Sweeter Than W(h)ine by Nancy Goldberg Levine

would have wanted.
    Everyone returned to Rafe’s for the brunch he’d had catered from Bagels and Bugles. He’d also ordered a dessert tray from Nutsie Nan’s Café. Adam and Merissa’s friends had come, as well as some of Rafe’s friends from the nursing home and people he’d met at the singles dinner parties. It had been a long time since he’d had company in his home. Before everyone started eating, Adam spoke up.
    Rafe watched as his younger brother put his arm around Merissa’s waist. She was very pretty, with shoulder-length brown hair and amber eyes. Gracie had inherited her mother’s good looks, but she’d barely had a chance to date. Now she’d never grow up.
    “For those of you who don’t know me, I’m Adam Farber, Rafe’s younger brother, and this is my wife, Merissa. We have some news. We’ve been trying to have another baby for a couple of years now, and Merissa is expecting her second child.”
    Rafe felt a knot in the pit of his stomach. Angry thoughts welled up inside, but he kept them in check. Still, the senseless irrational things he was thinking kept popping into his head. Why didn’t Adam and Merissa just take Gracie and throw her into the Ohio River? Why bother with an expensive monument, and a sad service? It was as if they’d forgotten they had a daughter, and her favorite uncle was the only one who’d remembered. He tried to ignore the thoughts when everyone offered congratulations.
    “ Rafe,” Merissa said, in that “I know how to wrap you around my little finger” voice she had. It was the same one Gracie had used when she wanted something extravagant like chestnut sauce on her French vanilla ice cream. Like her uncle, Gracie had learned to appreciate the finer things in life. “Aren’t you going to congratulate us?”
    He cleared his throat. He cleared it a second time. He couldn’t form the words. “Of course,” he finally said, helping himself to a glass of freshly-squeezed orange juice from the bagel shop. “Mazel Tov to you both.”
    ***
    Dina watched Rafe’s face turn pale when Merissa made her announcement. He was going to have a heart attack if he kept everything bottled up. Maybe it would be good to just have a good, old-fashioned argument with his brother, and get everything out in the open. He had to be angry. He probably felt like they were trying to replace his niece with another baby.
    “Hi, Dina ,” Alec Stern said, almost making her spill her coffee when he showed up behind her. They sat at the butcher block table in the eat-in kitchen of the huge house. Dina had taken tuna fish on a bagel and a cup of coffee from Rafe’s one-cup-at-a-time coffee maker, but she didn’t feel very hungry. There were bagels, tuna, egg salad, and cream cheese arranged on aluminum trays on the granite kitchen island. Nutsie Nan’s desserts had been carefully placed on what looked like hand-painted stoneware platters. “It’s nice to see you up and around.”
    Ruthie Gordon joined them at the table. “You’re doing great, Dina. Rafe looks kind of mad, though.”
                  “Uh oh,” Alec said, winking at Dina. “Ruthie’s got that look in her eyes.”
                  “What look?” Dina asked, glad Alec’s banter took her mind off Rafe’s problems, at least temporarily.
                  “The look that says she’s going to ask him a bunch of probing questions, and see if she can get him to open up,” Alec said. “You should know by now that it won’t work.”
                  Ruthie took a bite of a plain bagel with cream cheese, and then spoke. “And you should realize by now that I’d never do that, Mr. Know-It-All.”
                  Alec got up again and started fiddling with the coffee carrousel, spinning it around until he saw what kind of beverage he wanted. Rafe had hot apple cider, hot chocolate, and decaf and regular coffee, each in little cups that brewed individually. “Hey,