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“No.” Betsy tromped over to the kitchen table, arms crossed and her teddy bear still held tightly.
“Want a pancake, Bets?” Luke asked.
She chewed on her bottom lip and glared at him before answering, “Yes. With honey.”
“Coming right up.”
Their mother shut the door behind her, put her hands up, and said, “I promise, Betsy. I’ll call his parents today. We’ll discuss it. I’m not against you two marrying. Rodney’s a lovely boy. But there are issues to consider, and—”
“Chocolate chips too,” Betsy said, watching Luke put together her plate of pancakes.
I flipped over the next row on the griddle. They sizzled golden-brown and perfect.
Luke grabbed a bag of semi-sweet chips from the cupboard and added a handful. “Enough?”
She nodded before turning to her mother again. “I want to marry Rodney.”
“I thought youdidn’twant to marry Rodney?” Luke said. “We talked about it not long ago.”
“I changed my mind.”
“People are allowed to change their minds,” I murmured.
Luke glanced at me, a surprised smile playing on his lips. “Like Mom said, we’ll have to talk with his parents first. You can’t just go to his house and crash their holidays.”
“His parents love me. They told me so.”
Luke grinned. “Who wouldn’t love you, Bets?”
She shrugged again. Luke placed the plate of pancakes and a fork next to her at the table, and she started eating, putting her bear on the seat beside her.
Silence reigned for a moment, and then Mrs. Montgomery pressed her hands together in what looked like prayer, closed her eyes and took a few breaths, and then opened them again. “All right. Well, that’s settled. Let’s have pancakes.”
With Betsy’s crisis averted temporarily, I turned the griddle off, piled the last of the pancakes onto a serving plate, and carried it, along with honey, syrup, and chocolate chips, over to the table.
Luke made coffee and tea for us, and by the time Betsy had finished her first plate, we’d just dug into ours.
“These are wonderful,” Mrs. Montgomery said to me, reaching out to pat my hand. “Fluffy, sweet. Just right.”
“Better than the ones at Riverwoods,” Betsy agreed, adding more to her plate. “Better than the ones Grandma makes too.”
I smiled, happy to have accomplished something so pleasing to everyone at the table. Pancakes wouldn’t solve Betsy’s problems, but for the moment, she seemed happy again. “Thank you.”
Luke pressed his knee to mine under the table, and I flipped my hand over on top of it. He smiled and twined his fingers with mine. Both Betsy and his mother noticed, but neither said a word.
We chatted idly for a few minutes, and I was able to pretend that the stressful events of the day ahead didn’t exist. After Betsy had finished a third helping, she started listing all the reasons why marrying Rodney would solve the Riverwoods problem. As Luke listened, his brows went up and up andup. It was clear that despite her learning disability, Betsy’s reasoning wasn’t entirely wrong. Seeing her win, I thought I might stand a chance.
Though, I wasn’t going to be trying to convince people who loved me that I’d been assaulted and threatened by Kyle. I was going to be trying to convince cops. And, in my experience, cops never liked me. Not even gay ones. I was just too unsettling for them. What with my feminine clothes, delicate features, and fairy-stamped personality, it was possible I made them feel things they were compelled to punish me for. Like Kyle.
“That was all very well-reasoned,” Mrs. Montgomery said to Betsy. “If we’re done with breakfast, we can call Rodney’s parents now to set up a time to discuss it in person.”
Betsy’s smile made my heart feel warm and mushy. She deserved this. I could only hope Rodney’s parents would agree.
As I followed Luke up the stairs, I heard Betsy on the phone in the kitchen explaining to Rodney why she wouldn’t be coming to his house today after all. “But it’s all right, Rodney. They said I can marry you.”
My lips lifted at her sweetness. It was good to hear a tone of optimism replacing her pain.
Speaking of pain, the rest of the day was going to hurt in more ways than I could count. Even with Luke beside me, there was no way that what I was about to face wasn’t going to slash open the angriest and darkest of my wounds. I felt sick just thinking about it.
