Dan shakes his head and points at his mouth signaling he has a mouthful and can’t talk.
Lucy laughs. She faces me. “Uncle Dan doesn’t lie, unlike Chance. So he’d rather say nothing.”
Dan sips from his glass and finally speaks, “It was different.”
“That’s code for bad, but he’s trying to be nice,” Lucy says.
“Fine.” Aunt Felicia rolls her eyes. “That was that recipe but I promise next Sunday’s will be excellent! You’ll be here for that, right?” She looks at me enthusiastically.
“Um…” I glance sideways at Chance.
“Can we eat up this delicious meal first before talking about what will happen next week?” Chance says.
Aunt Felicia smiles. “Of course.”
She’s probably pleased he complimented the meal.
“So, Maddie,” Lucy chirps, “Where are you from?”
“Let Maddie eat, will you?” Chance smiles tightly.
“I didn’t…”
Chance interrupts with work talk directed at Dan, effectively stamping out Lucy’s line of questioning. Maybe he doesn’t wantthem finding out I’m a nobody. Or he doesn’t want more about me to be said because by dinner’s end, it’ll be over.
Either way, it hurts. I know we shouldn’t dive deeper into each other’s lives. But despite my nerves earlier on, I’m comfortable around the Eastons.
I move around my meal until Dan shifts away the conversation from work. Then I perk up.
“When were you going to bring Maddie for us to meet her?” Dan asks. “If Baxter didn’t say anything, we would have still been in the dark about your girlfriend.”
Chance glances at me. “I was waiting for the right time.”
“Well, better late than never!”
“Yeah sure, dad.” Chance resumes eating.
“I mean, I never thought I’d see you with a woman. You act like you’re married to your work. Working so hard.”
“For the family.” Chance’s voice is cold and detached. “It’s what we have to do, right?”
“Not have to.” Dan leans forward, his eyes glued on Chance even though Chance’s gaze is fixed on his nearly empty plate. “Work is work and there’s life outside of that.”
“I have a life outside of work.”
“Well, thank heavens for Maddie because—”
“Even before Maddie, I did.” Chance’s gaze shoots up to his dad and the table goes quiet.
My gaze shifts between everyone as I try to understand what’s going on. Is this something they’ve spoken about before? It seems there’s an underlying tension and I’m not sure what it is.
“Well, let’s agree to disagree, eh?” Dan smiles and in the moment, he reminds of Baxter. Chance doesn’t reply and he continues, “I’m just so glad you brought Maddie to us today. We are very happy to have her.” He faces me. “And you’re always welcome.”
Crap.
I smile. “Thank you.”
We’re going to break their hearts when we say it’s not real.
