We Interrupt This Date (16 page)

“Boy, you got that right.” Christian snorted. “Mom
might be too polite to say exactly what’s on her mind the way
Grandma does, but you can bet she’s just as stubborn if she sets
her mind to something.”

“Stubborn?” I squawked.

“Yes, stubborn,” DeLorean put in. “Remember that time
Mama said you had to go to the prom because it was a family
tradition and you said, ‘if people let tradition run their lives,
then we’d still be living in caves.’”

“Shame on you, Mom.” Christian shook his head.

“Christian, if I’d let Mama talk me into following
tradition, you’d have been named Zebediah Ezekiel after your great
grandfather. People who can’t think up original things to do
deserve to be shackled by tradition.”

“Hey, I like that.” Trinity dropped a handful of
cucumber slices on top of the salad. “I’m quoting you next time my
mother tries to get me to wear flowered dresses that hang past my
knees. Deep down, you’re a true rebel, Susan. Someday you’re going
to surprise a lot of people.”

“I doubt that.” I glanced at DeLorean. What she
hadn’t said about my prom experience, was that I’d finally given in
to please Mama, who’d spent far too much on a lemon-colored gown
that made me look like I was just recovering from a bout of
jaundice. I was between boyfriends at the time and the date I’d let
her arrange for me was an older boy with sweaty hands and too many
hormones. I’d escaped and gotten a ride home from a couple of the
chaperones.

“Sometimes,” DeLorean said, “people think Susan is
soft and non-confrontational.”

“And I’m sweet, too, nothing but sugar and spice.” I
hacked a tomato in half and snatched up a perfectly innocent
carrot.

She snorted. “Remember when I was in high school and
that new boy kept stalking me? You drove up to give me a ride home
from the movies just in time to see him grab my arm.”

“What’d you do, Mom? Threaten to call the cops?”
Christian shot me a grin.

“Well, I—“

“He would have been lucky to tangle with the cops,”
DeLorean broke in. “My big sister charged out of her car waving a
hoe around in the air like she was going to brain this kid if he
didn’t let go of me.”

“A hoe?” Trinity’s eyebrows rose over her purple
eyes.

“It’s not like I carted a hoe around in case I needed
a weapon. I’d been to the store for gardening tools and they were
still in the back of the station wagon,” I said with a shrug.
“Anyway, what’s wrong with defending your family?”

The doorbell rang before anyone could
respond. If I were Trinity, I’d have said, “Primo.” I was starting
to get the feeling everyone was ganging up on me.

Expecting a salesperson, I strode across the
room and yanked the door open.

“I don’t want…” I shut my mouth in mid
sentence and stared at Jack. He was wearing a navy blue shirt and
neatly pressed jeans.

He stared back. My bare feet, my pink tee
shirt--fresh tomato stain decorating the front--and my gray sweat
pants obviously didn’t impress.

“Uh, come in.” I stepped back and he joined
me in the foyer. Unfortunately my house has one of those open floor
plans where the kitchen, dining area, and family room “flow,” as
they say on the home decorating shows.

The crowd in the kitchen could see us and we
could see them. I should have insisted on more walls when we bought
the house. Was it too late to ask Jack to wait outside for a minute
while I nailed up a couple panels of sheet rock?

“Ready?” Jack asked, eyeing me
doubtfully.

“Ready for what?”

“I said I’d take you to dinner before we went
to look at my house. And for you to call if it wasn’t okay. Didn’t
you get my message?”

“No one gave me a message.” I was going to
kill someone.

“The person who answered said you were out
for a few minutes, but she’d pass the word along.”

I spun to face DeLorean and she shook her
head. “Don’t look at me. The phone rang while I was changing Cole,
and Mama answered.” Her expression said that if she’d talked to
Jack, there was no way she’d have forgotten to let me know because
a man calling for me was too important to forget.

“I’m so sorry for the mix up.” I’d have been
better off if they’d left my phone alone and let my machine pick up
so I could get my own messages. “Mama must have forgotten. We—we’ve
had a lot going on.” Arguments, name-calling, criticism. Your basic
family gathering.

“And here you were, thinking I forgot all
about you.” He pretend punched my shoulder. “Aren’t I your favorite
friend? You must have been devastated.”

