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  “I'll make you a deal,” she said relaxing her embrace and taking a step back away from Ron.

  Ron's aura of confidence felt natural now. He trusted her, Kara realized, and now that he knew she would negotiate on this he felt certain they would figure out a way to do the right thing and still have fun. “I'm listening.”

  “We give your mother today,” Kara said. “And sometime tonight, you make certain your sisters know that each of them takes a turn for the rest of the weekend. If we do today, then Anne can have Saturday, and Kitten can take her on Sunday.”

  “That seems remarkably fair,” Ron agreed.

  “Just so long as your sisters understand how fair we're being,” Kara said.

  Behind Ron, high in the sky, storm clouds could be seen moving in their direction.

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  Chapter Two

  “Is everything all right?” Hanna asked as Ron held the door for Kara as she carried in two of her suitcases. “You took a little longer than I expected.”

  Kara smothered the desire to make a sharp remark and reminded herself that she, too, had a difficult mother.

  Hanna didn't wait for Ron or Kara to answer. She snapped out her husband's name. “Howard! Where are your manners? Get up off the couch and help Kara with her suitcases. You're going to make Kara feel like she isn't welcome.”

  Fancy that, Kara thought. Hanna is worried that the misogynist might make me feel unwelcome

  The only movement Howard Miller made was to open his mouth to snap at his wife. “And why would I want to—”

  “Dad!” Ron barked, cutting off his father's sentence. “If you want us to go home, just say so, because if you finish that thought, we're both leaving.”

  “Ron!” his mother protested.

  If Ron was serious, Kara hoped Howard would finish his sentence. This weekend worsened every moment they stayed in this cabin.

  Howard considered Ron's threat for a few moments and then adjusted his seat in front of the television.

  “Howard! Take Kara's bags!” Hanna insisted.

  Kara really didn't want the man touching them. “That's okay,” she said. “I don't mind carrying them. How far could it be?”

  Kara's willingness to continue carrying her bags seemed to make Hanna apprehensive. “It's not necessary,” the older woman said. “Just put them down. Ron can get them.”

  “It's really no problem,” Kara said. Since there was no stairwell in sight, she carried her bags toward the corridor at the back of the television room. “Which room do you want Ron and me in?” Even as she said it, she internally cringed. Living in sin was a huge no-no in her family—especially with Kara's mother. Despite Ron's assurance that it shouldn't be a problem, Kara felt awkward about sleeping with Ron under his parents’ roof—not that she had any desire to sleep alone either.

  Without waiting for Hanna to answer, Kara began to look though the open doorways at the bedrooms beyond. All three had suitcases in them.

  Ron caught up with her and looked just as confused as Kara felt. “Where's our room, Mom?”

  Ron's father chuckled.

  “We, um, didn't have enough of them,” Hanna confessed.

  The revelation clearly surprised Ron—surprised and hurt him. “Oh,” he said, “I guess that's not a problem. Kara and I will get a room in the lodge.”

  Even as Ron said this, his brain caught up with the implications of the idea and he smiled.

  Kara smiled with him—the perfect excuse to get out of the cabin.

  “I don't want you to do that,” Ron's mother said. “It's expensive and this is our party.”

  “It's no trouble at all, Hanna,” Kara rushed in to support Ron's idea. “We completely understand.”

  “It is a problem!” Hanna insisted. “But when the website said there were four rooms and a bath, I misread that to mean four bedrooms and a bath. And as you can see, that is not what the cabin has.”

  “These things happen,” Kara said.

  “You see, Hanna,” Ron's father interjected. “She's glad there's no room for them. She didn't want Ron to come to your party. She wants him all to herself. If she had her way, we'd never see him again.”

  “Now that is not true, Dad!” Ron said. “I've warned you about this before! You're not allowed to be rude to Kara!”

  However numerous his other faults, Kara had recognized the very first time she met Howard Miller that he truly loved his boy. It was more than a little bit sad because the parent that Ron seemed most attached to was his manipulative mother. Howard grudgingly accepted his reprimand and went back to sulking on the couch.

