Page 109 of On My Side
“She did a wonderful job at asserting her needs,” Mrs. Quinn says sincerely, reaching out to pat my arm before seemingly remembering what Ren said and pulling it quickly back. “She’s delightful.”
My eyebrows shoot up. No one haseverreferred to my daughter as delightful.
Mrs. Quinn insists we go into the dining room and sit, so Ren and I oblige. Piper and Nic—who is enthusiastically explaining her favorite TV show to my daughter—are the only ones at the table, and slowly the room fills with more Quinns and the savory aroma of Mrs. Quinn’s legendary lasagna.
Hunter claims the open seat next to me, and Josh takes the seat next to her.
“Have you met Josh?” Hunter asks. “He’s Nic’s boytoy.” I laugh as Nic cackles and Josh’s face turns strawberry ice cream pink.
“I’m… no. Not… no,” Josh sputters. Nic grins and pulls him down to kiss him on the cheek. It’s like he forgets he’s embarrassed the way he stares at her with heart eyes.
My entire body tenses when Steve Holt, Kat’s husband, sits between her and Ren. I’m not saying this family is quiet—in fact, they’re anything but. However, he’s somehow even louder than the rest of his family, his voice echoing above the rest.
Kat always acted like she was above the noise, and she’d never admit it, but she could be as loud and brash as the rest of her family. “You have to be loud sometimes,”she explained when I called her out one time.“Otherwise, nobody will hear if you have something important to say.”
Steve is beyond loud and seemingly clueless to anyone but himself. Mrs. Quinn is staring in the distance and nodding absently as he talks about a client he golfed with last week, and Piper’s expression is one of unbridled disdain.
“Audrey, do you want salad?” Mr. Quinn asks, raising his voice and the salad bowl so I can hear him over Steve’s incessant yammering.
“Yes, please,” I say at the same time Steve takes a breath and is quiet enough to hear, apparently.
“Audrey?” he says, drowning out my response. “Who the fuck is Audrey?”
I lean forward to look past Ren and smile. “I’m Audrey.”
He narrows his eyes at me. “Do I know you?” he demands, like this is his home, and howdaresomeone he’s not familiar with step into his domain.
“Audrey went to high school with us,” Kat says quietly. I notice her plate is still full, and she’s pushing her food to the edges with her fork. “She was in my grade.”
“Are you sure? I think I’d remember her.” The way Steve’s eyes move over my body make me feel like spiders are crawling under my skin. I cross my arms over my chest in discomfort.
“No, it’s true. I remember you,” I say awkwardly. I don’t say exactly what I’m thinking, and keep the “unfortunately” to myself.
Steve grins. “Well, that I believe.” He laughs before lifting his beer to his mouth and taking a drink. Kat is still pushing her food around, eyes intent on the floral pattern swirling around the edges of the plate.
When Steve lowers the bottle, he somehow misses the table and it tumbles off the edge, spilling onto Ren’s lap.
“Shit,” Ren yelps, leaping to his feet.
As I look around the table, I’m filled with the realization everyone at the table seems to be done with Steve’s bullshit. Especially Mr. Quinn, who’s rubbing at his temples the same way he did when he caught me sneaking back into their house one morning. Kat is a close second, her lower lip trembling like she’s about to dissolve into tears.
Steve, however, is staring at Ren’s crotch like he doesn’t understand it.
I’m taken aback when the scrape of a chair against the hardwood floor fills the air. “Excuse me,” Kat says, voice shaky before she exits the room. In my peripheral vision, I see Mr. and Mrs. Quinn exchange an anxious look.
Steve gets up and follows her out of the room, as the rest of us are silent.
“Drama,” Piper says in a sing-song tone, and I turn to tell her not to joke, but Nic and Josh are already openly laughing.
“You chose a good day to come,” Nic tells her. These two are already thick as thieves, and I wonder if Nic is the autistic sister Ren told Piper about at the beginning of summer.
“Can I borrow a pair of pants?” Ren asks with a heavy sigh, tossing his napkin onto the table. I wonder who he’s talking to, until Mr. Quinn gives his assent.
Ren smiles at me before leaving the room, and it’s not his full smile, which is so bright and full of joy, like staring directly at the sun. Instead, it’s this nervous, embarrassed smile with its own charm, its own light.
As he leaves, Steve re-enters the room, typing something on his phone. Since he’s distracted, he misses the dirty look Ren shoots him, but I don’t. It’s one of the hottest things I’ve ever seen.
I can’t believe this man was ready to abandon his family because of me. He loves themsomuch. I can never be the reason for any division between them.
