“He’d better have a square-cut diamond ring in his pocket,” Laurel said. “Five-carat minimum.”

“Trust you,” Mac commented, but gamely swallowed a laugh.

“I think it’s lovely.” Emma shot Laurel a warning look.

“It is lovely, and it may be ridiculous, but it’s my plan.” Firm now, Parker tapped a finger to her own chest. “I’m capable of adjusting plans to fit the circumstances and requirements.”

“None better,” Mac agreed.

“But what’s happening with Malcolm is completely off script. It’s not even close, and I fell for him anyway. Now I’ve told him, which crumbles one more page in the script.”

“I know that you know, and we all know, that love doesn’t run according to any script. If it did,” Laurel added,“I’d be canoodling with a hot, buff artiste named Luc in our pied-à-terre in Paris instead of marrying your brother, the hot, buff lawyer named Delaney.”

“Of course I know, but that doesn’t mean I have to be thrilled about it.”

“You’re not just giving Mal time and space,” Mac concluded. “You’re taking some yourself.”

“I need it. Because there’s one element to the script that can’t be edited out or rewritten. Whoever you fall in love with has to love you back, or the ending just sucks.”

“If he doesn’t love you, he is an idiot.”

“Thanks, Em.”

“I mean it.You’re perfect—in a good way, not the I-hate-that-perfect-bitch way.”

“Sometimes we hate her,” Laurel said, then smiled at Parker. “But it’s a hate based on love.”

Understanding, Parker raised her glass to her friends. “I hate you, too.”

“All my favorite women.” Del walked in, scanned, shook his head.“And if this is one of those girls-only discussions, you’ll just have to break it up. I charmed Mrs. G into making her rosemary lamb chops, and she just gave me the two-minute warning. Jack and Carter are on their way.”

“We’re eating here?” Mac jumped up, pumped a fist in the air. “Woo! We have the best system in the history of systems.”

“I’ll go give her a hand.” Laurel rose, gave Del a look. He cocked his eyebrows, then nodded. “Come on, Em.”

As they left, Del sat on the edge of the coffee table, blocking Parker’s exit.“So.What’s the deal with you and Mal? Do I have to go tune him up?” Watching her face, he gave her knee a pat. “I think I can take him, but I’d bring Jack and Carter along just in case.”

“That’s so sweet, but unnecessary.”

“Something’s up. He passed on going in to catch the Giants play on Sunday, and hasn’t been around here for days.”

“We’re ... assessing the situation.”

“Is the translation you had a fight?”

“No, we didn’t have a fight. And if we had, I think you know I can hold my own.”

“No question, but if some guy hurts you, even if he’s a friend of mine, maybe even especially if he’s a friend of mine, I have to take him down.Those are the Big Brother Rules.”

“Yeah, but you’re always changing the Big Brother Rules.”

“Those are amendments, addendum, the occasional codicil.”

“We didn’t fight. And if I got my feelings hurt, it’s because—and you’ll have to deal with this—I’m in love with him.”

“Oh.” He sat back, hands on his thighs. “I’m going to need a minute.”

“Take your time. I’m taking mine. Because we’re all going to have to deal with it, Del. You, me. And Malcolm.” She nudged his knees aside, got up. “Let’s go eat before Mrs. G sends out a search party.”

“I want you happy, Parker.”

“Del.” She took his hand. “I want me happy, too.”

AS ARRANGED, MALCOLM DETOURED TO EMMA’S TO PICK UP THE flowers he’d asked her to put together for Mrs. Grady.

“Be right back,” he told his mother.

“Make sure you are. It’s rude to be late.”

“She said to come around four, didn’t she? It’s around four.”

To spare himself any more nagging, he climbed out and jogged to Emma’s door. He found, as she’d told him he would, the sunflowers in a copper pitcher on the table in the front room. He snatched them up.

When he got back into the car, he pushed them at his mother. “Hold on to these, okay?”

“They’re nice. You’re a good boy at least half the time, Malcolm.”

“I’m wearing the suit, aren’t I? That should count.”

“You look sharp, too. That’s some house,” she added as he three-pointed the car to drive to the main house. “Boy, I remember the first time I saw it up close, driving up wearing my starched uniform, scared to pieces.”

She smoothed a hand over the skirt of the dress she’d bought special for today in her favorite bright green. Nothing starched about it, she thought happily.

“Then I got here,” she continued,“and saw it, and I thought it was so beautiful, and it doesn’t look scary. Old Miz Brown, she was scary, that’s for damn sure. But it was worth it to see the inside, to walk around serving fancy food to fancy people. And the housekeeper back then, what was her name? Oh well, doesn’t matter. She and the cook let us have a meal in the kitchen.”

When he parked, she turned to grin at him.“I guess I’ve come up in the world. How’s my hair?”

He grinned back at her. “Like nobody else’s.”

“Just the way I like it.”

He got her mincemeat pie out of the back, and the wrapped box. Before they reached the door, it swung open.

“Happy Thanksgiving.” Del kissed Kay on the cheek, eyed the box under Mal’s arm. “Ah, you shouldn’t have.”

“Then it’s a good thing I didn’t.”

“The pie looks great. Did you make it, Ma K?”

“I did. If Maureen’s in the kitchen, I’ll take it back to her.”

“We’ve got the women in the kitchen where they belong.” He winked. “The men are in the media room watching the game as per Brown family tradition. Let me take you back, get you a drink.”