“What’s the news?” I walk inside the foyer.
She leads me into the kitchen, and I stand across from her at the counter.
“I’m moving back home,” she says impatiently. “Weren’t you wondering why I’m here and not at your place?”
“You know, I should have wondered that.” I lay the peach pie on the counter. “But I’ve had kind of a shitty day, and you were supposed to be at class and then dinner with Lana.”
“Oh, don’t worry. My home school class was canceled, and that’s when my epiphany happened. Mama and Daddy are on the verge of something. And while I don’t really want to bear witness to it, somebody has to. And I’m the baby, so it’s my duty still to be the watcher.”
“The watcher?”
“Of their demise. Or their triumphant resuscitation. We’ll see, but either way I’ve moved home.”
“You need to focus on yourself,” I say. “Let me handle our parents. I’ve gotten pretty good at it after a quarter century.”
“But I like helping out. I got nothing better to do.” She gestures to the oven. “Except bake.”
“You’ve got schoolwork. I know you’re tops in your homeschooling class and all, but you don’t want to do anything to mess up your scholarship.”
“I’m not going to mess anything up. I’ll make sure to keep my full ride to the university, so I can move on up to Austin come August. So take that, Audrey Winifred.”
I take a seat at the kitchen table. “Audrey’s still being a little brat?”
“The biggest. She teases me all the time for being…” Free lowers her voice. “Single and…not with a guy yet, if you know what I mean.”
“Oh, whatever.” I give a dismissive wave. “I didn’t lose my virginity till I was seventeen. You’re barely eighteen. It doesn’t matter how old you are; what matters is how you feel when you do it. Don’t ever do something because of peer pressure, Free. Things just don’t work out well that way.”
“But your first time was good?” she asks me curiously. “With Log…”
I cut her off before she can continue. “Yes. And I want yours to be, too.”
“But I thought you said people never usually stay with their firsts,” she presses me. “So why should it matter that much?”
I narrow my eyes at her. “Because it should. Because you deserve that. Even if it ends up as just history, it’s still your history, and you want those memories to be happy ones.”
Loud giggling floats out from my parents’ bedroom.
Free rolls her eyes. “If you’re here to see Mama, she’s pretty much tied up.”
“Jesus.” I tilt my head toward the long hallway. “Did they even stop to have dinner, or did Daddy just chase Mama down to bed?”
“From rehab to reproduction,” Free jokes. “Just be grateful you weren’t here alone with them like I was. Riley’s napping; you know she’ll sleep through an earthquake. Ben’s here now, though. He’s psyched he didn’t have to get up early this morning to help out at Wild Ranch now that Logan’s back and all.” She pauses. “I’m sorry about the whole Logan is Mr. Darcy thing. What a joke.”
“Yeah. I haven’t quite wrapped my head around it yet.”
“Well, you’re still his wife.” Free looks at my left hand. “Even if you moved the ring. You haven’t signed the papers yet, right?”
Instead of answering her, I gesture to the pie. “That’s for all of y’all. I just baked it.”
As Free returns to stirring the cupcake batter, I glance at the mark above the stove where Mama threw a pot at Daddy’s head and missed after the news of one of his drunken flirtations got back to her.
“Ah, the memories,” I joke.
Free looks at me and then at the mark. “I wasn’t alive for that one.”
“Count yourself lucky, honey,” I say. “Mama dragged me to church with her after. But that happened any day she felt she needed to do penance.”
I jump when I hear Riley in the doorway. “Geez, Riles,” I say. “You’re like a ninja.”
