Page 81 of Little Lies

“Perfect! I’ve already got the table set. Come down soon, alright?”

“Thanks, Mom. We’ll be there in a minute.” When she was gone, Nathan shut his book and twisted to Tully. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?” She could act cool.

“I dunno, I mean, meeting my whole family. Isn’t it scary?”

“It’s not like we’re really dating. I have no real reason to be nervous.” She didnotwant to make it obvious that this felt like sitting at the top of a roller coaster and she had no idea what to expect when it dropped. She knew very little about Mr. Rondeau, but the idea of him scared her. This meeting was not the thing that would be the deciding factor of Nathan’s college education, but it felt like it. She had to make an impression for Nathan’s sake, so they trusted him. She’d already accomplished half of the equation. Now all that was left was his dad.

Nathan stared at her, and a short, but tantalizing silence settled between them while he seemed to be thinking of what to say. Finally, he stood up and at the very least looked satisfied with that answer. He held out his hand. “Yes or no?”

Tully looked at it.

Sitting on the edge of this drop, Nathan’s hand looked like the closest thing to a safety bar she had to hold to.

“Yes.”

Tully placed her hand in his and they walked out of his room down to the dining table together.

Mr. Rondeau was sitting at the head of the table, the seat that was left empty last week, and Sandy waved the kids over.

Nathan paused on his way to the table right next to his dad, who rose from his chair and watched Tully with a brow raised. Her grip tightened on Nathan subconsciously. “Dad,” Nathan pulled her a little closer to his side. “This is Tully, my girlfriend.”

His gaze held a certain scrutiny in it, but nothing unbearable. The funny part was he looked exactly like Nathan, or rather, Nathan looked exactly like him. Like looking at a version of her fake boyfriend from twenty-five years in the future. It nearly caught her off guard, but not completely.

Tully slid her hand out of Nathan’s and extended it toward his father. “It’s nice to finally meet you, Mr. Rondeau.”

He didn’t hesitate to accept and shook her hand in return, but he didn’t say so much, just a small harrumph. A man of few words. He did motion to the seats on his left and both she and Nathan took them.

While Nathan got his looks from his father, his outgoing personality couldn’t have come from anywhere but his mother.

The meal and the conversation started slowly. As always, Sandy’s food was delicious, but it was a little harder to swallow when the table was awkwardly silent through the chewing.

“Tully, I never asked, do you have any siblings?” Sandy asked.

Tully swallowed before responding, “Yes, two.”

“Three kids! My, what saints your parents must be.” Far from it, but Tully smiled anyway. “Where are you in the lineup?”

“Middle. I have an older brother and a younger sister.”

“What are your plans after school?” It was a U-turn in conversation and its driver was Mr. Rondeau. The first thing he’d said other than hums of acknowledgment. “I heard you’re valedictorian, so you must be working towards college?”

Tully set down her fork and finished chewing before she answered. Beside her Nathan chewed slowly. “Yes, I’m collecting applications from different colleges now. I hope to have them all in by the end of the year.”

“Tully is going to New York University.” Nathan took the opportunity to chime in.

“NYU? Is that your first choice?” Mr. Rondeau asked, now his eyebrows were drawn up in curiosity. This was some sort of test; as Nathan’s ‘girlfriend’ her choices reflected on him.

She nodded, hoping this was the answer he wanted. Nathan seemed to think so or he wouldn’t have brought it up. “Yes, sir.”

A moment of loaded quiet disturbed the table while they all waited for him to respond. Even Sandy watched carefully from the corner of her eye. Then he nodded and took another bite of his food. “Not a bad school.”

After that, they all relaxed. Mr. Rondeau didn’t say a ton but every now and then he offered his own input and asked a few questions about Tully’s classes, her financial aid, her field of study. Every time she answered, he gave an approving nod and returned to eating. Nathan grinned at her and shot her a concealed under-the-table thumbs up in encouragement. She wanted to roll her eyes at him and try not to smile, but for the sake of appearances, she just stuck to smiling.

They excused themselves from the table once all the plates were empty to finish up studying upstairs.

Sandy wished them well and Mr. Rondeau offered Tully good luck on her upcoming statistics exam.

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