AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I’ve never been good at that.” Except once. When it counted. Because that one lie was for the best.
He shoved to his feet. “We better go in. Ma will cry if we don’t eat.”
I followed him into the house.
“I don’t understand why Sherry doesn’t do something with that girl.”
Joe’s steps faltered at our mother’s words.
“What’s her mother gonna do? She’s forty. It’s not like they can make the baby disappear and things go back to normal.” Bobby gripped his glass of tea.
“Don’t you dare talk about making babies disappear in this house, Robert Calhoun.” She pinched his cheek like he was six instead of forty-five.
“I can’t do this.”
Joe stopped moving so fast I ran into the back of him.
“You can. And you will. She means well.” I gave him a gentle push.
She cupped my face when I entered the kitchen. “How’s my baby boy?”
I kissed her forehead. “I’m good, Ma. Hungry.”
She patted my cheek. “Of course you are. Sit. Sit.”
She shooed us to the table. The chair creaked when my oldest brother, Bobby, sat. I took my place beside him at the old table. It had been my grandmother’s. Too many meals had been eaten here to count. I wasn’t much for arguing over wooden nickels, but I hoped one day this table belonged to me.
Though it probably should go to one of my other brothers. One of them with a bunch of kids and a family who could enjoy sitting around it every night.
“Where’s Michelle?”
Bobby took a swig of water. “Taking the kids to dance or baseball or art. I can’t keep up.” He scrubbed his face as ifhewere exhausted from carting them around. “They’re coming on Sunday.”
“Sunday?”
“Ma’s cooking a big thing for after mass.”
Shit.
“I gotta work Sunday.”
“Want me to talk to Dunn? If you tell Ma you’re working one more time, she’ll go down there and do it herself.”
I didn’t need my older brother or my mother talking to Captain on my behalf. I’d never hear the end of it from the guys at the station.
“I don’t want you using your pull to give me special benefits.”
He’d made Captain of his own station a couple years ago. I was proud of him. He’d had plenty of experience herding all of us, so some firemen were easy.
“Nina wants you to come to her dance recital.” He rubbed his jaw again. “I’ll have to check with Michelle about the date, but I think it’s in a few weeks. It’s her last one before she graduates.”
I bumped shoulders with him. “Way to make me feel old.”
It seemed like yesterday I was playing Barbie dolls with her and she could barely say an intelligible sentence. Now she was grown and getting ready to start a new chapter of her life.
“Have you seen my hair?” It was almost white now, sprinkled with a few stray black hairs. “If she tries to wear those cut-off shorts with her ass hanging out one more time, I’m gonna have a coronary.”
His face turned an unhealthy red.
