The Family's Chaos Mechanic - Part Ten

Midnight Morretti can diagnose a bad engine before the driver finishes describing the noise. Surely she can manage one dinner with her parents.

She’s invited Declan, the quiet horse trainer who makes silence feel comfortable, and Giovanna, the irrepressible granddaughter who makes quiet impossible. After two very different weekends, Midnight wants to find out whether the people she’s been seeing separately can fit into the same room.

Her mother is making baked ziti. Her father has questions. Bowie has opinions nobody asked for.

Midnight is prepared for awkward introductions, pointed questions, and her mother’s opinions.

She is not prepared for the way Declan and Giovanna react to seeing each other.

Because the problem isn’t whether her parents will like Declan and Giovanna. It’s what happens when her two guests come face to face, and Midnight realizes there’s a history at the table that nobody thought to tell her about.

She knows how to handle a cross-threaded bolt.

People are proving considerably harder to unscrew.