<strong>Jess, at dinner</strong><br/><br/>Jess looked over at the twins, watching them tease Derek. She raised an eyebrow in disbelief.<em>Oh … my,</em>Jess thought.<em>Not only are they getting along, but they’re joining forces? That will certainly mean some trouble for some people in this family …</em><br/><br/>As Derek blushed at the twins’ words, Jess instantly felt sorry for him. “Don’t mind them,” she said to her son, “and you … a<em>nerd</em>? I might be your mom, but I beg to differ.” She smiled at Derek. “You have a lot to offer. A girl would be<em>incredibly</em>lucky to be with a guy like you.” She felt a little embarrassed by her words -<em>god, I probably sound like such a lame mom,</em>she thought – but she believed them with all her heart. She<em>was</em>so very proud of her son …<br/><br/>As the family started to eat, Jess suddenly noticed a lot of …<em>knowing</em>glances throughout the room. Devlin, giving Derek a flirtatious smile and Derek returning it … Stephanie giving Robert a sly wink … and of course Jonathan had already had told her about his lovely romp with Melonie. So much had apparently been going on in the house today, and Jess hadn’t been part of it. So much love and lust shared, while she made stupid phone calls in the stupid office …<br/><br/>Jess suddenly felt very unattractive. And unwanted.<br/><br/>“So, anyway, I hope everybody had as good a morning as we did?” Robert asked.<br/><br/>“It … it was nice,” Jess said quietly. She gave a small smile, but tried not to look anyone in the eye.  “I … I got some work done.”<br/><br/>Jess picked a little at her salad, and her lasagna. It was delicious, but she didn’t eat very much of it at all. She suddenly wasn’t very hungry, either.