any good?"

"It will be. The fences are bad. The barn's good. There's a creek."

"Are you bringing your aunt up here?"

"No." Graham kicks, and I shift him. "She's where she ought to be. Manny's there, and the bridge table. I moved her once to have her close, and it nearly killed her. Close isn't the same as good for her."

Mackie looks at me.

"It's different with them," I say.

She watches me for a long time. Her hands tighten around the mug.

"Thank you," she says. "For last night."

"You don't have to thank me."

"I do, though."

I know that line. I look down at Hildie. "Any hour," I say in my softest voice, as if I'm talking to Hildie. "Day or night. You call me."

"I know." She turns the mug again. "Mom's doing a ham tonight. Around six. If you want to come."

"Yes, ma'am. I’d like that."

TWENTY-FOUR

Carson

Love came down at Christmas / Love all lovely, love divine

At six o'clock on Christmas Eve, I stand on Mackie's porch with Lis' casserole dish in my hands, washed twice and dried by hand. I've left the pup asleep on the truck seat with the truck running and the heat on. I don't know yet whether dogs are allowed at Mackie's table.

Lis handed me that dish in November after one look at my shrinking waist, and I made it last three days. Other than Hildie, and Dutch with his foil-covered plates, my nutrition consisted of carbs and chocolate. The least I can do is bring her dish back clean.

“Why is your truck running?” She asks when she opens the door.

“Merry Christmas. I have a dog, now. I know. That was the last thing I needed. But he’s my shadow, so I couldn’t leave him alone on Christmas Eve.”

“Carson North, you go get that puppy right this instant.” She doesn’t wait for me to answer and goes out to the driveway in her slippers. She opens the door, turns off the truck and comes back with him under one arm.

She puts him down on the kitchen floor. He skids on the tile and sits and looks up at all of us with that one ear folded.