I shut out the rest of the talk, and dinner went by without James saying anything to me. Thankfully. I hoped this would be the last time we spoke. To be honest, I hoped that would be the last time I saw him. He could depart, we'd part ways, and hopefully there would be no more family meals with him in the near future. At the very least, one may hope. Especially considering he wasn't actually a member of the family. Not to anybody but Eli, but no one knew about it.
I expected James and Luke to disappear somewhere after dinner. Just like in the old days. I assumed they'd be playing basketball in the driveway, listening to music in the basement, or running off to a party downtown.
I was hoping for the latter, that they would go, but they persisted. They headed outdoors, most likely to shoot
