First Time: Penny's Story (First Time (Penny) Book 1) (36 page)

Ian looked pretty damn great, himself. He’d
ditched his funeral director Sunday clothes for a hunter green
sweater and a pair of dark gray corduroy slacks. But then, I always
thought he looked great, even in his undertaker gear.

“
I’m so sorry I’m late,” I
started, and he shook his head.

“
It’s no big deal. Annie
knows what a mess the city is on parade day. She’ll just be
thrilled that you weren’t my overnight guest.”

My already queasy stomach went queasier. “She
has a problem with you having sex?”

“
Only extramarital,” he
said, and alarm bells went off like crazy in my head. Why had he
chosen that word? And why would he make that joke when we’d
recently had a big fight about me suspecting him of
cheating?

“
Okay, so, what level of
physical contact am I allowed to have with you?” I asked, brushing
my bad feelings aside as we walked to the car. “I mean, obviously I
won’t maul you in front of your family, but if your sister is so
weird about you and sex, is she going to expect me to leave room
for Jesus if I sit next to you?”

“
Leaving room for Jesus only
applies to dancing,” he said, opening the car door for
me.

I rolled my eyes and waited for him to walk
around the car and slide into the driver’s seat. While he buckled
his seatbelt, I tried again. “You know, I want to be on my best
behavior here and make a good impression.”

“
Just be yourself. You’re
not on trial,” he said, and I knew it was supposed to be
reassuring, but somehow it only made me more nervous.

Annie lived about twenty minutes away, in a
blue-collar neighborhood with teensy, tidy houses and cracked
sidewalks. Ian parked in front of one of the long, narrow homes,
separated from its neighbors by such slender strips of grass they
might as well have been connected.

“
Ready?” Ian asked, and he
reached over to squeeze my hand.

I felt like I was going to the dentist to
have a tooth pulled.

I smoothed my skirt and touched my tousled
bob as we walked to the door. I hoped I’d done a good enough job
with the concealer that the dark circles under my eyes didn’t give
away the fact that I was pretty hung over from my pre-Thanksgiving
partying the night before.

Ian didn’t knock, he just pushed the door
opened and called, “We’re here!”

His nephew, Danny, was lounging on a sofa
directly to the left of the door. The curtains over the wide front
window were open, letting in the gray November light and causing a
glare on the flat screen television positioned in front of a
clearly out-of-commission fireplace. Danny sat up to greet us; it
looked odd to see a priest in his black pants, short-sleeved black
shirt, and Roman collar just laying around.

“
Uncle Ian. Penny. Good to
see you again.” He cleared his throat, as though he were only just
remembering the last time we’d seen each other.

“
Nice to see you, too.” I
didn’t know what I should do, so I hugged him. He seemed taken
aback. Were you supposed to hug priests?

“
Sorry,” I said, stepping
back. “I didn’t get a lot of affection as a child. I don’t know how
to do family dinners.”

“
Nah, you’re fine,” Ian
said, steering me toward the dining room. He’d carried the promised
bottle of wine with him as we navigated around the La-Z-Boy near
the archway that separated the two living spaces. The dining table
was far too big for a family of three, so I assumed Annie hosted
many of the holiday functions. A white lace tablecloth covered the
top, and a centerpiece of fake autumn leaves and a hurricane shade
over a battery operated pillar candle stood proudly in the center.
On the walls, framed pictures showed people that just had to be
related to Ian; they all shared the same black hair and green eyes.
I spotted Ian in one photo. He was younger, his hair darker,
without any gray. He stood with two other adults, one of whom bore
a ridiculously striking resemblance to him, and a whole gaggle of
kids.

I didn’t have a chance to ask about it,
because Ian took my hand and kept walking, marching us straight
through the swinging door at the back of the room and into the tiny
kitchen, which was currently occupied by a tiny, dark-haired woman
and a huge guy whose buzz-cut and ruddy face made him resemble a
gym teacher in a movie. A trickle of sweat ran down the side of his
face as he pulled a pie from the oven.

