Calculated Risk by Zoe M. McCarthy Page A

and pleased her trained eye. “Well, we’re done here.” She crooked her finger while she moved around him. No way was she leaving him alone to switch turkeys.
    He rotated, eyeing her curved finger as if it were a dog biscuit, and followed her to the kitchen.
    “Tony, get over here and help me put these pies in the oven,” Nancy said.
    “I’m helping Cisney set the table.”
    “We’re all finished,” Cisney said. “Ellie, will you come and take a look?”
    Tony followed Ellie and Cisney to the dining room.
    Ellie gushed over the birds of paradise.
    “I’m glad you like them.” Cisney captured Tony’s gaze. “Have I gotten the seating arrangement right?”
    Ellie looped the table. “Yes. Perfect.”
    Tony gaped and moved to the card holder at Nick’s original spot. He shot Cisney a you-sly-fox look.
    “Now, you assigned Nick here, right?” Cisney pointed at Nick’s place setting, holding Tony’s gaze.
    “Yes, next to you.” Ellie smiled as if she were a successful cupid who’d surpassed her quota of matches for the month.
    “Good. Just checking.” Wearing her I-gotcha grin, Cisney lifted her face and peered up at Tony as she drifted under his nose and followed Ellie into the kitchen.
    Tony trailed her, hot on her heels. He bent down and spoke near her ear. “I like your ring.” His voice carried a singsong quality.
    Her body tensed.
    He kept his volume low. “It looks like it could be an engagement ring.”
    She wrenched her head and looked back at him.
    He raised his hands palms out in I-wouldn’t-squeal-on-you fashion, but his smile said, Gotcha .
     
     
     
     

6
     
    Nick raised his bowed head. The peacefulness of Dad’s blessing turned into a hubbub of chatter and clinking silverware as the family passed serving dishes around the table. Nick held a bowl for Cisney. While she concentrated on transferring sweet potatoes to her plate, he studied her face. Her transformation from the frazzled woman down by the lake into the composed beauty sitting next to him was amazing. The light scent of her exotic perfume mixed with turkey aroma.
    He passed the bowl to Mom and took two snowflake rolls from the basket Cisney handed him. “Mom makes these rolls from scratch.” He turned one in his fingers. “To die for.”
    Mom shooed him with a flap of her hand. “He knows his life is safe, because I always make snowflake rolls, and plenty of them.”
    Nick looked up from buttering his roll. All family members were focused on their meals, their heads bowed over their plates, except Tony.
    After each bite, Tony gazed at Cisney while he chewed. And his cousin’s interest hadn’t gone unnoticed.
    Cisney smiled and waggled her fork at Tony, like the two were old friends.
    What had he missed while he showered and contemplated how to get out of his bogus engagement?
    Grandpa, seated at one end of the table, poured gravy over his mashed potatoes. “Cisney, Nick tells me you’re in the marketing department.”
    “Yes. Nick is consulting with us on a project.”
    “Ah, the actuarial policeman, huh?”
    Glancing at Nick, she smiled. “Yes. He watches us closely. Doesn’t want the company to skid down the slippery slide of financial ruin.”
    Aunt Sandy looked around Uncle Bill at Cisney. “When I was a young actuarial student, the marketing people taught me a valuable lesson.” She sat back and spoke to the group. “I was the only actuarial staff member in a meeting of about five marketing folks and a vice president, who desperately wanted to increase market share in his area of responsibility.
    “I sat quietly and marveled at all the information these marketing people eagerly promised the vice president. I bet I heard, ‘We can get you that,’ ten times. I was impressed with Marketing’s resources. I was too green to voice that I didn’t think anyone could get some of the data they were guaranteeing to deliver.” Aunt Sandy took a sip of her iced tea. “When I returned to my cubical, my phone