“I don’t think I’ll ever be able to eat a store-bought crouton again,” Mae says, digging into her salad. “These are incredible.”
“We grew up on store-bought croutons,” Jordan points out.
“Me too,” says Kara. Jordan ignores this attempt at solidarity.
“Sure, but homemade is always better,” says Natalie primly.
“If you have time to make them. Mom didn’t.”
“Easy, girls,” says Calvin warningly.
This odd little altercation is not about the croutons, obviously, but Mae can’t figure out what it is about. The string between her sisters is growing thicker.
Calvin drops his napkin and bends over to get it. It’s just out of reach, and the display of his bald spot as he tries for it makes Mae sad. She wonders if her sisters notice it too. Throughout his fifties and into his sixties Calvin had had famously thick hair. The Lion of Lenox, Theresa used to call him. Scarlett cries, “I’ll get it!” and jumps out of her seat.
Jordan says, “Dad can get his own napkin.” Her voice is sharp.
Scarlett freezes.
Natalie shoots Jordan a look and says, “No, go ahead, Scarlett, thank you, that’s very kind.”
Scarlett reaches down slowly, like the napkin might bite her.
“Natalie,” Jordan hisses.
“What?”
“Yourdaughteriswaiting on the man.Do you not see a problem with this?”
“My daughter,” says Natalie, “has manners, and she’s being helpful to her grandfather.”
Jordan shakes her head. “This is why you’re where you are right now.”
“Where is Natalie right now?” Mae wonders.
“Nowhere,” snaps Natalie. “I’m right here.”
“Can we get a puppy?” ask Evangeline. Kudos to Evangeline, thinks Mae, if she’s trying to change the subject. If it’s just your garden-variety non sequitur, well, then, props to that too, because it pulls Natalie’s attention away from Jordan.
Caspian says, “Uppy!”
Natalie puts her hand to the side of her neck, where she once toldMae all of her tension resides. “You have a puppy,” she says. “You have Cinnamon.”
“You said when we get to two million followers we can get a puppy,” says Evangeline. (Mae clocks the first use ofwe.)
“We haven’t gotten to two million,” says Natalie.
“Cinnamon isold,” accuses Scarlett.
Cinnamon, hearing her name a second time, raises her head and looks offended.
“She’s not old,” says Natalie. “She’s younger than you are.”
“She’s not a puppy,” says Evangeline.
“She has a puppylike attitude,” says Natalie. “That will have to be good enough for now. Is everybody done? Good. Girls, let’s clear the table.” She stands and begins whisking the salad bowls away, making a tower of them. “When everything is in the kitchen, you can go play on the iPad.”
Scarlett and Evangeline exchange a look at this unexpected bounty. “For how long?” asks Evangeline.
