Soon after our conversation, Mae called the two of us downstairs. She had made a shepherds pie that looked very practiced, as though she has cooked it for dinner over and over again for an entire month. I noticed both Jesse's father and brother sitting at the table. The older man was at the head of the table and Miles was on his right. Mae shot Jesse a glance and tipped her head toward the table, which I assumed was her instructing him to sit down at the table. Jesse nodded and lead me over before gesturing for me to sit at the end opposite of his father, while he sat to the right of Miles. 

"So you're the Whitney I've been hearing so much about." Jesse's father said, looking at me. He had brown eyes and brown and gray hair. 

"Yes sir, that's me." I said with a smile and a nod. "It's nice to meet you."

"I'm Angus. It's nice to finally meet you too." He said, giving Jesse a pointed glance. I looked to my left to see Jesse's face flush in embarrassment. I bumped his foot with my own in response.

"Have you lived in Arizona for very long?" Mae asked me as he took a bite out of the shepherd's pie. 

"No, we lived in Oregon for a few years and moved here when my sister was born." I said. "Where did you guys live before here?"

"Oh, we've been around." Jesse said with a joking tone. Both Mae and Angus reacted positively, whereas Miles scowled at his brother. 

"I'm sure Jesse told you that they're half-Irish." Angus said. "We spent some time in Dublin."

"Did they have really thick accents?" I asked, a grin on my face. 

"Yeah, we all had accents, but they weren't as thick as they're portrayed in cinema." Mae said, looking over at her two sons before returning her gaze to me.

"I wish we had really thick accents!" Jesse said, clearly envying the men and women in the world that had excruciatingly thick accents. "The most sure-fire way to get a girl is to have a foreign accent."

"Shut up, Jesse." Miles said, glaring at his brother in obvious frustration. 

"What, are you going to tell me that I'm wrong?" Jesse said to his brother.

"Yes! You are very wrong!" Miles snapped, taking an angry bite from his plate.

"Boys!" Mae said, glancing back and forth between her sons with a firm stare that could not be argued with.

After a short silence, I spoke up again. "I've always liked Australian and Scottish accents."

"Boom." Jesse said triumphantly. "See?"

"See what? That Steve Irwin has a better shot at Whitney than you do?" Miles asked sharply. 

"That's mature." Jesse said, laughing quietly to himself. "But I'm sure Abigail preferred British over your Irish."

"Jesse." Mae said. This time, her glare was centered on her youngest son, who shrunk underneath the look. Angus looked at me from across the table and made a face that read, 'sorry.'

"May I please be excused?" Miles asked his parents, a clear stiffness in his voice. Both Mae and Angus nodded, and without regarding Jesse, Miles pushed out of his seat and went back upstairs.

"I'm sorry about all this, Whitney." Mae said quietly.

"It's no problem." I said hastily. "Who was Abigail?"

"Abigail is Miles' ex girlfriend." Angus told me. It was evident that he still held sympathy toward Miles regarding this.

"They dated for like two years before we got here." Jesse said. "But then, she cheated on him and—"

"Jesse!"

"What?" Jesse said in a shrill voice. Mae didn't say anything, she instead just stared her son down, causing him to return to his food and bump my foot with his. I willed myself to change the subject. 

"So," I said, almost hearing the ice shatter. "If you guys could have one superpower, what would it be? Every power comes with a catch." 

"I think I'm going to go with immortality." Mae said, grinning as though the topic was an inside joke within her family. "Of course, the doom to eternal life is the catch."

"Telekinesis would be cool." Angus said as he made a pulling motion toward the napkins that were resting at the center of the table. Mae laughed, shook her head, and passed Angus a napkin.

"But what's the catch?" Jesse asked, sounding as though he were the comedic side-character in a Disney Channel special episode.

"You have telekinesis, but," I said, pondering as I trailed off.

"You can only use it on objects that are within four feet of you." Mae finished, snapping her fingers. Angus pinched the bridge of his nose just like how I had seen Miles do many times over. 

"I want to change my answer." Angus said. All three of us said "no" nearly in unison. "Fine. What about you, Jesse?"

"I would say mind reading." Jesse said after a moment's thought, then turning to the rest of us for the catch.

"You hear everyone's thoughts all the time." Angus said.

"I can live with that." Jesse said with a shrug.

"Just one." I shook my head, grinning.

"What would you choose, Whitney?" Mae asked, shifting everyone's eyes to me.

"What?" My zoned-out gaze snapped from subtly peering at Jesse to giving Mae my attention.

"What superpower would you choose?" She repeated.

"I think I would probably choose the ability to see the future." I said without a moment to ponder. How could someone not know the answer to their favorite ice-breaker?

"That's an interesting choice." Angus said. "Why did you choose that one?"

"I think it would be pretty comforting to know what happens in the future so I can prevent the bad things and look forward to the good things." I said, realizing that, while I had an answer, I did not have any sound, thought out reasoning behind it.

"Oh, that's smart!" Jesse said, nodding.

"Okay, Whitney, The Bachelorette is on. Please excuse me." Mae said, collecting everybody's plate and retreating to the family room. Angus let out an exasperated sigh and followed her. 

"Let's go upstairs." Jesse said, standing up and pushing both his and Miles' chairs in. "I want to play Battleship."

"Sure,"