  Kara stepped in to get the conversation rolling again. Anything would be better than staying cooped up in this cabin with Ron's parents. In the lodge away from the family she'd be able to relax and enjoy herself—and Ron. “I really don't see what else you think we can do,” she told Hanna. “There isn't enough room. You don't think we would sleep on the floor, do you?”

  “No,” Hanna assured her. “The grandchildren are going to do that. They won't mind—they'll think it's an adventure.”

  “Then what?” Kara asked.

  “There are two double beds in each room,” Hanna began.

  Kara could not help but frown. “You don't expect Ron and I to share a room with one of your daughters and her husband, do you?”

  “Oh, no,” Hanna assured her, and then hurried on to suggest something infinitely worse. “I was thinking that if we divided up by gender, we could—”

  “No!” Kara hoped Hanna was perceptive enough to understand a final answer when she heard it.

  Ron tried to make peace. “That's not your best idea, Mom,” he said. “There are three rooms. What are you doing with the master bedroom?”

  “Why that's for your father and me, of course,” Hanna said.

  Ron's eyes widened and his mouth dropped open most comically. “You and Dad are going to share a bedroom?”

  “Well, of course, dear,” Ron's mother told him. She made it sound so natural, as if her husband hadn't spent the last twenty-five years sleeping in his lazy boy. “It's our fortieth wedding anniversary.”

  Howard Miller snorted but he didn't actually disagree with his wife.

  “So you see,” Hanna continued. “The only way for this to really work is for us to split the remaining two bedrooms between boys and girls. Anne and Kitten can share one of the beds so Kara will have at least that much privacy. You men can sort out the sleeping arrangements between yourselves.”

  Kara could not imagine a worse idea. “I'm sorry, Hanna,” she said, “but that is not going to work.”

  Hanna bristled at Kara's outright rejection of her plan.

  Ron sounded less forceful than Kara would have preferred, but he said the right things. “Kara's right, Mom. This separate slumber party idea of yours is not a good one. Kara and I will just get a room in the lodge. We can still meet up with all of you for meals and on the slopes, but we're going to get our own room.”

  “But what will the children say?” Hanna asked.

  The question surprised Kara, given that Ron had clearly believed that sleeping together wouldn't be a problem. She wondered how he would respond. When Kara's sister had raised a similar objection, Ron hadn't seemed particularly concerned about the issue. Would it be different now that his mother was raising the concern?

  “Why would they say anything?” Ron asked. “It's not like they don't know Kara and I are dating. And the older ones can certainly guess we're having sex.”

  “Ron!” his mother snapped.

  “Oh,” Ron asked, “hadn't you figured that out yet?”

  His mother glowered at his sarcasm while Kara cringed. She'd be absolutely mortified if her boyfriend had said something like that to her mother and she certainly wasn't happy with the topic coming up in front of Hanna and Howard.

  “I don't think it's setting the right example,” Hanna told him. “We're C
atholic. We're not supposed to be sleeping around.”

  Howard Miller's head snapped up and he stared at his wife with a look of such pure and intense hatred that Kara took a step back in alarm.

  Neither Ron nor his mother noticed what had happened.

  “Mom, I'm not going to tell you how to practice your faith,” Ron said. “That's between you and God. However, I am going to say that the world is changing, and living together isn't such a big deal anymore...even for a lot of Catholics. In fact, you might as well hear this now. I'm not planning to renew my lease this year. If she's willing, I'm going to move in with Kara. If she's not—”

  “You're what?” the words slipped out of Kara's mouth before it even crossed her mind to try and censor them. She was simply that astounded by Ron's announcement.

  Ron shifted his attention from his mother to her—his cocky grin back in place as he cupped her hands in his. “I'm ready to take our relationship to the next level. Sorry to spoil the surprise and break the news to you this way, but I'm hoping you're ready, too.” He squeezed her hands a little more tightly. “I love you, Kara. Don't you think it's time we figured out if you can handle my messy ways on more than a weekend basis?”

