Page 161 of Homecoming

Dan laughed.

“Seriously, though, we appreciate what you did.”

“It helped that they were innocent,” Dan said, “which makes things easier. Not that it always turns out this way, but it helps to have the truth on our side.”

Kara’s siblings took turns thanking him, shaking his hand and expressing their appreciation.

“Very well done,” Kelly said to Dan as her son, Connor, clung to her leg. “Thank you for everything you did.”

“No problem.”

Kelly started to say something else, but apparently thought better of it and moved on, taking Connor by the hand. Maybe she’d learned not to push her luck. Kara could only hope.

“I googled you,” Luna said to Dan as she ran a chip through onion dip. “Impressive.”

“Is that right?”

“Duh, like you don’t already know that.”

He laughed and gave her a playful bop on the head. “Don’t believe everything you read.”

“So you haven’t helped to free tons of wrongly accused people, including two of my uncles?”

“That part is true. Some of the other stuff you might see about me is BS.”

“Like what?”

“That I dated every actress in Hollywood. That’s most definitely false.”

“It was more like half of them,” Kara said.

“Hey! It was fewer than five.”

Luna snorted with laughter. “Anyone I’d know?”

“Maybe?”

“Oh, this is going to be good.”

“Luna, leave your uncle alone,” Kendra said. “He’s supposed to be celebrating.”

“He was just going tell me which famous actresses he dated.”

“I’ll text you,” Dan said with a wink for the girl, which made her smile broadly.

Kara was overwhelmed with gratitude to have had this time with her family and friends in Maine, for Dan to have gotten to meet many of them for the first time, to reconnect with her nieces and friends as well as Bertha and Buster, who were at Sea Swept for the first time in years.

She thought she was seeing things when Renata walked in with her father, Kara’s uncle Henry, who hadn’t been anywhere near their family in two decades. “What the hell?”

“Who’s that?” Dan asked.

“My uncle Henry. My dad’s brother.”

“You don’t say.”

Chuck smiled when he saw his brother and went to shake his hand. “Welcome. I’m glad you could make it.”

“Thanks for the invite. Happy to help celebrate the good news.”