Meanwhile….a few tables away….

"May I accompany you, my dear cousin, by acquiring the resting device to your left?"

Martin Belden bowed formally in front of Hallie Regan, all the while pushing up on his new glasses and blinking rapidly with a silly look of expectation.

"Oh, Mart, just sit down." Hallie laughed. She reached over and pulled out the chair beside her, and then gently poked the older man playfully on the arm as he took his seat.

"Ow! What was that for?" The overacting stirred no sympathy from the sullen looking woman.

"For being you," she teased quietly.

"And, I am just so good at it, too."

A strange sense of stillness fell over the two of them, and Mart knew something was wrong.

"I know that look," Mart said softly. "Hallie, what's bothering you? Talk to me."

The dark haired woman's eyes shot up.

"Wow," she replied quickly, "you're usually not the direct one. I thought that was my department."

"Well, you're sort of falling down on the job, then. Seriously, Hal…"

He noticed that her eyes quickly darted toward the direction of her middle child, Daniel, who was sitting with his girlfriend and a few of his cousins at a far table.

"Is it Daniel's new girlfriend?"

"No, no!" Hallie interjected quickly. "She's absolutely perfect for Daniel, it…it's not that. Really. Truly, Mart. It…it isn't that."

Her eyes lingered over the two young people who were talking and laughing with their peers as if they had no cares in the world, and Mart could tell by the look in her eyes that she did, in fact, worry about them.

But, he sensed that her concerns about Daniel and Ashley were not what kept her so isolated and forlorn today.

"Then, what is it?" Mart pushed gently. "What's got you over here pouting like someone stole your dog?"

She gave him a smirk and shook her head.

"I'm not pouting."

"Um hum, I call it pouting, Ma'am."

"Call it whatever you like, I'm just resting. Doc Brian's orders." She smirked again and crossed her arms defiantly.

The childishness in her actions made Mart chuckle, and he knew then that he had an audience.

"Hmmm. Let's see. If it's not the spiky haired new girlfriend, and nobody stole your dog, well…Oh! I know! You didn't see the Great Pumpkin on Halloween night, right? You sat out there all night long with Linus and missed Tricks or Treats, and…"

Hallie picked up a well folded cloth napkin from the table in front of her and tossed it at Mart playfully.

"That was Sally, you dope"

"Sally, Hallie…it's all the same to me." He let the rhymes drip from his tongue in a sing-song manner.

Then, he picked up the napkin and clicked his tongue with disapproval.

"Don't let Honey and my wife find out what you just did to their perfectly perfect napkins, Mrs. Regan," he scolded her.

"Well, then…here. Give it back. I'll fix it." She pretended to be just as impatient with him as he was feigning to be with her.

"Not until you spill the details about why your face is as drawn as a prune."

Hallie gave a mock gasp and stared incredulously at him.

"I can tell, Mr. Belden, that you must spend an awful lot of time sleeping on the couch. Has your beautiful wife never taught you that a woman, especially a middle aged woman, does not relish being compared to anything wrinkled? A prune? Really, sir, how dare you?"

She picked up another napkin from the place setting on her opposite side and shied it at Mart, too.

"Oh, I see how it is." Mart stood up, put on the same hilarious expression of pretend shock that Hallie wore, and lifted his nose with fake snobbery.

"However," he continued on. "I am far too gentlemanly to be baited into such a display of blatant violence, Mrs. Regan. I refuse to participate in this napkin war any further."

"Good. Then, go away." Hallie turned her back curtly, but couldn't hold in the giggle that escaped her lips. She tried to cover it up with a fake cough.

"Hah! Made you laugh!"

"Oh, shut up and sit down." Hallie reached up, took Mart's hand, and pulled him down beside her.

To his amazement, she didn't release it once he was seated. She held on to his hand as if she needed a small bit of comfort. The gesture bothered Mart a little.

Hallie never needed anything from anyone.

He squeezed her long fingers and made her look him in the eye.

"Hallie…what's going on? Are you sick? Is this about the heart thing?"

"Oh, Mart, stop it. I'm as healthy as a horse. It's nothing. Really. I just…"

Her eyes fell on Daniel once again.

"I just worry about him. I'm not sure he understands what he's saying…about…never mind."

Hallie looked as if she were about to get up and leave, so Mart covered their hands with his other one and pushed them down gently to rest on the table in front of them.

"You're not leaving this table until you tell me what's got you so upset."

He followed her gaze to stare at Daniel. The boy's likeness to his father was uncanny, and it nearly took Mart's breath away. He had to force his eyes back to his cousin so he wouldn't lose his cool and bawl like a baby.

"Please. Talk to me."

As if she had been holding on to whatever was bothering her just long enough so she could share it with him alone, Hallie leaned into Mart's shoulder and sighed heavily on him. He could feel her tremble a little and then steady herself as she relaxed against his body.

"Mart, do you remember that time we talked…out at…the cemetery? And…I said…I'd come to terms with…something I'd done…something I'd said?"

Mart could feel his heart beginning to pound faster and faster as he feared what she might say next.

"Well…I lied."