“
We’re here,” Ian said
again, and the dark-haired woman wiped her hands on a kitchen
towel.

She came toward us with a warm smile and
hugged Ian hard. “I’d almost forgotten what you looked like.”

“
I thought you’d wait at
least until after the blessing to start guilting me.” When she
released him, he put a hand at the small of my back to push me
gently forward. “This is Penny.”

“
Ah, the infamous Penny,”
the gym teacher guy said with a bright smile. “We’ve heard a lot
about you.”

“
This is my sister, Annie,
and her husband, Bill,” Ian said.

All the warmth faded from Annie’s expression,
though she still smiled. “How nice of you to come.”

“
How nice of you to have
me,” I said, suddenly wanting with every fiber of my being to not
just make a good first impression but to make her like me. Her
approval seemed to be of the utmost importance. “This will be a
great chance to get to know you all.”

“
Well, not all of us,” Annie
corrected me, still with that insincere smile. “Don’t forget, there
are many of us across the pond. I hope you have a
passport.”

“
Is there anything we can
help with?” Ian inserted himself into the conversation
smoothly.

“
No, no, I’ve got it all
under control. Why don’t you go and visit with Danny and keep out
of the way,” Annie said, shooing us toward the door.

And that was it. First impression made, and I
got the feeling I’d been found wanting.

As we passed through the dining room, I
stopped Ian by the picture I’d noticed. “Are these more of your
siblings? The ones I need a passport to meet?”

“
Yeah, that’s David,” he
said, pointing to the clone standing beside him in the photo. “And
his wife, Brandy. She’s from California. And those are their
children—” Ian listed off the names of all seven children, and I
didn’t catch a single one. They all looked exactly the same, which
didn’t help.

“
Big families,” I said, a
little stab of fear lancing through my heart. Ian had said only
three or four, right?

“
Well, you know. Catholic.”
He shrugged.

What the…
I really hoped he didn’t expect me to push out
that many kids.

“
Don’t blame the Church,”
Danny said, coming up to stand beside us. “Nobody forced them to
have that many.”

The kitchen door swung open, and Bill emerged
with a gleaming silver platter bearing a turkey that could have
come out of a Norman Rockwell painting. It was clear from the
spotless state of the house and the presentation of the bird that
Annie took pride in her housekeeping. When she followed behind Bill
with a bowl heaped with more mashed potatoes than five people could
reasonably eat, I said, “Annie, the turkey looks amazing.”

“
Well, it didn’t come out as
brown as I would have liked,” she said, exasperated.

Ian put a hand on my shoulder and gave a
little squeeze. “Take the compliment, Annie.”

As Annie and Bill turned back to the kitchen,
I tried again. “Can I help bring anything to the table?”

“
No, the kitchen is far too
small for three people, you’d just be in the way,” she replied, and
in nearly the next breath, she ordered, “Danny, come help with
this.”

When they disappeared again, I turned to Ian
and mouthed, “What the fuck?”

He put his arms around me and kissed my
forehead. “Just let it go, for now. She’ll thaw.”

“
None of that monkey
business in my house,” Bill joked said he came back with a plate of
cranberry sauce. It was the kind from a can, cut into neat
slices.

I liked Bill.

Annie came in with onions au gratin. By the
time they’d brought out the bread, a green bean casserole, and
several other dishes of the
oh-god-I’ll-have-to-run-off-all-those-carbs variety, I began to
doubt that it would be just the five of us.

“
Do you have other kids
coming?” I asked Annie. There had to be at least four more people
on the way, to justify this much dinner.

“
No, Danny is our only
child,” she said tersely.

Ian coughed into his hand. “Everything looks
great, Annie. You’ve really outdone yourself.”

“
Well, apparently, I’ve made
too much,” she said, then turned and stormed into the
kitchen.

Ian cast an apologetic look to me. “I’ll be
right back.”

I watched him go after Annie, just passing
Danny, who emerged with a handful of serving spoons. He took one
look at me and said, “Ah, just ignore her. She’s set against liking
anyone, after Gena.”

