Behind Aunt Edie, Thea and Becka entered the house, with Bobby stepping up behind them. Thea offered Kara a quick hug. Her cousin's eyes were wide—clearly unsettled by Ron's theatrics. “What's going on?” she asked. “Are you back with Bobby?”
“No!” Kara said. Her face must have given away how little she liked that idea because Thea jerked a little bit away from her and then went on to greet Mama, Ruth and the others. This made room for Becka, Aunt Edie's eldest child, to step up and offer Kara a quick hug. Both of Kara's cousins pointedly ignored Ron who stood awkwardly to the side.
Bobby stepped up. “Why hello again, Kara,” he said. His smug smile absolutely infuriated her. There was no doubt at all that he expected her to get back together with him. When he'd stopped calling her last spring, Kara had thought he'd finally given up on that nonsense, but here he was again ruining Christmas. “I must say you look good,” Bobby continued. He tried to hug her. “Merry Christmas!”
Kara stepped back away from him as Ron stepped forward again. Kara had absolutely no doubt that he would have punched Bobby had he, and not Aunt Edie, been on the other side of the door when he opened it. But now he seemed to be in better control of himself. Still, as much as Kara appreciated his eagerness to defend her, she did not want Bobby to get the impression that Ron was the only reason she wasn't being friendly to him.
“You can turn around and leave!” she told Bobby. “You're not welcome here! What are you doing back in Detroit anyway?”
“Robert is welcome!” Mama contradicted her. “I told you I invited him.”
Out of the corner of her eye, Kara saw her cousin, Thea's, mouth open in shock. At least somebody understood how wrong Mama had been to do this.
“And I greatly appreciate the invitation, Mrs. Brennan,” Bobby said. He was actually closer in age to Kara's mother than he was to her. Too bad it wasn't her he was interested in.
He shifted his attention back to Kara. “I moved back to Detroit three weeks ago,” Bobby told her. “Our long distance relationship didn't work out so well for us, so I decided if we were going to do it right this time, I'd better move back where we can be together.”
“You arrogant son of a—” Ron began as he clenched his fingers back into a fist.
Kara put her hand on his arm to stop him. “Let me handle this, Sweety,” she told him. Everyone was looking at her, Bobby and Ron and she didn't like it. She needed to end this. “I don't care where you live, Bobby, but you'd better understand this. Even if I weren't with Ron now, I would never go out with you again. You disrespected me in multiple ways. And you're doing it again, showing up here tonight as if you think all you have to do is crook your finger and I'll come running back to you. Now get out of here!”
“Robert is not going to leave!” Mama said. She stepped into the confrontation and took a stand beside Bobby, slipping her arm into his. “I have invited him to this Christmas party and you will stop acting like a spoiled little girl and start treating him with the respect he deserves.”
Ron couldn't keep out of it. “She's already given him more respect than he deserves,” Ron announced, “but you are right about one thing, Mrs. Brennan. This is not our party and we don't have the right to decide who gets to stay.”
He turned to look Kara straight in the eye. He was absolutely furious, literally quivering with anger. “If your family prefers Bobby to our company, then that is their choice to make.”
“You're not going to leave, Ron, are you?” Ruth's son Marc asked. “You and Dad haven't finished putting my basketball hoop together yet.”
Ron kept looking at Kara. His eyes didn't even flicker from hers when Marc spoke to him. This was a test, she realized. I need to decide how important Ron is to me. If I stay here I'm telling him Mama's insane dictates are more important than the man I'm living with.
Before she could answer Ron, her mother intervened. “Kara is not going anywhere, Ronald. Unlike you, she understands manners and her responsibilities to her family.”
Her interruption clarified the situation in Kara's head.
This isn't about how important Ron is to me. It's about how important
I
am to me.
“I guess we're batting a thousand this weekend,” she told Ron. “This will make two Christmas parties we've left before they're finished. Would you mind getting my coat?”
Ron's smile could have lit a dark room. He stepped closer to her and slid his arms around her. “Did you just make a baseball metaphor?” he asked.
Kara snuggled closer to him, suddenly unconcerned with the stares of her extended family. “I love you, Sweety,” she whispered.
“You are not leaving this party, Kara!” Mama told her.
