"We aren't yellers, really, in the DeWitt family. Mom always makes calm and reasonable pronouncements about what will or will not be, right before asking you if you want some shortbread." She was getting back in the swing of Calm and Reasonable Pronouncements, which relieved Alasdair, even if the current Pronouncement was about where his relationship with Elani McCartney was going.

He leads Iggy to the kitchen and opens the fridge. It would be appropriate and writerly for Alasdair's drink of choice to be something hard, preferably whiskey, but he never developed a taste for it. "We've got beer, hard cider, and half a bottle of white wine that I'm pretty sure Bea left behind." He's going with a Yeungling. "They're in for a shock when they realize you didn't go back to the Castle. It might be good for them."