“Aaron! Is that any way to greet your brother?”
Luke patted Mom on the shoulder, ignoring Aaron’s outburst. “Hey, little bro.”
Aaron stomped down the stairs and glared up at him. “Answer the question.”
Luke blinked down at his brother, though he was closer to Luke’s height than he remembered. “I’m on leave and wanted to come home for a visit.” The coldness in Aaron’s welcome hit Luke directly in the stomach, but he refused to show weakness to the teen. Aaron grunted and headed for the kitchen table.
“It smells great in here,” Luke commented to Mom, who sighed and shook her head at her youngest.
“You got my letter?”
“Yes. We’ll talk about that later.” He kept his arm around Mom’s shoulders as they followed Aaron. In the kitchen the teen had already served himself some pot roast and was eating.
“Aaron, you know better than to start before everyone sits down.” Mom chided him as she sat down. Luke pushed her chairin then took his own next to her, where he’d always sat when he lived at home. At least some things hadn’t changed.
Mom might be grayer and more wrinkled, and Aaron might be a brat, but this was still the house he’d grown up in. The same fruit-themed wallpaper surrounded the kitchen, even if it peeled a bit at the corners. The wooden table still bore the scars from the time he tried to build Mom a bird house and the hammer slipped.
“What are you up to these days, Aaron?” Luke scooped some carrots and roast on to his plate. He had to hold back a moan at the first bite as it melted in his mouth. Nothing beat mom’s pot roast.
“Nothing.” Aaron continued shoveling food in.
“How’s The Busy Bee, Mom?”
Mom patted her mouth with her napkin and took a sip of her water. “It’s going well. We just hired a new server because we’ve been so busy.”
“That’s great. Anyone I know?”
“No, she’s new to town.”
“How do you like working with her, Aaron?”
Aaron scoffed. “I don’t work there.”
Luke peered at him over the table. He clocked the shining metal watch on Aaron’s wrist and remembered what Mom wrote in her letter about money appearing from seemingly nowhere. “So where are you working then?”
He scowled at his nearly empty plate. “I’m working for my friend. He pays way better than Mom.” Then he shoved the last bite of roast into his mouth and stood. “I’m going out.”
“Aaron, take your plate to the—” Mom’s voice cut off as Aaron slammed through the side door. Luke placed a hand on Mom’s shoulder.
“I’ll take care of the dishes, Mom.”
“You don’t need to do that,” she waved him off.
“I insist. Now tell me about your new server.” He listened to Mom talk about the charming woman who’d come in for a bowl of soup when Mom was working by herself, cooking and waiting tables, and ended up walking out with a job.
“She’s a fast learner, and she charmed all the regulars right away. Shorty and I never have to question her handwriting. With Katya’s kids getting sick so much she’s been a Godsend.”
“That’s awesome.” When they’d finished eating, Luke carried their plates to the sink to rinse them off. As he loaded the dishwasher, his mom put the leftover roast into the refrigerator. He smiled to himself. They were still a well-oiled machine, just like always. The only spanner in the works was Aaron.
When the kitchen had been cleaned up, he leaned against the counter and studied Deb Graham. “So, what’s all that about with Aaron?”
She sighed and reached into an upper cabinet for a tea bag. “Honestly that’s the most he’s spoken in months. He stopped doing any chores, his room is a disaster, he sleeps all day and leaves after dinner. I don’t know where he goes all night. It makes it so hard to sleep.” Luke noticed the dark shadows under her blue eyes and worry spiked in his gut.
“Are you gettinganysleep?”
“A bit.” She put the old kettle over the burner and fired it up. “Do you want some tea?”
“No thanks.”