Al cleared his throat, drawing the attention of everyone in the small parlor. “Actually, your Mother's right, Kara,” he said.
Kara frowned, even while her mother smiled in triumph.
“If not for the reason she thinks she is,” Al continued. “This is Ruth's and my house and that makes it our party and we don't want you to leave.”
Mama's triumphant grin faltered.
Al bravely stepped up into the thick of the gathering in front of the door. It was crowded with all of them standing there—Mama with Bobby, Kara with Ron and now Al pressing into the thick of things. “Bobby, you're not welcome here anymore. You had a great thing with Kara and you blew it. I'm asking you to leave now.”
“Albert!” Mama snapped.
Bobby was clearly as surprised as Mama by this turn of events. “Al,” he said. “I thought we were friends.”
“My friends,” Al said, “do not treat my sister-in-law the way you did!”
Mama changed her tactics. “Ruth!” she hissed. “Control your husband.”
Ruth did not like suddenly being the center of attention. She glared at Kara for a moment and then looked beseechingly at Al.
“Ruth!” Mama demanded.
“I have to check on dinner,” Ruth said and hurried back to the kitchen.
"Ruth!"
Mama called after her.
Al took the reins back into his hands. “Bobby, you're spoiling our Christmas,” he said. “It's time for you to leave.”
“I'm not doing anything,” Bobby protested. “All I did was accept Mrs. Brennan's generous invitation.”
“Oh, for God's sake, Bobby!” Kara interjected. “Are you really saying you thought I'd be glad to see you here? Are you really pretending you didn't know I was still with Ron? We're living together! How could you possibly think it was all right for you to come to our family Christmas party and try to break us apart?”
Aunt Edie shook her head and stoked Mama's anger. “Living in sin,” she muttered. “You didn't mention that before, Margaret. I am
so
sorry for you! The trials our Lord puts upon us.”
Mama's eyes burned with fury. “Albert, Robert is staying!”
“No,” Al told her, “he is not!”
He turned back to Bobby. “I've asked you politely to leave. Now I'm telling you! I don't care where you go, but get the hell off of my property!”
Bobby took a step backward. “I, um, really?”
His eyes flashed around the room and settled on Kara. The smug look was gone. He seemed to be completely ignoring Ron. “Kara?”
“Get out of here!” she demanded.
Bobby took another step back.
Al slammed the door in his face. “That man!” he muttered.
Kara slipped out of Ron's arms to hug him. “Thanks, Al!” she said. “You were wonderful.”
“You think nothing of it!” he told her. “You're family here! I'm just glad you found out what he's really like before you married him.”
Kara stepped back so Ron could shake Al's hand. “I owe you!” Ron told Al.
“No, you don't,” Al told him. “I'm just glad you didn't actually hit him. It would have gotten ugly if we'd had the police out to the house.”
“Not many things do it,” Ron said, “but when someone disrespects Kara I see red.”
Kara decided it was time to properly introduce Ron to her aunt and cousins. She slipped her arm back into his and used the gesture to prompt him to turn around and face the parlor. “Ron, this is my Aunt Edie,” Kara said, “You sort of met all ready.”
Ron flushed with embarrassment again as he held out his hand. “I am very sorry about that, Ma'am. It's a pleasure to finally meet you.”
Aunt Edie appraised him carefully before sticking out her hand. “I suppose the good Lord would want me to give you a second chance.”
“Thank you, Ma'am,” Ron said.
“He's a fine looking man, Kara,” Aunt Edie said. “A bit young and aggressive, but many women like those qualities in their men.”
Kara blinked. Had Aunt Edie just approved of Ron? She glanced at the glower on her mother's face. She had! Aunt Edie was not going to side with her mother against Kara's man.
Thea seemed to take her mother's words of approval as permission to step forward herself. “You can't believe how interested we've been to finally meet you,” she told Ron. “We've been talking about you for a year now, but Kara's kept you away from the rest of the family.”
“I'm sorry you're not seeing me at my best tonight,” Ron told her.
“Are you sure about that?” Thea asked before leaning in closer to Kara and whispering. “Wow! He was going to punch Bobby, wasn't he?”
Kara still had mixed feelings about that.
