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We end up taking our food inside, finding the spot we ate at yesterday at the counter. Everything is delicious, and I make sure to share my enthusiasm with Patty when she walks in carrying an empty water jug.
“Everything tastes so amazing,” I tell her. “Is this your cooking?”
She laughs, her attention on where she’s filling up the container with water and ice in her large basin sink.
“Honey, I wish I could cook like this. When we do family brunches, I always order from Jersey.”
I glance at Boyd. “Is that a…person?” I ask, not wanting to sound stupid enough to ask what I really wanted to ask.
Like, New Jersey?
“Jersey Park is our resident chef,” Boyd offers. “She went to culinary school and worked in a big-deal restaurant in New York before moving back here with her kids. I swear, mom orders enough food from her throughout the year to keep her business in business.”
“Well, regardless of who made it, everything was so delicious. Thanks for inviting me, because it might be the best breakfast I’ve ever had.” I emphasize the statement by shoving another bite of delicious French toast into my mouth.
“Better than my breakfast?” Boyd asks, placing a hand against his chest as if I’ve severely wounded him.
My eyes widen. I know he’s joking, but I don’t know whether I should tease more and dig the knife in farther or stroke his ego a bit.
“Loads better,” is what I settle on. Clearly, I prefer the knife.
Boyd smirks and takes a sip of his orange juice.
“Ruby, I wanted to say…” Patty sets the now full container of water on the counter and leans over the island so her face is closer to mine. “I am so sorry if I made things awkward between you and Linda.” She shakes her head. “I assumed you would come along with her and the boys, not that she would come without you.”
“Elliott and Nathan are here?” I ask, my eyes wide. I still haven’t seen them in person, only knowing what they look like because Ken sent me a picture of the four of them over text when we were discussing me coming out.
It was perfectly posed, their perfect little family at a perfect lake on a perfect day looking just…perfect.
I step slightly away from the counter and over to the window to look outside, my eyes searching the crowd to find Linda, or two little boys with brown hair and blue eyes.
“Mom, maybe next time, ask first.”
Boyd’s tone with Patty is calm but firm, a reprimand she doesn’t deserve.
She was trying to be helpful, friendly. If only Ken could have married someone more like Patty, someone welcoming and caring.
Instead he married a snotty, angry woman hell-bent on keeping me away from her, her boys, and her life here in Cedar Point.
“I tend to butt my nose in where it doesn’t belong a little too often,” Patty says. “But I promise my intentions are always in the right place.”
I turn back to where the two of them stand together in the kitchen once I’ve determined that Linda has probably left. Patty is looking at me with apologetic eyes.
“You didn’t do anything wrong, Patty,” I say. “Linda hasn’t been that welcoming, but there’s no way you could have known.”
She tilts her head to the side and gives me a look of pure empathy. Then she widens her arms and envelops me in the kind of hug only a really kick-ass mom knows how to give.
“Everything will work itself out,” she says, rubbing my back.
I smile, enjoying her hug and wishing I could be as optimistic as her.
chapter thirteen
Boyd
A few hours later, most of our brunch guests have returned home, leaving just my immediate family sitting around our sunken entertainment room like slugs with full bellies.
This is one of my favorite spaces in my parents’ home. They added it on to the main house when I was a junior in high school, and I was always a bit jealous that I didn’t have it for longer like my siblings.
