“Ugh. I’m starving. Thanks.” She grabs a little plate from next to the charcuterie board and fills it with a mixture of the contents. Then she returns to leaning on the island. Her gaze remains on Keno primarily. I’m sure she’s trying to figure out what this is about. Why we asked both of our families here.
I admit, it’s a little strange.
The buzzer fills the room, making us all jump as Keno and I spin toward the stove and try to figure out how to turn it off. I eventually hit the right button and silence follows.
“Sorry,” I say. “New stove.”
“You’re cooking?” my mom asks as I open the oven.
Oh yeah. Those look good. “I can cook just fine, Ma. I just choose not to. There are about a hundred-thousand things I’d rather do than cook most days.”
“Why’re you cooking tonight?” Edna asks.
As if that fucker doesn’t know. “For fun,” I deadpan as I set the second roast on the stove. I look between them as Keno shuts the oven door. “Did I make enough food?”
Keno laughs. “Those are two five-pound roasts, Etna.”
“Yeah, but we can eat one between the two of us.”
“Then we’ll have to share,” he says, grinning. He gently pushes me out of the way to adjust the temperature of the oven before putting in the tray of brownies. Then he turns. “Okay, let’s eat.”
I help my parents into the last guest room and Edna upstairs to the loft while Keno finishes setting up for dinner. When we getback—my family also brought extra luggage with presents that we leave in the living room for now—Keno has the roasts sliced, the veggies in a big bowl, and the juice drippings in a gravy boat.
We gather around the table, and I gotta say, I don’t hate this at all. I love seeing our families chat. We three offspring mostly sit and listen. Keno and I exchange smiles every now and then. I’m sure he’s just as relieved as I am that they get along without issue.
After dinner, Mom and Edna unpack the extra suitcases of presents to set around the tree and I have to say, there’s a lot. I’m actually impressed. I can only imagine what it’s going to look like when we have kids.
The thought makes me look at Keno. We haven’t talked about that far in the future yet. We should, but we haven’t. I’m confident we’ll have kids because we’ve always talked about how our kids would grow up besties.
But for now….
Keno meets my eyes. I can see the question there.Is it time?I nod.
“Okay,” I say as we’re gathered around with the crumbs of our brownies. “We have something to tell you.”
“I want to guess,” Edna cuts in. I raise a brow and gesture for her to go ahead. “You both knocked up the same girl.”
Keno’s parents look at her with wide eyes. My mother slaps her arm. “Edna!” she hisses.
“Oh, come on. How can you not have thought that? I keep waiting for some girl to walk out of the walls or something.”
“No,” I say firmly. “There’s no girl. Anywhere. Ever.”
“Right,” Edna deadpans, giving me a dubious look of disbelief.
“Okay,” Keno says, drawing out the word. “Uh…” He looks at me and I nod. I’ll do it. I can see the nerves and feel the way his hand is shaking, pressed between our legs.
“I know this is kind of strange that we asked you guys to come here without telling you why. We planned to do this when we each went home, but it felt… not quite like the right way to start off. This felt better.” I look at my parents and then Edna. I’m still looking at her when I say, “We’re getting married.”
Absolute silence fills the room at my words. Five sets of eyes stare at us.
“To whom?” Keno’s mother asks.
“To each other,” Keno answers.
“Oh,” both moms say together.
CHAPTER 12