“Don’t flatter yourself. I never gave you a
thought.” Liar. “After all, you were only going to show me your new
bathroom. What woman would get excited over an invitation like
that?”

“I said we’d eat dinner, too, remember? How
about if we make it another time?” He reached for the doorknob.

“We’re fixing dinner. Why don’t you join
us?”

“I can see you have company. I couldn’t put
you out.”

“Don’t be silly. Susan has made enough for an
army.” DeLorean had joined us in the foyer, standing so close I
could count the pores on her face, so I had to move a step nearer
to Jack. “She insists that you stay.” She nudged me with her
elbow.

I couldn’t get closer without invading Jack’s
personal space, so I took my cue and said, “Yes, I insist. We’re
having ham, salad, green beans, and mashed potatoes. Ice cream for
dessert.”

Instantly I regretted babbling like parrot on
speed. Did I need to stupidly recite the menu as if I were his
waitress for the evening? DeLorean nudged me again, this time hard
enough to cause me to bite back an “ouch.”

“It sounds delicious.” Jack grinned at me.
“I’m convinced.”

“Super.” DeLorean stepped forward and held
out her hand. “I’m Susan’s sister, DeLorean.”

“Don’t you remember me, Dee? Jack Maxwell.”
He ignored her outstretched hand and pulled her into a hug.

Her face lit with recognition. “Of course.
Sorry, Jack, I didn’t recognize you at first. But I was just a
little kid when I saw you last. You’re the big ox who used to tease
me about my long legs and my braces and my wild red hair.”

“Big ox? You mean handsome stud. Didn’t your
sister teach you anything?”

“Not about men. I learned that on my
own.”

“Well, it looks like I can’t tease you about
the braces anymore. You still have the red hair, though.”

“Auburn. But it’s not wild anymore.”

“That it isn’t.” Jack sent her an admiring
glance.

I felt like the net on a tennis court. I
cleared my throat. “Now that we’ve decided Jack’s staying for
supper and DeLorean’s hair has matured, can we join the others in
the kitchen?” I made scooting motions with my hands.

“I’ll introduce Jack while you go upstairs
and change, Susan.” DeLorean’s voice had morphed, taking on the
tones of a woman who spent a lot of time in smoky lounges. But then
it always did when she was around men.

I wasn’t sure I liked that. But Jack was a
family friend, so why shouldn’t he talk to my sister? Still, I
determined to tell her as soon as possible that Jack already had a
girlfriend.

It took me ten minutes to shower and two
minutes to decide on a peach colored blouse and a pair of jeans. I
brushed my hair and pinned it up. A dab of makeup later, I scurried
back to the kitchen before they scared Jack away.

I stopped short in the doorway. Jack was
holding Cole and spooning applesauce into his mouth. DeLorean was
sitting practically on top of Jack and wielding a cloth, using it
to mop drool off Cole’s chin after every bite. Even so, I could see
that a glob had landed on Jack’s shirt.

I experienced a twinge of annoyance. “We’ll
have to shop for a high chair tomorrow,” I said. “When you reach a
point where it takes two people to feed one baby, that’s way too
labor intensive. And, Jack, there’s baby drool on your sleeve.”

“I don’t mind. He likes me. Don’t you,
Cole?”

“He sure does,” DeLorean said. “He hasn’t
fussed one bit since you picked him up. You’re so good with him,
Jack. I’m raising him on my own, you know.”

Cole slung his head sideways and tried to
wipe his mouth on Jack’s shirt. DeLorean came to the rescue,
leaning in so close she could have kissed Jack while she cleaned
Cole’s face with her cloth. Mission accomplished, she took the baby
and carried him to a corner of the dining room where she put him on
a blanket on the floor.

I glanced at the table. Christian had set it.
I could tell by the haphazard way he’d laid out the silverware.
Normally I’d have ignored the chaos, but now something prompted me
to rearrange everything. Forks clattered against spoons as I fixed
everything exactly the way Mama would have, except for cut flowers,
which I didn’t have.

“Dinner’s ready,” Trinity announced while I
was slipping place mats under the settings.

I took my usual chair at one end of the
table, and Christian sat at the opposite end with Trinity on his
right. DeLorean ended up on my right, between Jack and me.

“There,” she said. “I’m close enough to Cole
to watch him, but for once I don’t have to hold him in my lap while
I eat. I’ve forgotten what it’s like to have this much
freedom.”

