The Nicci Beauvoir Collection: The Complete Nicci Beauvoir Series by Weis Alexandrea

Author:Weis, Alexandrea [Weis, Alexandrea]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Weba Publishing
Published: 2015-07-27T07:00:00+00:00

Chapter 12

After the turkey, oyster dressing, ham, mashed potatoes, green beans, gravy, and biscuits had been laid out on our long mahogany dining table, we were ready to begin the feast. Val opened two bottles of her champagne and made sure everyone’s glasses were filled to the brim. Dinner began with the usual rounds of toasting to all present and hopes for better times ahead. My father, who sat at the head of our table, then began carving, or should I say, hacking, into the turkey.

“You know, Billy,” Uncle Lance stood up from his place at the table, “you could get some lessons on how to carve that damn thing.” He walked over to my father’s side and took the carving knife away from him. “For once I would like to eat something at Christmas that doesn’t look like road kill.”

Dad frowned. “And you think you’re better at this than me? I don’t know why we even bother to have you over for Christmas dinner every year. Why don’t you go back to that bachelor pad condo of yours and leave me to cut this damned turkey in peace?”

“Would you two stop,” Val reprimanded. She then turned to Dallas sitting on her right. “Every year we have to listen to the Beauvoir bravado contest. When my Dan was alive we always let him do the carving.” She gazed over at Uncle Ned. “Ned, perhaps you should start taking over the honors?”

Uncle Ned waved his large hands and shook his head. “I’m an attorney, Valie, not a surgeon.”

Aunt Hattie sighed. “A shame we don’t have a doctor in the family for such occasions.”

I shot her a dirty look.

Aunt Hattie frowned at me. “I merely meant having a doctor in the family would be a nice thing. Just because you dumped Michael for that gigolo—”

“Artist, Hattie,” Uncle Ned interrupted her.

“Artist, gigolo, is there a difference?” She paused. “Nicci would not have had her heart broken so if she had stayed with Michael.” She turned to Dallas. “He was so in love with her. She would have been happy being married to a doctor.”

“No, she would have been miserable with the moron,” Val countered. “Hattie, were you so blind to see how empty the kid looked after David went back to New York following that fiasco of a wedding for Colleen and Eddie? Besides, the moron was an asshole.”

Aunt Hattie reached for her champagne. “Val, do you have to be so crude? And Colleen and Eddie had a wonderful wedding.”

“Yeah, great wedding,” Uncle Lance commented. “I especially liked the part where Eddie fell down the steps at Gallier Hall and had to be hauled away in an ambulance.”

“David didn’t tell me about that,” Dallas whispered to me.

“Shh,” I said softly to him, “I’ll tell you about it later.”

Val pushed onward. “You know, Hattie, the moron reminded me a lot of your second husband, what was his name?”

“Lester,” Colleen replied. “Now there was an asshole.”

“Colleen!” Aunt Hattie shouted down the table at her daughter.

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