Neanderthal Marries Human by Penny Reid

Author:Penny Reid
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Caped Publishing
Published: 2014-06-14T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 16

*Janie*

QUINN AND HIS father did the dishes.

As soon as dinner was over, Quinn stood, began collecting the dishes, and left the dining room with his father as if it was imprinted in his genetic code. I watched them come in and out, these two giant men, clearing the serving plates in silence while Katherine spoke to me about one of her favorite students.

I debated whether to stand, made up my mind to do so, but Quinn shook his head when I pushed my chair back and indicated through our developing means of silent communication that I should stay and chat with his mom.

When the last of the items was taken, I turned to her, leaned close, and whispered, “Does Desmond always do the dishes?”

She glanced at the doorway to the kitchen and nodded. “Yes, if I make dinner then he does the dishes. If he makes dinner then I do the dishes. It’s how we’ve always done it. It’s also nice because, since it’s tradition, we both know what’s expected of us, which leads to fewer dirty dishes and less nagging.”

“Oh.” I started to stand.

“Where are you going?”

“To help with the dishes.”

“No, no. Stay with me, you helped with dinner and, if you don’t mind, I appreciate your company.” Her smile was warm, affectionate and therefore felt maternal, which made me a little uncomfortable. But Katherine reached for my hand, squeezed it. “You know, you remind me of Shelly a little.”

“I do?” I grinned at the thought. Other than being tall, awkward, and loving Quinn, I didn’t think we had much in common.

“Yes. It’s the curiosity, I think. She was the most curious kid I’ve ever met, always taking things apart, wanting to know how they worked, putting them back together—but never in the way they were before. Always in a new way.”

“I am curious. It’s true. That’s a fact.”

“And also the goodness. She felt everything so deeply as a child and as a teenager. We once found a dog running around the neighborhood with three legs. She was only eleven, but she fashioned a prosthetic limb for the animal out of wood and old car parts Desmond had laying around. It rolled, had a wheel, so the dog could run with the others.”

I could imagine serious Shelly—because she was always serious—wanting to help as many strays as possible. She was still that way.

“But the two of you are different in important ways as well.” Katherine’s smile lost some of its luster as her eyes lost some of their focus. “She’s not…open to new things, and she never did well with change. She wasn’t ever very affectionate, didn’t respond to hugs, that sort of thing.”

“No, you’re right. I once tried to hug her and she put her hand on my face and pushed me away. Then she just kept talking like nothing had happened.”

Katherine gave me a sympathetic smile, then gave a bantam laugh. “She doesn’t like outward displays of affection. She told me when she was fourteen that she preferred sacrifice as a demonstration of love rather than hugs and kisses.

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