Thea moved on to make room for her sister who wished Kara a Merry Christmas and followed Aunt Edie and Mama into the kitchen to greet Ruth.
Suddenly, Kara and Ron were left alone in the parlor with only Al keeping them company.
“Whew!” Al breathed. “I'm glad that's over!”
Kara found herself smiling—a warm and genuine appreciation for how the almost disastrous evening had just straightened out. It didn't make a great deal of sense to her, but she found the chaos they'd just survived strangely reassuring. Ron had rushed to her defense and Al had stood up for her. “It could have gone better,” she admitted, “but at least Bobby left.”
Ron seemed far more upset by what had happened then Kara now felt. “At least I didn't hit your aunt,” he said.
Al chuckled. “But that would have made this Christmas so much more memorable.” He patted Ron on the shoulder. “Come on,” he said, “let's let Kara help Ruth make nice to her aunt and cousins. You and I can hide in the garage while we finish working on that basketball hoop.”
* * * *
Chapter Fourteen
“With all the craziness out front,” Kara said, “I just realized I don't see Jamal, Becka.”
They were sitting in the kitchen. Ron and Al had made good on their escape to the garage while Marc and Jenny were boxing on the new Kinect. This had initially troubled Kara when she'd first peak in on her niece and nephew, but she'd decided it wasn't a problem when she realized little Jenny was kicking her older brother's butt. So she'd entered the crowded kitchen and taken a seat at the table with the others while Ruth stirred pots on the stove.
Becka frowned, making Kara wonder if Jamal had gotten into some sort of trouble everyone had forgotten to warn her about.
“He's with his father this year,” Becka told her.
Aunt Edie frowned. “That man is not a good influence on that child.”
“But he is his father,” Becka reminded her, “and the courts say Jamal gets to spend half of his holidays with him. This year, he got Christmas Day and I got Christmas Eve.”
“That must be hard,” Kara sympathized. “Christmas is really about the kids. Please tell Jamal we missed him when he comes back home.”
“I get him back tomorrow,” Becka told her.
“If Wilson were a gentleman,” Aunt Edie announced, “he would have let Jamal stay with you so the child could see his relatives tonight.”
“Jamal did not want to stay with me,” Becka reminded her, “and no matter what I might think of Wilson after the divorce, I have no reason to complain about his mother and sister. They were always good to me and I'm glad Jamal is getting to spend some time with them.”
Aunt Edie made a harrumphing noise that reminded Kara of Ebeneezer Scrooge in
A Christmas Carol
. “I don't see why you're always defending him,” she muttered.
“And I don't see why you can't just let the matter drop,” Becka told her.
“So Kara,” she said, changing the subject, “at the risk of getting everyone upset again, tell us a little about Ron. You didn't attend our Fourth of July barbecue this summer and well, it's been a year and we still haven't met him.”
“We haven't met Liz's new boyfriend either,” Thea added. “What's up with that? We don't live all that far away.”
“Too interested in their new men to pay proper attention to their families,” Aunt Edie observed. She patted her sister's arm in apparent sympathy, which caused Mama to stiffen and bristle.
“Fourth of July we spent with Ron's family,” Kara explained.
“Ron insists that Kara choose his family over ours whenever there is any pretense of conflict,” Mama lied.
Kara smothered a sigh and forced herself to smile. “It may feel that way to you, Mama,” she said, “but in actuality there have been a total of six real conflicts in the past year and Ron's family won over ours in precisely
two
of them.”
“
Our
family event was one of those two,” Aunt Edie observed.
This time Kara did sigh. “That's right, Aunt Edie, we gave Ron's parents the Fourth of July rather than coming out to visit you.”
“It's just disrespectful,” Mama complained. “I raised you better than that.”
“Better in what way?” Kara asked. “Are you saying you raised me to tell my boyfriend that what my family wanted to do would always be more important than what his family desires?”
In point of fact, Mama
had
raised her daughters to believe that, but Kara didn't think she would be willing to state the fact so boldly.
“You're such an impertinent girl,” Mama told her. She turned to her sister. “Another thing I blame on Ronald. When Robert was dating her, she was much more respectful.”
Kara caught Thea rolling her eyes and couldn't resist smiling.
Mama didn't like that of course, but Becka reentered the conversation and forestalled her rejoinder.