Chapter 53

At approximately five in the evening on December twenty-fourth, the entire family arrived at Dusty's house on Osprey Lake.

Marliss opened the door for the group as they crowded together on the porch, giving hugs to the women, and manly pats on the back to the brothers. Hunter jumped up and down with excitement.

"Oh, good." Marliss grinned at them. "You're all here together. Well, come on in and let's get to celebrating."

Marliss and Lou had gone all-out in decorating the place. Flickering electric candles glowed in every window, pine greenery graced the mantel of the big flat stone fireplace, and garland wrapped in white lights ran along the railing of the walkway on the second floor.

The tree was a massive white pine culled from a local grower, since no pine trees called Kansas their native home. Multicolored lights shimmered among the green needles, but no ornaments hung from the boughs.