“Must be tough raising him without help,”
Jack said.

“At least now, thank God, I have Susan.” She
flashed me her patented “Love you, mean it,” smile and turned ever
so slightly in her seat so she could keep looking at Jack.

He glanced my way. “Any family would be
fortunate to have Nic jumping in to help them with all their
problems.”

His words should have made me feel flattered.
But something in his tone made me feel he was criticizing. I ducked
my head and focused my attention on my salad. Two green olives on
top stared at me, accusing eyes looking up from a bed of lettuce
and grated carrot. I grabbed a bottle of dressing and buried them
under a mound of cucumber ranch. I plunked the bottle back on the
table so hard my silverware rattled.

What was wrong with me? My mood had morphed
from reasonably content to rotten almost from the moment Jack
walked into the house. You’d think I’d be pleased he was here.

Jack asked Christian and Trinity about
college. They’d barely finished talking when DeLorean broke in to
update him about her years getting her degree.

“I couldn’t have known that nothing I
experienced my freshman year could have prepared me for dealing
with Baldwin.”

Neat trick the way she could snare Jack’s
attention and bring up her ex at the same time. I would have bet if
I said I’d seen a rhinoceros galloping west on I-26, she’d have
butted in to say she’d seen two of them and that her ex had tried
to push her out in front of them.

I went quiet and stayed that way all through
the meal, only half listening to DeLorean regale us with the story
of her disastrous sojourn in LA. By the time I finished the last
bit of my potatoes I thought I’d scream if I heard her say “flaming
narcissist” one more time.

Jack eventually put his napkin next to his
plate and said, “Nic? Great meal. First home cooking I’ve had in
quite a while.”

Kelly the Girlfriend must not know how to
cook. I allowed myself a brief moment of mental back patting.
“Thanks. But Trinity was responsible for most of it. Ice cream,
anyone?”

Everyone declined except Christian. Jack
helped Trinity and me carry empty plates to the kitchen. He leaned
forward to open the dishwasher and then put his hand on the small
of his back. “I keep forgetting about my back until it sends me a
little reminder.”

“What happened?” DeLorean materialized from
across the room to insert herself between Jack and me.

“Got hurt at work. My doctor says it will
heal up with time.”

“Baldwin had back problems and I used to give
him backrubs to loosen the muscles.”

“I’m okay.” Jack gingerly straightened his
back. “Ice packs or aspirin usually help.”

“Don’t argue with me, Jack.” DeLorean pointed
toward the family room. “Lie on the floor in front of the couch. I
guarantee that one of my backrubs will do more for you than a whole
truckload of aspirin. Susan, do you have any lotion?”

“In the cabinet over the sink in the powder
room,” I replied in brittle tones. Let her use the lotion. Let her
use anything she wanted. Who was I to stand in my sister’s way when
she wanted to make a fool of herself falling all over Jack?

I picked up a glass and watched it slip out
of my hand and shatter at my feet. Then I stared at the pieces as
if I expected them to gather themselves and leap into the
trash.

Christian appeared at my side with the broom
and dustpan. “I’ll get that, Mom. Why don’t you rest and let me and
Trinity take care of the kitchen.”

“Don’t be silly. You act like I’m ninety
years old and can’t manage a few dishes. I refuse to sit around
while you two do all the work.” And watch DeLorean and Jack carry
on like a couple of junior high kids alone for the first time.

I swiveled my head from side to side until a
plastic bowl showed up in my sights. At least it wouldn’t break if
I dropped it. I grabbed the bowl and shoved it into the sink.

When the kitchen was finally spotless,
Trinity and Christian disappeared up the stairs. I didn’t look to
see if they shut the door to his room. I checked on Cole. Still
sleeping. He’d probably be up half the night after such a long nap.
I walked into the living room, gratified to see that the backrub
was no longer in progress. Jack was sitting on the couch across
from my sister. He stood as soon as I walked in.

“I hate to leave so soon, Nic, but I have to
call Kelly tonight.”

“I understand.” Probably Kelly the Girlfriend
wanted to set the date for their wedding. I walked him to the
door.

He hesitated, standing on the porch steps and
staring down the street at a neighbor walking her poodle. After a
few seconds, he said, “How about tomorrow evening? Does that work
for you?”