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KEENE
“You want to tell me what’s got you in this big of a mess?” I asked curiously as we pulled down the street to Ande’s mom’s house.
“No,” Ande admitted.
My lips twitched.
That’d been her answer since we left her parents’ house yesterday.
I had a feeling I’d eventually get it out of her, but it’d be a bit before she was ready to tell me.
Whatever it was held her in an almost thrall, making her appear way too scared.
Something had to have happened.
To the whole family.
Was that why Garnett didn’t want to go get her knee surgery done, too?
Not one of them had objected, saying they would be going to the hospital, too.
Not one of them.
I just knew that there was nothing on this Earth that would keep me from being with Ande if it were her in Garnett’s place.
“You’ll have to drive Mom’s car,” Ande said stiffly as we pulled up to the front of the house.
All the lights were on, and nearly every one of the brothers’ cars were here, too. Letting me know they weren’t at work.
It just added to my theory that something wasn’t right.
“She can’t get in here,” I said, realizing I was silly for thinking the poor woman could.
When Ande said she was in pain, she wasn’t kidding.
I watched her hobble around the kitchen yesterday, making everyone lunch, and it was painful to see. I’d gotten up to help her, and I could tell the family was waiting for an explosion from the mom—apparently this was a common thing, her thinking she could do something when she couldn’t—but there’d been no explosion. Just a happy smile, even if it didn’t reach her eyes.
“No, she can’t,” she said. “Just park here. I’ll leave Dad the keys so he can move it when everyone leaves.”
So, we parked almost at the neighbor’s place, then made our way inside to a house that smelled like cinnamon rolls.
“You better have saved us some of those!” Ande marched into the kitchen.
“Fuckin’ finally,” Quincy said as he stood up and reached for a plate. “Mom made us wait for you.”
“I got here at the time I said I would.” Ande pushed him out of the way and got two plates of her own, piling one so high with cinnamon rolls that I was hoping it wasn’t for me.
“Hey!” Quincy snapped, trying to push her out of the way.
But it was obvious this was something they’d done before, because Quincy didn’t push that hard, and Ande didn’t budge.
She walked over to me, one plate loaded with five cinnamon rolls, and one loaded with three.
She handed me the one with three and said, “There’s milk in the fridge.”
I liked that she knew me so well.
“I’ll get it.” Garnett limped there.
