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"And he lets me be a lot. Nobody has ever done that." His voice trembled. "So. Thank you. For letting me be a lot with you. Forever, starting tomorrow."

Everybody raised a glass.

And I sat in the middle of the table where I had been assigned, holding wine I couldn’t taste, and thought two things at once.

He's telling the truth. Every word of it. And: he said nothing about who Blaine is. Not one thing. He said what it is like to be loved by him, which is an entirely different speech.

Then Blaine's hand came up and rested on Steven's back while Steven sat down. I stared at the tablecloth, and the record should show that I’ve never in my life wanted so badly to be a better man than I am.

Rhoda stood up next, which nobody had asked her to do.

"I'll be brief," she said, which is a lie that woman has told at every event of her life. "Because I know we're eating, and Benny has given me the look."

"I did not." Benny suppressed a grin.

"You have, dear. It's fine." She put a hand on her chest and turned toward Zephyr. "I only want to say that this week has brought a great deal into this house. Some of it expected and some of it not. And I’ve come to believe — I have, Harold, don't make that face — that when a family is about to change, the universe sends what's needed."

"Mother—" said Blaine.

"It sends people, darling." Her eyes were already wet and shining. "It sent us Zephyr. And it sent us Gregory back."

The tent went quiet in a very specific way. I’ve never in my life wanted so badly to be somewhere else.

"Oh, Mother," groaned Blaine.

"I'm not saying anything inappropriate." She dabbed at her eyes. "I'm saying that I love Gregory. He was ours for six years and he's here."

Then she turned to Steven and took his hand.

I need to flag that, because I’d spent the week watching this woman take the face of every human being who came up that driveway — mine, Lance's, a man who came to service the well — in both hands. And in five days I had not once seen her offer Steven Ellis Bland anything but two pats on the upper arm.

She took his hand.

"And Steven, darling, I want you to hear me say this in front of everybody, because I have been unkind to you this week in ways I'm not proud of, and I'm too old to pretend otherwise. You have been generous about a very difficult situation. More generous than I have."

Steven's mouth opened.

"That's — oh my God, Rhoda—"

"So we'll say it's a house with a great deal of love in it, and some of the love is complicated," Rhoda finished, "and tomorrow we'll all stand in the meadow anyway. To Blaine and Steven."

Everybody was relieved to drink.

And down the table, my ex-husband looked at me for the first time all evening.

* * *

Lance didn't toast. He'd told Blaine he would do it tomorrow.

What he did instead was find me at the edge of the tent afterward, while the tables were being cleared and Rhoda was showing Zephyr something in the sky.

"Well," he said.

"Yes."

"Your mother-in-law—"

"Not my mother-in-law."