“
She really liked her, huh?”
I asked, my throat sticking closed.

“
Nah.” Danny shook his
head.

Great.

Bill came out and took the seat at the head
of the table. He smiled at me and said, “I’m glad you could make
it. Otherwise, we’d be eating these leftovers forever.”

“
I don’t think Penny is
going to be able to take care of all of this herself.” Danny winked
at me as he took a seat at the other end. He motioned to the two
chairs on the side of the dining room with the window. “You and
Uncle Ian can sit there.”

I gave him a grateful look and sat. With
every excruciating second, it became more and more clear what Annie
and Ian were doing in the other room.

Danny leaned over. “If there’s no shouting,
that’s a good sign.”

“
So, Penny. You work at a
magazine?” Bill asked.

“
I do,” I said, eager to
change the subject from Annie’s dislike of me. “It’s called
Mode
. It’s a fashion
magazine.”

“
So, you’re interested in
clothes, that kind of thing?”

“
Um…not really?” My sentence
went up at the end, a question or an apology, I wasn’t sure. “I’m
an assistant. It’s just kind of a job.”

Something in the kitchen slammed.

“
Excuse me,” Bill said with
forced cheerfulness as he stood and quickly exited.

I looked at Danny, and he puffed his cheeks
out as he exhaled.

“
So,” he began. “I know
you’re not Catholic. Did you grow up in a church?”

I shook my head. “Not really. I don’t have
anything against your religion or Jesus or anything.”

“
I’m not here to judge you,”
he said with a laugh. “I’m just asking because according to my
uncle, you two are pretty serious.”

“
Oh. Um.” My face burned.
Was I supposed to be talking about this with a priest?

Danny rolled his eyes, reached into his
shirt, and pulled out his collar, slapping it on the table.
“Better?”

I blinked at him.

“
Uncle Ian told me you’ve
been talking about marriage and family. And I have to know… Did he
ask you about the Church?”

“
Like…” I leaned in and
lowered my voice. “Like convert?”

“
If that’s something you’d
want, down the line. My main concern is that he’s honest with you
about how your children are raised—”

“
Danny! Get away from my
girlfriend!” Ian barked.

Danny sat up and grabbed his collar, sliding
it back in the neck of his shirt.

Annie came back in and gave me a tight
smile.

Bill followed behind and pulled his chair out
as Annie sat across the corner from him. “Danny, you wanna bless
this?” he asked.

“
Sure, Dad.” Danny pressed
his fingertips to his forehead. “In the name of the father, and the
son, and the holy spirit—”

I
felt
Annie’s eyes on me as they all
crossed themselves and I sat there like an idiot, not knowing what
to do. Danny said a prayer about how lucky we were to have things
to be thankful for. Or something like that. I wasn’t listening so
much as hoping there wouldn’t be some response required, a response
I wouldn't be able to supply.

“
Thank you, Danny,” Ian
said, after they’d all crossed themselves again. He shook out his
linen napkin and laid it over his lap.

“
All right. Now that that’s
out of the way,” Bill said, standing and lifting a battery-operated
carving knife, “let’s eat.”

While Bill grappled with the turkey, Ian,
Annie, and Danny passed dishes in a complex and dangerous ballet. A
hot bowl handed off on one side of me, while the plate of wobbly
cranberry sauce went by on the other. The only reason any food made
it onto my plate was because Ian asked, “Potatoes?” or “Bread?” as
things came our way, and I scrambled to grab spoonfuls.

Somehow, we all ended up with turkey and the
trimmings, and wine in our glasses.

“
So, Penny,” Annie began,
cutting into her turkey. “How long have you and Ian been
together?”

“
Since the end of August,” I
answered, counting backward in my mind. “So, three months,
now?”

“
Three whole months.”
Annie’s voice slid up at the end of her sentence, hinting at a
sarcastic, “Isn’t that nice?” that didn’t follow. “My brother tells
me the two of you are quite serious. Talking about marriage
already.”