  Kara didn't know what to say. The subject of moving in together might have come up once or twice, but Kara hadn't realized how serious Ron was about it. She hadn't even known his lease was running out. They had talked about kids a couple of times also, but even so, she hadn't really accepted in her heart that Ron was ready to up their level of commitment.

  “That's a big step, Ron,” Kara said. “Are you sure you're ready for this?” She wanted to add— You know I'm a lot older than you—but with his parents present she couldn't bring herself to say the words.

  “Don't believe her, Ron!” Howard said. “Playing a little hard to get and pretending concern for your feelings are just tricks women use to set the hook more firmly in your mouth.”

  Ron ignored him. He lifted his hand to caress Kara's cheek. “You don't have to give me your answer now. We can talk about it all you want to after we get back to Detroit. But to answer your question: Yes, I'm sure!"

  Ron leaned in to kiss her but the front door to the cabin slammed open and Ron's youngest niece charged into the room.

  “Pee pee!” she shouted. “Pee pee emergency!”

  The little five-year-old girl ran past Ron, Kara and Hanna and desperately began to search for a bathroom. Her mother, Anne, appeared in the front door, expressions of amusement and exasperation fighting with each other on her face.

  “To the right!” she shouted, “at the end of the hall!”

  The little girl spun about and darted in the proper direction still shouting about her emergency.

  “Honestly,” Anne said as she stepped inside and closed the door behind her. “If she'd just go before we leave the house this wouldn't be a problem all the time, but she's always got to wait until the very last minute. And she won't ever use a public restroom.”

  She stepped deeper into the cabin, unzipping her vest. “Whew! It's hot in here. Oh, and hello Ron and Kara, how was your flight?”

  Anne was the Miller family member Kara felt most comfortable with. She was both the oldest daughter—just five years younger than Kara—and the sibling with the least apparent problems. She had a sweet, chipper personality and a big sister attitude which mixed the best of mothering instincts with a sibling's ability to tease and kid the baby of the family. In short, she didn't take Ron too seriously and she always seemed completely comfortable with the fact that Kara and Ron were dating.

  Kara used Anne's arrival as an excuse to avoid having Ron kiss her in front of his parents and hopefully lower the tension a little bit. She should have known better. As she moved to give Anne a hug, Hanna returned to the latest point of contention.

  “Ron's moving in with Kara,” Hanna announced. The disapproval in her voice reverberated about the small cabin.

  “Really?” Anne asked. Her voice showed nothing but pleasant surprise. “Congratulations!” she offered Kara a hug. “I'm so happy for the two of you.”

  “Of course, you'd say that,” Ron's father said. “You're a woman, after all.”

  “And I love you, too, Daddy,” Anne said in the same lighthearted voice that she'd used to describe her daughter's unnecessary pee pee emergency.

  She turned to direct a question at her mother. “Is it my imagination, or is he worse than usual today? Most people assume it's the guy who's taking advantage when he moves in with a woman without marrying her first.”

  “She's reeling him in!” Howard Miller explained, “getting ready to finish catching him.”

  “Please do!” Ron told Kara. When she didn't respond, he pantomimed roping her and pulling her closer. When Kara still didn't respond out of consideration for his parents, Ron stepped next to her and wrapped her in his arms again.

  “Hey, get a room,” Anne teased them. “I'm not old enough to see that icky kissing.”

  Ron turned to face her, sliding his arm around Kara's back. “Actually, that's the subject that started this conversation,” he told his sister. “Kara and I are going to get a room in the main lodge. There aren't enough bedrooms and we don't want to play slumber party games with you and your husband.”

  Anne looked confused for a moment. “Hey, that's right,” she told her mother. “We are short a room. What's wrong, didn't you think we'd all fly out here?”

  Hanna blushed.

  Anne pounced on her mother's expression like the confession of guilt it was. “That's it! Isn't it? You didn't think Ron and Kara would end up coming, did you?”

