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She nods, but doesn’t say anything. The more I stare at her, the more I’m certain she’s intentionally avoiding my gaze.
“Why didn’t you go with Alec, like I arranged?” Mrs. Hutton asks.
“My oven broke. I had to go to the supermarket,” she says, barely audible.
Stassi doesn’t get nearly the excited reception I got. In fact, everyone seems a little cautious and restrained around her, as if she’s a time bomb that might go off at any second. Silence prevails, and people trade uncomfortable glances. Not sensing the tension in the air, the little girl, Taffy, toddles into Stassi’s knees.
It’s the first time Stassi smiles.
She reaches down, hoists the girl into her arms, and kisses her forehead.
“How’s my little sweetheart?” Stassi coos.
“Sassi,” the little girl says, gleefully accepting the love and burying her face into the bend of Stassi’s neck.
Eventually, the attention swerves from Stassi. Without question, she’s avoiding me, because she doesn’t look my way. Not once. Not even by accident.
“Can I get you a beer, Alec?” Mr. Hutton says, shaking my hand. It’s the first time in my life he’s ever offered me a beer. How can I say no to that? It’s basically a rite of passage.
Mr. Hutton is impossibly tall, and a Mr. Rogers type, right down to the sweaters he wears. He likes to work with his hands, do projects around the house, fish, all kinds of normal dad stuff. When he used to run Hutton Hardware downtown, he’d always come home with a project for us to build. Once, we made a treehouse. He’s never without a kind word or a smile or even one of his famous lectures when the situation calls for it. “Yeah. That sounds great.”
The men wind up in front of the television, watching a hockey game. The Bruins are on a tear this year. I sit on the couch and listen to the boys talk about their lives in Lewiston. Apparently, they not only commute to work together, but they bought houses right next to each other and had kids three months apart.
As I take it all in, I keep glancing over into the kitchen, where Stassi’s talking with the women. It wouldn’t surprise me if her plan is to ignore me the rest of the night.
But then, as I’m taking my next swig of my beer, it happens.
We lock eyes.
I smile.
Her expression goes cold, and she abruptly looks away.
I know she doesn’t want me here. She looks uncomfortable, like a stranger in the house she grew up in, and I can’t help thinking it’s because of me. But I couldn’t have turned down Mrs. Hutton’s invite, even if I wanted to.
When the game is over, Mrs. Hutton announces that dinner is ready. Since the house is old, the rooms are small, so they’ve had to turn their giant dining table at an angle to fit all the adults. All the kids are given juice boxes and meatball sandwiches and put at a folding table on the covered porch just outside, where they can watch Disney movies on an iPad one of the parents supplied. It brings back memories of when the Huttons used to do the same with us—only we didn’t have iPads back then. Usually Mr. Hutton would set out his old RCA AM radio from the garage and play sports highlights for us.
Mrs. Hutton loops her arm in mine.
“Oh, Alec,” she says, surveying the table. “Sit over there. By my husband. All the men on that end.”
I notice it also happens to be right next to where Stassi’s headed. As I make my way to that side of the table, I swear Stassi recoils. I try to help pull out her chair, but she ignores me, flopping into her seat and turning her head in the other direction, toward Abby. She even puts her elbow on the table, effectively blocking me out as Mr. Hutton says grace.
“So Alec,” Leah says, sipping red wine as Mrs. Hutton fills plates with her famous spaghetti and meatballs. “I hear you’re a doctor? What made you get into that?”
I nod. “Yeah … emergency medicine. I had an incident with my appendix when I was a kid and—”
“Yeah, we all remember that,” Aidan says, shaking his head. “Scared us all to death. You cried so bad, we all thought you were going to die.”
I forgot about the crying part. First time in my life I wasn’t able to hold it in. The pain was unbearable.
Mrs. Hutton looks up. “He would’ve died if we hadn’t gotten there in time. Oh, I still have nightmares about it.”
“Anyway, the Huttons saved my life. I was staying with them while my parents were away,” I explain. “But I mean, I always knew I was going to be a doctor, even before that.”
“You mean your dad always knew,” Cooper says, twirling a fork of pasta. Then he starts to mimic my father’s voice, pretty convincingly. “Alec, you get right upstairs and don’t come out until you’ve studied for at least five hours.”
