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I think of us in the woods where everything seemed possible. So many times afterward, I imagined Ike swooping into my life and stealing me away from everything I hated. I’d get to enjoy the kind of freedom only he offered.
Now, that dream is real. Even the room’s current awkwardness can’t steal away my excitement over being here rather than back home.
“Love is good,” Tuesday tells Edith. “Inhale the romance in the air. Just sniff it in.”
“Are you trying to be obnoxious?” Journey asks her.
“No, but it might be a side effect of my awesomeness.”
Journey gives Tuesday a dirty look before inhaling sharply. This time, rather than lose her nerve, she exhales and speaks.
“We have a casserole in the oven. Please join us for dinner,” she tells me.
“I’d love that.”
Ike smiles at his mother and then at me. “This is all I ever wanted.”
“So, Edie,” Tuesday says, shuffling up to her cousin who looks ready to punch her, “will you be joining us tomorrow at the hair salon for Oana’s haircut?”
Ike’s smile grows as he nods at me. “Didn’t I tell you how Tuesday would help with that stuff?”
As I nuzzle against him, I notice how Edith frowns at Tuesday and then me.
“I better double-check the haircut,” she insists. “Just in case Tuesday is trying to sabotage you. Ever since her perm catastrophe, she’s been very jealous of good hair.”
Tuesday gasps before staggering back and gasping again. “I would never sabotage my newest best friend. Wasn’t I good to you?” she asks Alexis who nods. “I’m a damn good friend.”
“Whatever,” Edith says and gestures for me to follow her. “I’ll go along to make sure you don’t have any issues like what happened to Alexis at the salon.”
I glance at Alexis who touches her face and gets a terrified, faraway expression.
Before I can wonder if a bad visit to the salon is a homestead rite of passage, Ike takes my hand and heads for the door.
“I could go for some casserole.”
“What have you been eating?” Donovan asks, following his son and me out the door.
As I remain close to Ike, I wave goodbye to Tuesday, Roxie, and Alexis. They helped me feel safe like I did with Ike at the hotel.
Yet, as we approach the handsome home where Ike grew up, I lose my earlier ease. I sense his family judging me again.
They’re bound to ask a lot of questions. I’m certain to get the answers wrong, just like I did at my house. Soon, I’ll have another set of parents disappointed in me.
