“I’m leaving.” I start to turn away, but Dad grabs my sleeve before I take a step.
“Stay. I want to hear about this setup.” Of course he does. Dad and Mom are where Lucy gets her sentimental notions. They’re grotesquely in love. I appreciate it now, but I spent a lot of time as a kid pretending to gag. “Who’s the lucky woman?”
“I don’t know, and I don’t want to know. I never agreed to any setup.”
“Could everyone stop saying the word ‘setup?’” Luke leanscloser, his voice down an octave as if he’s the only adult in the room. “If Jovie hears you, she’ll want in on this conversation.”
“Oh, honey.” Mom’s reassuring smile holds more emotions than one look rightfully should. Sorrow. Hope. Understanding. “She thinks you’re ready?”
“She thinks she’s ready for me to be ready.” Luke’s grimace is much more straightforward than Mom’s expression. “She keeps talking about dating apps and asking if I ever meet nice women in the hardware store.”
“I certainly did.” Dad snugs Mom close against his side. He’ll tell the story about meeting her in the fixtures aisle if he gets the chance.
Luke points at the two of them cuddled together. “That doesn’t help. Jovie’s convinced someone great will waltz through the doors any day now.”
“Someone could.”
Dad’s gentle encouragement slams up against Luke’s stern face. None of us know what it’s like to lose a spouse and become a single parent, but ten years is a long time to be alone. Maybe he plans to stay that way the rest of his life.
If so, it sounds like Jovie will have some objections to that.
“I’ll ask her to have a sleepover with me one night this week,” Lucy says. “Get in some girl time so maybe she’ll give you a break.”
Luke’s expression melts into relief. “She would love that. Thank you.”
“But since it’s on the table now, I’ve got two single coworkers who are so sweet and?—”
He throws a hand up between them. “I’ll let you know.”
Her shoulders sag back down. “Fine.”
I watch Lucy, waiting for the argument. None comes. “That’s it? No insistence? No showing up at his place of business to interfere in his life?”
“I trust Luke to know what’s best for him.” She lifts an eyebrow at me, telegraphing the part she’s not saying out loud.
“I know what’s best for me.” I sound like a child even to my own ears.
Mom and Dad give me identical indulgent looks. Even Luke’s got a smirk going. Great.
“I don’t need a setup.” As if repeating it will make everyone believe it.
“Let’s stop giving him a hard time,” Mom says. “He’ll figure it out.”
I would ask what she thinks I’m going to figure out, but that would just throw gasoline on this tire fire. Mom and Dad leave the dining room, heading toward the shouting that signals Jovie is still battling it out with Nathan and Graham. Lucy walks past me, too, but not without sending me a triumphant look.
She’s absolutely not letting the setup thing go.
That just leaves Luke and me in the dining room. He’s watching me with unbroken eye contact the way he used to when we were kids and he wanted to get a confession out of me. Since I haven’t destroyed one of his Lego sets in years, I have nothing to confess.
“What?”
“How are things at Perk Me Up?” At least he drops his voice. He’s not looking to make this a family spectacle the way Lucy does every conversation we have. “Poor foam art aside.”
“It’s fine.”
Luke goes on staring, waiting for more. Assessing me. Drawing conclusions with everything I refuse to say. His cool calm always drove me crazy as a teen. Still does, to tell the truth.
“I heard you’re going to be a vendor at the concert series,” he says.
