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Quinn said, “No, I’m fine. It’ll take me five minutes. See you all at eight,” and went into her bathroom. And shut the door.
Now, he finished in the bathroom and stepped out to give a rap at Janey’s bedroom door. No answer. He knocked again, a bit louder, and heard, “Wh-a-at?” in an extremely sleepy voice.
“Time to get up,” he said.
“Da-a-ad,”he got now, in a muffled tone. “It’s tooearly.”
“I’m opening the door,” he announced. All right, thiswasa bit weird, having Janey’s friend here. He opened the door anyway. Surely Violet’s dad went into her room. When he poked his head in, sure enough, Violet looked fast asleep, and Janey was on her stomach with a pillow held over her head.
He went over there and took the pillow off. “Time to get up.”
“Why do we have to come to Troy’s lesson?” Janey asked, barely rolling to her side enough to get the words out.
“House cleaning day, remember?”
Violet sat up, scrubbed at her face with the back of her hand, and said, “Oh. OK.”
Violet did. Not Janey. She said, “Violet and I will do our chores while Troy’s at his lesson.”
“You don’t even know what they are,” he said.
“Dad.You could make, like, alist?”
“I could,” he said, “but I’m not going to. Quinn’s gone to the trouble of making you French toast. She got up early to put it in the oven, too, because I can smell it baking. Also bacon, because I definitely smell that.”
“American bacon, probably,” Janey said. “All dried out and crunchy.”
Violet said, “I love bacon. And I can’t believe she made French toast. At my house, my parents sleep in on Saturday morning and we have to make our own breakfast. Micah and I have to help Claire, too. That’s because they say Friday night is date night, even if they don’t even goout.They don’t get up until, like, nine-thirty.”
“You mean because they’re—” Janey said.
Violet said, “Shh!” before looking at Beckett and looking away.
Beckett thought,Sounds like a good plan to me,but since that wasn’t on, he said, “Right. I expect to see you both downstairs in fifteen minutes.”
“Excuse me,” Janey said. “Hair?”
“Excuseme,”Beckett said. “Ponytail? You have a volleyball game this afternoon anyway.”
She sighed, but she threw back the duvet. Beckett reckoned that was good enough, and went upstairs to wake Troy.
When he went downstairs, Quinn would barely look at him. She was pulling French toast out of the oven, asking him to set the table and pour juice, and then Troy was there and, finally, after Beckett had roared up the stairs at them, Janey and Violet. There was eating, and washing-up, and, yes, a list of chores that Quinn had already drawn up and printed. And a shopping list, ditto, which she set in front of him along with another cup of coffee. It was excellent. She’d also steamed the milk.
Also, the French toast had been brilliant, with a sort of custard texture, dotted with golden raisins and tasting of vanilla, with toasted pecans on top. Pecans were another American thing he appreciated, and there’d been berries as well.
She sat beside him with her own coffee and said, “I thought, you guys can be responsible for cleaning upstairs and changing your sheets and towels, and the dusting everywhere, since Troy’s good at that and Idohave a duster with a long handle. I’ll steam-mop all the floors, including your bathroom, once you’ve vacuumed, and I’ll do the kitchen if you’ll vacuum downstairs. I’ll also change out the laundry. And, of course, you should add whatever you like to that shopping list. I put my list of meals on there, and everything I need to make them. You said you wanted to cook half the time, so I figured, three days for you and three for me. I did Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, since I run on Thursdays and board meetings always seem to be on Tuesday nights, which leaves you with Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. On Sunday, I go to my folks’, and you all are definitely invited. Or you can cook here again, of course, if you don’t want to come. Sound fair?”
“More than fair,” Beckett said. “To tell the truth, I feel like I’m caught in a whirlwind. In a good way,” he hastened to add.
She snorted. “Yeah, right. Sue me. I’m efficient. I thought you could go ahead and do the grocery shopping while I take Troy to swim lessons and bring him home. I have to drop Violet off anyway.”
“Uh … shouldn’t that be my job?” he asked.
“Oh.” She looked like she’d never thought of it. “I guess it should. OK.Youdrop Violet off and do the grocery shopping, and I’ll take care of Troy. That way you won’t be rushing to get Janey to her volleyball game. Are you OK with me taking you to your lesson?” she asked Troy. “Oh—switch the car seat for me, would you, Beckett?”
“Yes,” Troy said. “I’ll feel safe, because you’ll be watching me in the water.”
“I will,” she said. “What do you think about learning to float today? You’re getting so good at blowing bubbles, and getting braver all the time.”
