Just One of Those Things by Mindy Klasky

Author:Mindy Klasky [Klasky, Mindy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: small town romance, sports romance, sexy romance, sweet romance, baseball, knitting, wealthy
Publisher: Book View Cafe

CHAPTER 13

Matt hauled the vat of cranberry sauce out of the refrigerator, just making it to the counter before the bright red syrup splashed over the side. “Sheesh, Mom! You’ve got enough to feed an army!”

Army.

He said it without thinking. That was the only way he ever brought up Jon in conversations, without a conscious thought. Someone would talk about crazy things they’d done as a kid, and Matt would say, “That’s nothing! My brother once hooked a lawn-mower motor to his skateboard.” Or another person would talk about eating some huge amount of food, and Matt would say, “My brother once ordered twenty Taco Bell tacos and ate them all himself.” Or one of the guys would say, “Man, we used to get shit-faced,” and Matt would say, “Jon and a buddy once decided it was Hundred Beer Day. Took them from dawn to midnight, but they did it.”

Usually, no one noticed. Matt felt the pressure, felt the need to explain away his stories, to excuse himself for talking about his brother. But a lot of people didn’t even know Jon was dead. And those who did just thought Matt was keeping Jon’s memory alive.

Of course Mom noticed. She froze with the potato masher in one hand and a carton of heavy cream in the other. She looked around the kitchen as if she’d never seen the room before, as if mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes and dressing and green bean casserole and creamed onions and green salad and fruit salad and cornbread and yeast rolls and cranberry sauce and turkey—he couldn’t forget the turkey, still roasting in the oven—were something delivered to their kitchen by aliens.

“Sorry, Mom,” Matt said.

And that snapped her out of it. “Don’t be sorry, dear.” She shook her head and set the cream on the counter. “It’s just an expression, feeding an army. It’s not like Jon ever got leave for the holidays.”

Matt nodded, determined to get them past this rough spot. “The three off us are going to feast like kings!”

His mother’s face clouded. “Two,” she said.

“What?”

“I didn’t tell you, because I didn’t want you to get angry.”

“Angry about what, Mom?” But he already knew. He’d probably known since he’d pulled up in front of the house, since he’d seen his father’s car wasn’t in the driveway.

“Your father volunteered to take another emergency shift at the factory. He said he should do it, so the people with kids could be together as a family.”

It shouldn’t hurt. He was thirty-five fucking years old. He already retired from a career more lucrative, more satisfying than ninety-nine percent of the people on earth would ever have. But he barely kept from speaking his first thought out loud: Dad has a kid too.

But he wouldn’t say that. Because it wasn’t Mom’s fault his father hated his guts. And he didn’t want to hear her defend the guy. Not tonight.

The silence was getting uncomfortable, though, so he said, “Well, at least I know we won’t run out of my favorites.

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.