Page 60 of January

“You’ve never had barbeque shrimp?”

“No. The only shrimp I think I’ve ever eaten has been with you on the tour.”

“Really?”

“It’s not the cheapest food in the world, and I guess that if itwerecheap, you probably shouldn’t buy it, huh?”

“Bad shrimp? No way. Avoid it like the plague, or you’llgetthe plague.”

“Anyway, it’s not cheap, but it’s also not fresh where I come from. I had a lot of PB&Js when I was a kid. Sometimes, without the PB or without the J, depending on what was in the fridge at the time. Other times, without the bread.”

“How did you–”

“Just ate peanut butter or jelly out of the jar. I once put a half-filled jar of jelly into Jolie’s lunchbox, and that was her lunch that day, with some stale crackers we had.”

“You had to grow up fast, didn’t you?” Melinda asked, leaning back in a comfortable patio chair.

“I guess so. It didn’t feel that way when it was happening. It felt very, very slow, like I’d never get out of it or that it would never end. I assume you led a bit of a different life.”

“We had seafood in general pretty regularly, if that’s what you mean,” she teased. “But it’s cheaper here, and it’s fresh. We weren’t rich or anything. My parents both worked. And I was the oldest, so I took on more than my siblings.”

“Aren’t you twelve minutes older than your brother?”

“Yes, but remember the whole immaturity thing? Mikegrew up, but it took him a long time to get there. As kids, he just wanted to play guitar, skip out on chores, and do the bare minimum at school. He got into college, but just barely. My mom worked late a lot, and my dad worked second shift for years, so dinner was on me and usually the dishes, too, unless my mom got home early enough to make one of my siblings do them instead. It annoyed me some days, but most of the time, I was fine with it. I guess I liked being in charge.”

“You like being in charge, huh?” Kyle teased, finishing her beer.

“Yes. But not in all ways.” Melinda winked at her, and when Kyle’s eyes opened wider, she added, “Just putting that out there.”

Kyle cleared her throat and looked out at the garden. The sun had gone down a long time ago, but the gas lanterns lit up the space and made Melinda feel as if she was surrounded by light and Kyle, and she never wanted to leave this spot. Kyle had given her the tour earlier, and the expansive house felt more like something from a catalog than a home people lived in, likely because it had been a rental property for so long and catered to that, but it had the bones of a real home. The kitchen was large enough for two people to cook in comfortably. She knew that because after Kyle continually insisted that Melinda stay out of the kitchen and let her cook, Melinda snuck up behind her and watched her work. Eventually, Kyle gave in and let her at least help set the table and get the beers.

The library was filled with books that people had left over the years. It was more like a hotel lobby library filled with airport books, the books people bought when they realized they’d need something to do on the plane, so they picked up something at the airport bookstore. A crime thriller here. A romance there. Kyle had told her over dinner that there were better books in a storage closet, some first editions, even. Melinda wanted those books on the shelves. She wanted the bedrooms upstairs to be decorated as if people really lived here instead of having two twin beds with plain comfortersin one room and two full beds in another to maximize the number of people that could stay in the house at one time. She wanted the place to feel like a home. Then again, what Melinda wanted didn’t matter. This was Kyle’s house, and Kyle was planning on fixing up a few things and then renting it out again, so those things likely wouldn’t change.

“I don’t want the night to be over,” Kyle said.

“It’s not,” Melinda replied. “It’s not late.”

“I promised you beignets after dinner.”

“Yes, but this is New Orleans, baby: we’ve got beignets twenty-four-seven here.”

Kyle laughed and said, “I forgot they’re always open for a minute. I might end up gaining a lot of weight if I end up liking them.”

“You’ve yet to try one?” Melinda asked.

“Not yet, no. Jolie did, obviously, and she was supposed to bring some back to me, but she ate them all on the way. Ididget their coffee, though. It was pretty good.”

“We have to remedy this.” Melinda stood.

“But I thought it wasn’t late,” Kyle noted. “Can we stay here just a little bit longer? It’s so peaceful.”

Melinda nodded and said, “Can we maybe move to that very comfortable patio chair over there that has a nice-looking cushion on it?” She pointed to a chaise-type chair about twenty feet away.

“There’s only one. I’m not sure what happened to the other one or if there ever was another one.”

“I’m good with sharing. I have three siblings, remember?”

“Oh,” Kyle let out, sounding surprised and adorable. “You want to…”

---