At least I could duck out early, too. Hanging out with a family I didn’t know on Thanksgiving would be awkward. I just didn’t know how awkward it ...would be until the front door opened. “Uh … Patty?” said a familiar man at the door. That familiar man was Kellie’s father and Rick, a mistake of a date I had back in July. Rick and I met over an online personal ad site, and after a couple of emails and a phone call, we decided to meet for a drink and walk down to the town square for a fireworks show.. I had been back to see Jenny once already and she, to her credit, had not cornered me and asked me to be a present father to our wonderful child. Actually, she had specifically insisted that if that wasn’t what I wanted with all my heart, I shouldn’t. Some would call this understanding or kindness, but I wasn’t sure that was the reason for it.I think when you get down to it, she couldn’t stand me disappearing again. She knew that if she tried to force me to stay, I would probably run away. It was a week till the subject came up again. Hodges and his wife not wanting to rake up old coals, Mary and Mike hardly seeing Muriel, and though Monty was seeing to his mother most evenings, she was not going to give him expectations about Mary, until the time was right. It was the cook that cracked first, Bessy, had found silence from her friend and lover, well, painful. It had been a conscious effort on Muriel`s part, her way of showing her annoyance at being deceived. Bessy asked to see. Then I took one of thestale rolls and started rubbing his back."Mia," he said with mock suspicion, "what are you doing?"His fake suspicion triggered my very real guilt, and I faltered a bitbefore saying "Back massage. I told you the rolls were still good forsomething." Then I started pressing the stale bread harder into hisback. Through a combination of the good quality of his baking and mylittle enchantment, the roll never even cracked."Whoa, it's starting to itch a bit back there. Am I.