Page 63 of Space Balls: Houston, We Have Liftoff
Flynn grins like I just told him he won the lottery. “Is that so?”
“Yes.” My anger only increases by his sudden flippant attitude.
He gives the grill his attention again. “So what you’re saying is that today’s Black Friday drama had a reason.”
“Of course. You should know Rose always leaves out the stuff that puts her in a good light.” I laugh at the absurdity of it. “I bet she didn’t tell you that she went on a high-speed chase just to bribe a butcher for a turkey for my family’s Thanksgiving dinner.”
He nods. “You’re right.”
I freeze, my previous anger shocked out of my system. “What?”
“Rose does always go overboard for the people she loves.” He points his tongs at me. “Today’s drama is another example, I’m sure.”
“The headphones were for my nephews.” My voice lacks conviction, and Flynn knows it.
“Yes.” He rotates the foiled potatoes. “Yournephews.”
I want to say that we are just friends with benefits. That we have a time limit.
But I don’t. Because how do you tell someone that their little sister explicitly said she didn’t want a boyfriend? That she’s into stranger danger and keeping things casual? You don’t tell them. Because that is awkward and mean.
And because I don’t want to get junk punched twice in one day.
“Now”—Flynn transfers thick asparagus spears onto the grill, a mean feat with tongs—"the question is, what are you going to do now that you’ve made it into my sister’s inner circle?” He flashes me a penetrating look. “Which, I may add, is a very hard thing to do. My sister doesn’t trust easily.”
I swallow. “Why’s that?” Glancing at the girls, I see Rose has turned over on her lounge chair. The wordsKISS ITare on the cheeks of her swimsuit.
Flynn turns his head away from the grill and stares at his sister for a beat. “Rose likes to tell Holt and me that the two of us did the best we could after our parents, then our grandparents, died.” He shakes his head as if in disgust. “But that’s a lie she tells us to make us feel better. We could’ve and should’ve done more.”
“What do you mean?”
Jackie says something, and without looking, Rose flips her the bird. Jackie laughs.
“Every year or so, Mom would pick up and leave. Sometimes for weeks, sometimes for months. Sometimes Dad would follow. Rose was right at the stage where she really needed her mom when they both died in that car accident. She had no one to guide her through the tough, embarrassing adolescent stage except two self-indulgent older brothers too focused on their own pain and interests.” Carefully, he spins the asparagus, ensuring it doesn’t fall through the grate. “So we shipped her off to an all-girl boarding school, figuring the other girl students and female teachers would fill in the voids for her.”
Flynn closes the grill, his hand resting on the handle for a moment.
“She was lonely. Even surrounded by all her friends and continuous socialite parties, Rose was lonely. And I hate myself that it took me so long to realize it. And when I did, all I did was yell at her when things got too crazy because I didn’t know what else to do.”
Rose’s cackle echoes in the courtyard. Jackie’s blush can be seen from where Flynn and I are standing.
“She seems okay now.” I sound more hopeful then convincing.
Flynn smiles, looking at his sister and his wife. “Thankfully.” He leaves me there by the grill and walks over to where the girls are sitting. He picks up his wife, sits in her chair, and places her on his lap. Rose flips another bird.
The gesture reminds me of all the times Rose was left behind at a table, all her friends dancing with their dates. Rose, the odd one out.
Flynn might have twenty-twenty vision when it comes to the past, but he fails to see how him marrying Jackie, Holt getting with Jules, and now even Trish being engaged to Ian has put Rose back in the same situation as before. She’s feeling left behind again.
Memories of Thanksgiving and this morning replay in my head, now colored by this new information. I invited Rose to my family’s Thanksgiving because of exactly what Flynn just said. Rose seems lonely. But hearing her brother confirm it breaks my heart a little.
And it makes me determined to fix it. But Flynn’s suggestion about how Rose may feel about me puts a wrench in that idea.
I run a hand through my hair, thinking. Flynnhasto be wrong. Rose told me she wasn’t after a forever guy.
We’re just keeping each other company.
Shaking off the heavy thoughts, I join the group, pulling a lounge chair closer to Rose’s.