  Hanna tried to regain control of the conversation. “That's enough, Anne.”

  Anne's smile grew larger. “No, that's not it, is it!” she exclaimed with a sudden burst of insight. “You didn't think that Kara was going to come.”

  She glanced over at Kara and winked. “I can't imagine why. We're such a polite family and Dad always makes every woman feel so welcome.”

  “I'm simply being honest about my feelings,” Ron's father defended himself.

  “That's why we have these things called manners, Daddy,” Anne told him, “because no one really wants you to be all that honest.”

  Hanna wasn't smart enough to let the conversation stay with her husband so only he would look like a horse's ass. “I did not think Kara wasn't coming,” she insisted.

  “I'm sure we're all reassured to hear that,” Anne said. She stepped beside Kara and slipped her arm around her, effectively squeezing Kara between herself and Ron. “Because I never had any doubt. Kara loves Ron and she wouldn't let him go to a family gathering on his own, no matter how rude some of the people might be to her.”

  Kara felt a confusing mixture of relief at Anne's insightful friendship and embarrassment that she would say these things in public.

  “When you get ready to move, you be sure to tell me. Gene, Matt, and I can all carry boxes and Jody can keep Emmy out of trouble over at Mom's.”

  “Thanks, Anne,” Ron told her.

  “But we haven't actually worked out any of the details yet,” Kara added. “We've actually only just begun to discuss this subject. Ron sort of jumped the gun.”

  “Don't let Mom and Dad make you uncomfortable over this,” Anne told her. “Just remember, Dad hates all women indiscriminately and Mom's a hypocrite.”

  Ron's father seemed undisturbed by his daughter's accurate depiction of his feelings, but his mother bristled in her own defense. “Anne!”

  Anne was unwilling to backtrack. “It's true, Mom! And you know it! If Kara and Ron were a gay couple you wouldn't think twice about them moving in together.”

  Her daughter's criticism seemed to puzzle Hanna. “But that's because gay's can't marry in Michigan,” she said.

  Her husband snorted derisively but made no further comment.

  Kara wondered how she could change the subject, but Anne didn't give her a chance.

  “Is your family going to be okay wit
h this?” Anne asked. “I thought you told me your mother was pretty strict.”

  Kara didn't even want to consider her mother's reaction to what Ron was proposing. “No,” she said, “my mother is going to be even less happy about it than your parents are.”

  “Then why not just wait,” Hanna suggested. “There's no reason to rush into things.”

  “Kara's mother has about as much chance of coming around to supporting us as Dad does,” Ron observed. “We can't live our lives tiptoeing around everyone else's problems. We're going to do what's right for us and the rest of you will just have to deal with it. This decision has nothing to do with you.”

  Was this the same man who'd just pleaded with her to let them hang out with his mother this weekend so she wouldn't feel hurt? Kara wondered. But then she realized Ron's positions on these two subjects really weren't incompatible. In the final analysis, whatever Ron and Kara had hoped to get out of it, this weekend was about his parents’ fortieth wedding anniversary. Putting them first was the decent thing to do. Moving in together was a completely different sort of issue.

  “If we do move in together,” Kara announced, “then my mother will have to learn to deal with it, too...just like everyone else.”

  “Great!” Anne said. She suddenly realized that Emmy had not reappeared. “I'd better check on my daughter,” she said. “Snow boots can make going to the bathroom a little more difficult.”

  As if on cue, Emmy called out for help. “MOM!”

  Anne hurried past them.

  Her presence and support made Kara feel better about the trip and more generous. “So why don't Ron and I head over to the lodge and get ourselves a room,” Kara said. “And then, if you'd like, Hanna, we can take you and Howard to lunch to thank you for inviting us out here. The others can join us if they come in from the slopes.”

  Hanna agreed, but she didn't look very happy about it.

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  Chapter Three

  It took Howard Miller nearly ten minutes to get his belt buckled and find his coat and shoes with his wife prodding him along as if he were three and not sixty.