The Pie Plate was only half full, and Brenda had pushed a few tables together in the middle of the room for them all. "You said around twelve," she said to Lee as everyone stood in the vestibule, stamping snow from their feet.
"Yep, that's right." He grinned. "Thanks for doing this, Brenda."
"You just caught me," she admitted. "I'm off in fifteen. Your timing is good, though. We had a real rush around three o'clock and I don't think you'd have gotten in."
The group gathered around the table, draping coats over the backs of their chairs, continuing conversations that had begun in the car as they sat down. Lee found himself at one end of the table, between Amanda and Francine. On the table in front of him, in place of The Pie Plate's usual leather-bound red menu, was a piece of paper bordered in holly and ivy, edged in gold. Holiday Menu, it read, and offered up two entree choices — roast beef or turkey — and a selection of desserts. It was just what Brenda had promised on the phone. Traditional, filling, and ten dollars a head.
Beside him, he saw Amanda relax. She settled into her chair and studied the group, and he knew she was looking for disappointed faces. There were none, though, only soft laughter and lively conversation, a group of people happy to be there in each other's company and — if his own stomach was any indication — eagerly anticipating a hot dinner.
He reached to cover her hand with his, where it rested on the table. "This okay?" he asked.
"It's perfect," she said. "What made you think of it?"
"I remembered something Brenda said last week," he admitted. "She said she was working Christmas Day, and I didn't think she meant… you know."
"Thank goodness." She sighed and meshed their fingers together. "I'm starving."
He laughed. "Well, I guess you were busy running around all afternoon."
"I can't believe I didn't think of this," Dotty said to him from her spot next to Amanda. "I knew they were open but it never occurred to me to come here. I don't think we've ever been out for Christmas dinner before."
"Oh, I have," Lillian put in. "That's what I do if you don't invite me down."
"Lillian, I never don't invite you," Dotty said, and Lee knew she was trying to be patient. "You just say no, like you did this year."
"Well, my point is I don't mind it. Sometimes it's nice to not have to worry about things, you know?"
"It can be a dicey prospect, though," Jack put in. "You've got to know where the good dinners are or you get stung with dry turkey and canned gravy."
"The airport's pretty bad," Joe said. "I don't recommend it at all."
"Which one?" Jack prompted.
"Any of them. I've eaten in several." He looked down at their end of the table, and Lee knew he was trying to catch Amanda's eye even though his hand was firmly around Carrie's. "I spent more Christmases in airports than I care to think about. This is much nicer."
Under the table, Lee gave Amanda's knee a nudge as if to say 'see?' She turned and smiled at him, her eyes so bright he thought she might cry. And then he felt a puff of cold air on his back and her gaze slid past him, to the door.
"Lee," she said, "look who just came in."
Lee turned in his seat just as a familiar figure stepped into the dining room, hands shoved deep in the pockets of his leather jacket. He pushed back his chair and stood. "Hey," he said, and Leatherneck Nelson looked up in surprise.
"Ace," he said, his face splitting in a grin. "What are you doing here?"
"It's a long story," Lee said.
"Amanda," he said, "and Frannie. Billy, too? You've got the whole team here."
"You here for dinner?" Amanda asked.
"Yeah, I was working earlier and figured I'd knock off a little early for a bite to eat. Turkey dinner here's pretty tasty. I came at Thanksgiving. You know, after that whole Vavilov —" He stopped and studied the group, unsure who knew about the Agency and who didn't. "Well, you know. After that thing at work I decided to try this place out. It had pretty good reviews."
Amanda gestured at the table, laughing. "Why don't you pull up a chair?"
"There's room over here," Billy said, waving Leatherneck over.
"Okay then." Leatherneck headed toward the other end of the group, where Joe and Robert were rearranging chairs and adding another table to the line they'd already started.
Just as he sat down, Brenda came out of the back, her coat slung over one arm. She came across the room toward them, chuckling softly.
"Do my eyes deceive me or is this group bigger than when you came in?"
"It's bigger," Amanda said. "Where are you off to?"
Brenda shrugged. "Oh, home. Peace and quiet and gin and tonic."
"No Christmas dinner?"
"Not this year. It's my year to work, so I'll see my family in a few weeks in Hawaii." She grimaced a little, as if to say the trip might be a mixed bag at best.
"Why don't you eat with us?" Lee asked.
Brenda hesitated. "Oh, no, that'd be weird, wouldn't it?"
"No weirder than anything else that's happened today," Lee said. "Trust us. Have a seat."
"I'm gonna have to tip Cherry extra," Brenda said, as she moved to sit at the other end of the table. Lee watched as she drew up a chair beside Leatherneck, whose smile suddenly held something Lee had seen a time or two before. Usually directed at Amanda.
He nudged Amanda. "Looks like you have competition."
"Oh, you." She gave him a gentle shove. "I think that's lovely, if anything comes of it."
"Do they already know each other?" Francine wondered, her voice low. "They look like old friends, almost."
"Well, he's been in here before," Lee said. "And you know how Brenda is."
"She probably ran a background check," Francine murmured. "I bet she's seen every tax return he's ever filed."
Lee swallowed a laugh, and a mouthful of water with it. He didn't have a chance to respond, because Cherry was standing at his elbow with her order pad, ready to hear who wanted beef and who wanted turkey and what the heck Brenda thought she was doing, anyway.
"I'm fraternizing with the customers," Brenda retorted good-naturedly, her cheeks rosy under her freckles and her blue eyes twinkling. "You can take it up with Ralph."
"Oh, I will," Cherry threatened, with equal good humor. She pocketed her order pad, tucked a lock of blonde hair behind one ear, and gave the table a once-over. "Right after I come back with your drink order, I'm giving him a call."
"You know you could join us, too," Lillian said, in her forthright way.
Cherry just laughed. " Some of us have to work."
"And some of us already have," Brenda called out as Cherry headed for the kitchen. "She's going to bring me the dryest piece of beef back there, I just know it," she said to Leatherneck, who grinned indulgently.
Francine stood suddenly, and everyone turned to look at her. "I'd like to say something," she said, looking completely out of her element. "I'll keep it short. This isn't normally my thing but I'm probably a little drunk, actually."
A ripple of laughter moved through the group. Francine cleared her throat and squared her shoulders, and Lee knew for certain she was right, she was probably a little drunk.
"This is the second Christmas in a row I haven't seen my family, and it's the second time Amanda has invited me to dinner. And I know this day didn't turn out the way any of us planned, including you." She nodded at Amanda. "But thank you for meaning it when you said there's always —" and here, the rest of the group joined in, because Lee knew Amanda had said the same thing to all of them — "room for one more."
"Hear hear," Billy said, raising his glass of Coke. Francine sat back down in her seat with a thump.
"To Amanda," Carrie said, and everyone raised their glasses.
Amanda's cheeks turned bright pink, and she gave a funny little smile. "Oh," she said, "it means a lot to me that you all came, even if it was kind of a disaster."
"It's not a disaster at all," Robert said. "It's a good story, is what it is."
"Uncle Robert's right," Lee said.
"Will you listen to that," Robert said, laughing, "this story even includes a Christmas miracle."
Billy, Francine, and Amanda, who understood their family dynamic all too well, started to laugh. When Cherry set down the first plate of dinner in front of Lillian a few minutes later, the group was still abuzz with good cheer. And it stayed that way for the rest of the evening, even when Dotty told Jack that the gravy probably did come out of a can.