“Losing a chess match,” Betty Jane announced, throwing her hands in the air before moving the knight.
She really should’ve rethought that choice.
“Aunt Etta, you don’t need to mess with the laundry,” Sam said. “Betty Jane, you don’t wanna move the queen yet. Babushka? Are you only here to beat Betty Jane at chess? Or…?”
“I am here because I have learned that you did not accept Tanner’s invitation.” Babushka studied the chessboard as she spoke.
“Invitation to what?” Sam asked. Look, if they were going to be all up in her business she needed to know precisely how much they knew about her choice not to go with Dimefront.
“They are recording and touring and you vant to stay here,” Babushka said as she plucked up her own knight and sacrificed him to take out a whole slew of Betty Jane’s players.
Don’t ask. Don’t ask.“How did you find out I said no?”
Of course, it hadn’t been a secret she wasn’t attending. She’d simply never made it a point to let anyone know Tanner had asked, and she’d said no.
“Do you know what would pair really nicely with this blue blouse?” Great Aunt Etta asked, holding up a sleeveless tee Sam wore sometimes on the weekend when she wasn’t working.
“I bet you are going to tell me,” Sam said, starting toward the sofa. Then stopping. Then, you know what? There were too many people all up in the small space, so she wasn’t entirely certain where she should put herself.
“The ocean,” Betty Jane said. “This blouse pairs well with the ocean.”
Shit, it sort of did. With the blue-on-blue swirl pattern it had going on.
Sam still didn’t know where to go in her own home. But she needed to figure it out faster than this. Because as it was, she only stood in the doorway. Though it was a fast exit if she bolted.
Gah, she wouldn’t bolt. Not over this. But if she sat on the bed, that was too close to Great Aunt Etta and she would use the proximity to manipulate Sam.
On the sofa? Well, that was only a stone’s throw from Babushka and that was a no go.
Betty Jane was a safe bet, but she was a wanderer, so Sam couldn’t tell precisely where she’d end up.
Instead of making herself comfortable in her home, Sam set down her bag and leaned against the wall.
“Take your vacation time,” Babushka said. “You have built up vacation.”
“Spend the time with Tanner,” Betty Jane—the traitor—said.
“We’ll do fine without you for a few weeks.” That was Great Aunt Etta chiming in as she folded up a pair of Sam’s panties.
This was the nudge Sam needed to ensure her laundry was always folded and put away, or hidden in the depths of her closet.
“How did you even find out I said no?” she asked. Because she’d told nearly no one. Other than… oh shoot—
“The same vay I find out everything. People tell me,” Babushka announced. She reached for a pawn on the wall-chessboard, moving it and placing Betty Jane in check.
“I give up.” Betty Jane threw up her hands in surrender.
“I got you,” Sam said. She moved to the board and dammit, she did not want to move her queen, but it was the only option. So she did it. “Also, I’m not going.”
The crap part was that thinking about going gave her a stomachache. Thinking about staying made her feel lightheaded.
She could not win.
“You have not agreed to go… yet.” Great Aunt Etta rolled a pair of yoga pants into a tight swirl that would fit most excellently in the dresser drawer. Where’d she learn to do that?
Screw it, she was going in. Great Aunt Etta could share her folding secrets. Sam reached for a pair of pants and followed along as Aunt Etta did the roll and tuck thing.
“You talked to my mom, didn’t you?” Sam said, pointing the leggings at her great aunt. “That’s who told you.”
