Dear Ripley by Jacqueline Ramsden

Author:Jacqueline Ramsden [Ramsden, Jacqueline]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-06-20T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 19

Alicia

I watched Joel across the dining room table. Despite the chaos of being back, and everything that was—or was not—happening with Ripley, being around my family and the home I grew up in, just felt right. There was something easy about shutting out the rest of the world when it was just us, in the house. There was something especially familiar about it just being me and Joel for dinner, eating frozen pizza and spaghetti from a can because it made him happy. Still.

When our parents went out on date nights, it had been fairly standard for me to watch Joel, and we’d always eat frozen pizza or shaped spaghetti. Now, he didn’t need looking after, and he could eat more these days, but his tastes hadn’t changed.

Or, maybe they had, and he was simply feeling nostalgic too.

I couldn't fault him for it. My whole life right now was some weird nostalgia trip. And it was nice to relive those things together. I hadn’t been around him enough over the last eight years. We’d stayed in very regular contact, but you didn’t realize how much you missed something as simple as frozen pizza with your brother until you were doing it again and wished you had his teenage years back to do it over and over again.

Plus, oddly—and in a way I was never going to admit to anyone I needed to respect me—canned spaghetti shapes and pizza were a delightful combination.

The doorbell rang, interrupting Joel telling me about a concert he was hoping to get tickets to, and he sat up, looking around, almost like a startled and excited little puppy. I was glad I hadn’t missed all of his youthful hope and optimism.

He grinned at me. “I’ll get the door. You get the ice cream and the popcorn.”

I laughed as he bolted down the hallway. That was our other tradition—a movie, ice cream, and popcorn. When he’d been little, his eyes were often bigger than his belly, and he’d make it through a handful of popcorn and the kid-sized serving of ice cream he’d complained about before he was rolling around on the floor, talking about being so full his belly was going to explode. I imagined he could stomach a little more food this time.

“Hey! What are you doing here?” I heard him ask the person at the door, his voice full of nervous excitement.

For half a second, I wondered who it was. Even if the person had taken a fraction longer to reply, I was sure Joel’s tone would have let me figure it out.

“Delivery for the lady of the house,” a deep voice replied smoothly.

Ekundayo, of course.

“You’ve got something for my mom?” Joel asked, and even I could hear the sheer confusion in his voice.

Ekundayo laughed—it was a soft, lyrical sound that was so infectious I could understand why Joel was so mesmerized by him. “Nah. The other lady of the house.”

Joel took a moment too long to reply, and I imagined he was simply staring at Ekundayo’s happy face.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.