This being Johnny paying for her attorney, if he could manage it, straight up. If she couldn’t hack that, then through a no-interest, pay-it-when-you-can loan. He was also putting her and Brooks in one of his properties when a tenant left. He had two small, nice, rental homes in town, closer to the grocery store, big enough for Brooks to grow up in, and when that happened they’d both have their own space.

But that wasn’t for now. They’d have that discussion later when there wasn’t queso dip to broil.

“She’s your sister, babe, and she got burned and bad. Do I want you all to myself? Yeah. Do I get it?” He pulled her closer and dipped his face to hers. “Yeah.”

She stared into his eyes and hers were filled with gratitude. “Thanks, Johnny.”

“Don’t mention it, Iz,” he muttered, going in to touch his lips to hers before he pulled away and started to curl her back around but stopped when both her hands that were resting at his waist started to grip him hard.

“Thank you too, for going in . . . I mean, when Perry showed, you went right up to him and—”

He interrupted her. “Don’t mention that either.”

“I . . . Johnny, that meant a lot. You didn’t even know who he was. You just felt the vibe and waded in. So it really meant a lot, honey. To both me and Addie.”

“I’m glad but I hope you paid attention, Iz, because I’m that guy too. For you and for Addie.”

Her eyes went round.

Then they started blinking.

“Oh no, I think I might cry,” she whispered, and true to her words, her eyes were getting bright with tears.

He pulled her even closer and whispered back, “Don’t cry. There’s queso dip to broil, wine to drink, my brother to charm and your friends here for me to make love me like everyone else does.”

He saw the bright leave as she started smiling.

So he kept going.

“It happened. It’s over. Like you said, baby, you Forrester women get shoved to your knees, you get right back up and keep on keeping on. It’s time to keep on keeping on with good company, food and booze, even if there’s a danger someone’s gonna get their eye poked out by a crystal.”

Her head twisted and she gasped, “Oh no! Are they hanging too low?”

He put his hand to her jaw to turn her back to him. “Teasing, spätzchen.”

“Oh,” she breathed.

He kissed her. Not the kiss he wanted to give her but it wasn’t a touch of the lips either.

Then he turned her toward the table, but as Charlie and Deanna set it up for Toby to join them, Toby striding off toward the shed, probably to get himself a chair, Izzy and Johnny went into the house.

Izzy put the queso dip under the broiler.

Johnny grabbed another six pack from the fridge to take it outside and put the bottles on ice.

“And then . . . then . . . then he said, ‘That’s the way of it when a badger is in the mix,’” Addie spluttered the end of her story through giggles and everyone burst out laughing.

Including Johnny.

“A badger in the mix!” Deanna hooted and the waning laughter waxed.

But this time, not Johnny’s.

Because right then, it hit him like a boulder in the chest.

The sun had set.

The Christmas lights, candlelight and moonlight were dancing off the crystals. Charlie had hauled some curlicue plant stand out and put the drinks bucket on it so they had more room for the diners.

Whether it was because he sat there after the drama, or by design, which was more likely since it seemed Izzy, Deanna and Addie maneuvered him there, Johnny was at the head of the table. He was flanked by Iz and Toby. Charlie sat at the foot flanked by his wife and Addie.

The women had been through four bottles of wine and were on their fifth.

The men, two of them driving, were only on their third six-pack.

They’d been through queso dip, followed by four choices of street tacos with enough for leftovers, Mexican corn, black beans and a southwestern themed salad, and now the table was littered with little pink melamine plates with creamy lace designs on their edges covered in chocolate cake crumbs, vanilla frosting smears and ice cream residue.

The dogs were out dead, snoozing in the grass.

Brooks had fallen asleep in Deanna’s arms but was now up in his crib.

There were lightning bugs blinking in and out in the darkened periphery and soft candles were glowing in the screened porch but there was no glaring outside light to disturb the cocoon of friendship, food and magic that Izzy had created.

Johnny understood it all then.

It didn’t matter if there was a dent in the drinks tub.

It didn’t matter that Perry was somewhere out there, pissed and intent on making trouble for Addie.

Their mother had taught them this was it.

This was the beauty of life.

It wasn’t making do.

It was finding the joy in all you had and if you could give it a little sparkle with crystals dangling from trees or just lying side by side, staring at the stars, you did it.

On this thought, still softly giggling, Iz turned bright eyes to him. “I wish Margot and Dave were here.”

Yeah, it was finding the joy in all you had, gathering memories, filling them as full as you could, goofing off wearing cheap sandals in front of a horse or sitting under a canopy of Christmas lights and crystals.

“We can invite them next time, spätzchen,” he murmured.

She shot him a dazzling smile then looked back down the table when Charlie started talking.

Toby leaned his way and Johnny braced in order not to get ticked if his brother teased him verbally rather than just shooting him looks like he had from the first through the several that came after it when he’d called Izzy spätzchen.

Tobe knew Shandra never got that.

Toby, like Johnny, knew what it meant that Izzy did.

It had startled him the first time it had come out.

But from that first time, it came out easy.

He looked to his brother just as Toby said under his breath, “I wish Dad was here.”

They locked eyes.

There would be no end of the teasing Lance Gamble would dish out about crystals in trees.

But he loved chocolate cake.

And he thought there was no better time, not even fishing, than spending it with friends.

Last, it made him happy when his sons were happy.

“Me too,” Johnny muttered.

“ . . . so my Dee-Girl gets on her hands and knees . . .” Charlie was saying.

“I did not!” Deanna cried. “I just bent over!”

Johnny and Toby looked to the end of the table.

“ . . . in spiked heels and the littlest skirt you’ve ever seen . . .” Charlie talked over her.

“Charles!” she snapped.

“ . . . she whips out her phone, turns on her flashlight and shines it into the murk . . .”

“A lady would never get on her knees in the street. Especially in a skirt.”

“ . . . then she looks up at me . . .”

“Stop!”

“ . . . and says, ‘Baby, you gotta go after that,’ like I’m gonna be able to pull off a sewer grate and retrieve her freaking earring.”

“It was my favorite earring!” Deanna exclaimed through the audible mirth rolling around the table.

He looked to his wife. “How can you have favorites when you got two drawers full of them?”

“I don’t have two drawers full of them,” she denied.

He arched his brows.

“Okay, but they’re small drawers,” Deanna muttered.