“Maybe she’s trying to reach out,” Tean said.“Maybe this was the only thing she could think of.”
“Because an intimate family dinner is going to fix everything.Hey Mom, don’t worry about being a fucking meth head.No sweat that you used my name to steal every fucking penny you could, so there are ten-year-olds with better credit scores than me.This intimate family dinner makes up for all of that.I’m so glad we’re a family again.”
Tean’s unhappiness was a spiny silence.
Across the yard, Scipio was starting to dig in earnest.
“Scipio, leave it,” Jem said.“Let’s eat.”
Dinner was tater-tot nachos.And Tean, to his credit, had followed Jem’s instructions with only minor tweaks: the tater tots were crispy from the air fryer, and the ground beef was seasoned just right.Tean had swapped white onions for pickled onions, but honestly, the change was a good one.The first good thing of the day was that there were no vegetables—at least, not the gross ones—in sight.
Jem sat at the breakfast bar; Tean stood on the other side, moving food around with his fork because he still seemed to think that somehow this would trick Jem into thinking he was eating.
“You have every right to be angry,” Tean said quietly.
Jem shook his head.“It’s fine.It’s whatever.I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Can we talk about it a little?”
Jem almost said, Like we talked about your parents getting divorced?
But he didn’t.
Instead, he groaned.He melted.He died and almost face-planted in the tater-tot nachos.
Laughing, Tean scratched the back of Jem’s neck.But his voice was serious when he said, “All I want to say is that you don’t owe her any sort of reconciliation or relationship.If you don’t want to go to a family dinner, you don’t have to go.”
“I kind ofdoowe her, actually,” Jem said, sitting up and attacking the tater tots again.Around a mouthful of crispy potato, he said, “I cashed all those checks she sent me, didn’t I?”
“She sent you those checks because she wanted to,” Tean said.“Accepting the money doesn’t impose any obligation.”
“Well, it sure fucking feels like it does,” Jem said.And then, for a change of topic, he pointed at Tean’s bowl.“Can you please eat, like, one bite?”
Tean frowned.It made the glasses scoot along the bridge of his nose.His bushy eyebrows drew together.Finally, he took a bite.
Jem waited.
“It’s very good,” Tean said.
“Oh my God.You have to eat half of it, or no books before bed.”
A tiny smile creased the corner of Tean’s mouth, and he took another bite.
Jem’s phone buzzed.When he glanced at it, a message from his—from Brigitte showed on the screen.One of the words was new—Kolen—so it took him longer than usual to read it, and then he had to look it up on his phone.Apparently, it was a lodge near Deer Valley.
“So, this intimate family dinner is an hour away.Someplace outside Park City.”
Tean watched him, slowly chewing.
“Why do we have to drive all the way to Park City for a family dinner?”Jem said.“There aren’t any intimate family restaurants here?”
Scipio nudged Jem’s leg, and Jem slipped him a tater tot.
Tean’s bushy eyebrows went up.
“Just one,” Jem said absently.“That’s an hour thereandan hour back.”
“We don’t have to go.”
