Page 120 of The Hometown Legend

She stood beside him, and as he washed the dishes, she took them and rinsed them. Dried them. And when they were through they both put them away. They didn’t speak, but they didn’t have to.

He liked that about Rory. She could still be a chatterbox, just like she had been in middle school. But she could also sit in the silence with him.

He put a cereal bowl up on one of the top shelves, just as Rory put a saucer in a neighboring cabinet and turned.

They were so close right then and he wanted to touch her.

But instead, they just stood and stared at each other. Until he heard the sound of a throat clearing behind him.

They both jumped.

Lydia was standing there, looking between them.

“Just doing some dishes?” she asked, a little too sweetly.

“Yes,” he said.

“Yes,” said Rory right at the same time.

“Great.”

She disappeared again, and Rory did something completely unexpected. She covered her mouth and began to laugh.

“You think that’s funny?” he asked.

“I do think it’s funny.”

“So much for being discreet.”

“She’s never going to think anything is happening. You’re you.”

“Yes, and you are you,” he said, reaching out and taking a strand of her hair between his thumb and forefinger. “And I fail to see why anyone would think I wouldn’t want you.”

“Okay, your mother and sister are in the next room.”

He forgot why that was a bad thing.

Oh, right. She was leaving.

“Right.”

She was leaving. And he was him.

Which meant something different to her than it did to him, but he just couldn’t...

He was still sorting himself out.

Trying to untangle all the bad decisions he’d made, trying to figure out where he’d gone wrong. How long ago?

“Finished,” he said as he grabbed the last dish and put it in the cabinet.

“We should probably go play a game of cards.”

“A little game of cards, not a euphemism.”

“Not a euphemism.”

They went back into the dining room, and his mother did have a deck of cards out and was getting ready to play Old Maid.

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