“But Tina, I have to warn you that we may clean out all the food you and Bette have stored in your fridge and freezer.  You know…all those packages that you have at the ready, to serve guests quickly?,” Lara asked, in apologetic tones.  Tina nodded. "Well…I’ve had to break those out, and had a lot of those served already, while I finished prepping the side dishes. Meanwhile, I’ve also thawed out various things in your freezer, too.  I’ll cook them later, so that we’ll still have entree’-type dishes ready, in case you have more people drop by tonight.”

Tina waved her hand, to signal to Lara not to worry.

They looked at crowd, shaking their heads at the increasing din of sound, music, laughter, and conversation. “You think we’ll run out of food?,” Tina asked, incredulously.  She thought she and Bette had a ton of food at the ready….maybe not?

Lara thought for a second, then shook her head.  “No, I don’t think so.  We should be good even through the night, if some people choose to linger.”

Someone called out from the dining room area, “Tina! There’s a Rose at the front door downstairs.  Has a child with her?”

Tina jumped. She quick-walked to a control panel in one end of the floor-to-ceiling wall-to-wall kitchen unit built into one wall of the kitchen area.  As she tapped an app in the panel to open the door, she said over her shoulder, “Lara, I’m sorry I have to go greet this one.  Do you have everything you need?”

Lara was trailing Tina, and nodded her head.  They saw Kit walk into the kitchen area with Kara and Kelly, who was eyeing her coolly, still.  Tina thought.  No time for this now.

“Kit, can you please help Lara out?  The turkey and sides need to be set up in the table outside, and the appetizers, if there are any remaining, will need to be cleared out.  Shane has started moving people upstairs so that the dinner set-up can get started,” Tina explained.  “Umm… Jason and his mom are here.”

Kit nodded quickly, “Go, go, Tina. We’ll help Lara here, right girls?”

Kara and Kelly nodded.  Tina turned to leave the kitchen, while Lara led the three to the side of the vast
kitchen island where she had large bowls of sides ready to be served out into platters.