“Uh. I don’t really live here.”
“Back home?” Reymond asks. When I don’t answer immediately, he shakes his head. “No bother. Come inside! Come!”
Luana puts a hand on my shoulder as she guides me toward the house. “We’ll have to get you a library card,” she says. “Here and back home. Yes?”
“Okay,” I say as I’m led away, not about to argue at the moment.
Inside, the house is filled with books and framed photographs and weird little decorative objects. Stuff that people have in a house when they don’t have to move every couple years.
“Coffee? Tea? Water?” Reymond asks as I’m led into the kitchen.
I turn to Nicholas for help, and he follows after, a look halfway between exasperation and amusement on his face. “Is this really all necessary?” he asks.
Luana pulls a can from the fridge. “It’s that soda water you like,” she says, ignoring his question, and grabs a couple more cans. “We’ll all have a glass.”
Somehow, I end up at the kitchen table while Reymond turns to get glasses from a cupboard. “Busy day,” he says. “Sorry to rush you. But we have heard a lot about you around town.”
“Reymond!” Luana says.
He turns to her with a frown. “I didn’t say anything explicit. What? Everyone else in town knows, but I’m supposed to act like I don’t know?”
“Dad!” Nicholas says, and I nearly groan.
His parents know. Just great.
Luana puts down four cans of soda on the table, which Reymond immediately starts opening, fumbling with them.
“You look just like your grandfather,” Luana says, turning to me as she changes the subject again. “The spitting image.”
Nicholas plops in the seat next to me. “Notexactlylike him,” he objects.
Reymond leans forward. “What do you think of Buffalo?”
I swallow, my head spinning. “Great city,” I tell him. “Honestly. It’s got everything. Good neighborhoods. Close to nature.”
And of course I’m fucking your son. Which you apparently know.
Inside, I start to die. This is what Nicholas was trying to warn me about.
Reymond stands abruptly. “That’s right! We almost forgot. Time to load the extra card tables into the car.”
Luana sips her soda water. “Should just take two sets of hands.”
“I’m happy to help,” I say, glad for a task and a break from the rapid-fire questions.
Luana shakes her head. “Nicholas and I will be able to handle it just fine.”
“Mom, you can’t seriously?—”
“It will just take a minute,” Reymond interrupts. “And you already know which way they fit.”
Nicholas glances between his parents before sighing and turning back to me. “Will you survive if I leave you alone for five minutes?”
“Do I have a choice?” I ask, and both parents laugh warmly.
“No, dear,” Luana says as she pats Nicholas on the shoulder. “Not at all.”
When Nicholas disappears with his mother, Reymond remains with me, sitting across the table with a pleasant smile.
