Lisa stood in the kitchen flipping through cookbooks, frantically trying to find a recipe that didn't look too hard or take too long to prepare. Since she had cleaned the entire house, she had lost track of time. She opened the refrigerator and saw a box of Bisquick.

"Hah!" she cried triumphantly. A recipe for breaded chicken was on the box, and below it, one for strawberry short cake.

"Dinner and dessert! Thank goodness for Bisquick!"

"Talking to a box Lisa?" Amy asked, walking in grabbing two pan lids from the cabinet and walking back to a horse in the round pen.

Lisa smiled and continued with her work. She had dinner in the oven and went to set the table. She pulled the glass butter dish out of the fridge and grabbed the silverware with the other. As she crossed the room to the table, her hands dropped everything and the butter dish shattered on the floor while knives and forks scattered across the room.

"Shoot!" Lisa exclaimed, holding back her tears of frustration and pain.

/\/\/\/

"Um, Lisa, why is there a fork in the hallway?" Lou asked, walking out of her room.

"I was looking for that! I dropped it and couldn't find it," Lisa explained, and took the fork from Lou.

"You okay, Lisa?" Lou looked at her.

"Yeah, yeah, fine," Lisa replied. She faked a smile as the doorbell rang.

/\/\

Lisa looked around at the full table. Jack sat next to her, and Cassie, her husband Mike and their fifteen-year-old adopted son, Will, sat across form her. Everyone else sat in various places around the table, just barely fitting in.

"This is so good, Lisa. It's simply amazing! I remember when you burned popcorn, and now you are making gourmet meals," Cassie said, smiling.

Amy smiled; she had seen Lisa using the Bisquick box's recipe. She couldn't help but laugh.

Jack looked at Amy and saw her expression. "What?" he asked quietly.

"Nothing," she replied.

Lisa smiled. "She knows I cheated and used Bisquick."

"It is very good. Cass never cooks," Mike said.

"Then what do you eat?" Ty asked.

"We have a chef prepare our meals," Cassie answered, as if it was normal for everyone to have a chef.

"It's probably a good thing. You wouldn't want a knife in your brownies," Lisa referred to a time Cassie had cooked a knife in a pan of brownies.

"One time!" Cassie protested with a grin. "I was in a hurry and didn't notice that the knife was in there. You were the one who caught your house on fire when you were trying to sell it. I think the charred wallpaper was what sold it."

"Still sold it."

"Yeah, to the bank," Cassie said, immediately regretting her words. "Oh, Lisa! I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking and it just came out."

Lisa cringed. "It's fine. It's not your fault my divorce bankrupted me." Lisa's fork clattered to the plate and she closed her eyes pushing back tears. She opened her eyes and flexed her hand through the pain a few times until it was bearable. "I am going to go get the dessert." Lisa stood up and walked into the kitchen. Jack followed her.

"You okay?" he asked gently.

"Yeah. It goes just as fast as it comes," Lisa faked another smile. "Can you bring the dessert in? I worry I might drop it." Lisa whispered.

Jack cringed, not liking her last comment.

As Lisa walked back in to the room, Cassie took it as an opportunity to change the subject. "So, how did you get all beat up?"

"Car wreck."

"Did you total your car?" Will asked, as he had a fascination with car wrecks.

Cassie looked at her son. "That is no question to ask."

She looked back at Lisa. "Sorry. He has this fascination with them since Julie almost got herself killed in a car wreck in China."

"It's fine. Yes my car was totalled, but I wasn't too badly hurt."

"Who is Julie?" Lou asked.

"My daughter. She just moved here three months ago to start a gym," Cassie replied.

"A gym? Hudson has a gym already," Peter said.

"A gym for her gymnasts," Cassie said. "She has girls that she is hoping to get on the Canadian gymnastics Olympic team."

"If anyone can do it, it's her," Lisa said quietly.

"So, she is a coach. How does a coach get the girls to the Olympics? Don't the actual gymnasts do that?" Amy asked.

"Believe it or not, gymnastics has a political side," Cassie said.

"Yeah, you have to be able to put up with a lot of crap in any sport," Lisa sighed.

The smile on Cassie's face was playful. "You seemed to like that crap enough to get out of music class to practice with the school's jumping team."

"Ah, but I took the test and passed."

"You memorized how to play three songs. How is that fair!" Cassie teased.

"And you suffered through four years of flute class. But I did learn how to play the piano during my time at university," Lisa said.

Cassie raised her eyebrows. "When did you go to university?"

"After I left Kentucky and moved back to Fairfield. My father said he wouldn't allow me to have any part in the farm until I had put in four years of university. Along the way I did learn how to play the piano."

"I will believe it when I hear it," Cassie shook her head, her smile doubtful this time.

Lisa smiled back genuinely. "I'd prove it, but we don't have a piano."

"I saw one at the Dude Ranch in the dining lodge," Will said.

"Too bad I have a broken wrist," Lisa said ruefully, not really wanting to perform for her friends.

Jack smiled slightly. He could see that Lisa was still somewhat uncomfortable having her friends over for dinner, and he knew that she was still hiding things from him. But right now in this moment, she was happy, and that was what counted.

/\\/\\\