Mr. Jacobs said, "Ella, you've got spaghetti sauce all over your face."

"I know," she replied simply.

"Saving it for later?"

"No," she said, looking at him like he was crazy. "If I wipe it off now, I'll just have more to wipe off later, so it saves me work to wait until I'm done making a mess. I eat like a dinosaur, you know."

"She's right," Leah agreed, who was eating conservatively, staying away from the spaghetti. Because, as everyone knew, Leah ate noodly things like a werewolf. And Elizabeth had warned her entire family that she would run away forever if they embarrassed her. It was bad enough that they were making her eat supper with them.

Gordie glanced over at Elizabeth's empty glass. "Do you want more juice?"

"No thanks, I don't want to have to pee all day."

Zeke said, "So guys, it must be nice to not have to be all secretive now, huh?"

Elizabeth and Gordie both paled. Shaking his head, Chris muttered, "Oh my God, Zeke."

Ren clapped. "And the award for 'Most Likely To Be Murdered By His Sister' goes to…"

"Me?" Zeke guess innocently.

"Yes, Zeke," Chris said patiently.

"What do you mean 'secretive?'" Mr. Jacob's demanded, and glared angrily at Elizabeth. "Have you been sneaking around behind my back?"

Elizabeth was many unpromising things, but she wasn't a liar. She lowered her eyes to her half eaten supper. "Not 'sneaking,' Dad. But yeah, I've been seeing him without your permission."

"You couldn't have waited until your birthday?" he asked. "I can't stand how sex-crazed today's youth is, and I was trying to protect you from it. But I never though that my own daughter was no different than all the other goddamn hussies out there."

"Dad!" Elizabeth cried, a whine in her voice. "Couldn't you like, wait to call me names until after my friends have gone home?"

Gordie said, "Sir, you have a special daughter and everyone knows I love her. I wouldn't hurt her or do anything degrading to her. You can trust us."

"Obviously I can't trust either of you considering you can't even contain yourselves enough to wait a few months,' he snapped.

"A few months?" Elizabeth demanded. "Try a few years. And I can just tell by the look on your eyes that you're still not going to let us go out. Did you ever think that by making us wait so long that maybe we'd just do something stupid to spite you? I mean, I wouldn't do anything…uh…compromising because I love you, Dad, and I respect you…and myself…but you're going about this all wrong."

Chris nudged Ren. "Elizabeth just delivered a speech."

"I know," Ren whispered back. "I was listening."

"Did you ever think about how Mom would have handled this?"

Mr. Jacobs flinched. "Don't bring her up, Elizabeth."

"Why not?" she flared. "Do you finally feel guilty for breaking up our family? Do you finally realize that maybe I wouldn't be such a screw up to you if you hadn't chased off my mother?"

"Oh dear," Ren murmured. She didn't know anything about Elizabeth's family history, but it didn't sound like a civilized topic for dinner.

Chris nodded. "I feel uncomfortable."

"I didn't chase her off," he growled. "She left. She left us."

"You would screw anything in a skirt!" she shrilled. "You didn't care if she knew or if she got hurt until she finally left you with four kids to raise!"

"Elizabeth," Gordie said, putting a hand on her knee. "Don't do this now."

"Sorry," she muttered, his calming voice and touch settling her down. It wasn't often that Elizabeth lost her temper, but the subject of her mother--whom she hadn't seen for six years--kinda struck a nerve in her. And if her father tried to take Gordie away from her, she'd be pretty pissed.

Mr. Jacobs' face was gentle now. "I know your mom would have done a better job at raising you, but I'm still your father, and I'm the one that is going to take care of you and not let you get hurt."

"I know, Dad," she said softly. "But Gordie takes care of me too."