He knew Shannon was up. He made a point of thumbing through the newspaper as he went to find her. Casual body language could hopefully cover some of the stress. Shannon was seated at the kitchen table, eating a bowl of Cheerios. Peeled and chunked potatoes were boiling on the stove. It looked like she was serious about making potato salad for the cookout tonight. “How was my brother this morning?” Matthew spread out the sports section on the table and pulled out a chair. “He said that next to the day his daughter was born, seeing you was the happiest day in his life.” She smiled. “Nice.” She got up to take her bowl to the sink, stabbed a fork into a potato, turned off the heat. “We need to make a road trip today. We’ll be back before the cookout at five, but we should get on the road soon. I’m sorry, I can’t tell you why in advance.” Anything that diverted the conversation from her brother was fine with him.
