Page 34 of Steinbeck
Boo’s gaze passed over Emberly too.
And his mother smiled, came over.“And who is this beautiful woman?”
He had nothing.Just...no words—the lie, the truth all snarled up together.Friend?Foe?Partner?Teammate?Spy?Thief?
But she slid her hand into his, wove her fingers through his, and said, “I’m Emberly, Stein’s girlfriend.”
* * *
She didn’t belong here.
In this convivial, embracive family.
Run.
She squelched the urge as she met his family, as Mama Em introduced herself, gave her a hug, scooped her up into preparations for dinner.
To her memory, Emberly had only experienced a family dinner like the Kingston family dinner once in her life.The entire family sat at the twelve-foot table located on the back porch of one of the stately Victorian homes—Stein called it the Norbert.
Twinkle lights hung from the porch ceiling, and a chandelier dropped golden puddles of light onto the dinner.Orange candles flickered in the center, and so much food—homemade rolls and a tossed salad and tiny smashed golden potatoes and a tomato salad and wild rice and glistening, buttery steaks.
Beyond the deck, the sun had started to slide past the horizon, casting rose gold through the trees and turning the lake a deep amber.A scant wind caught the scent of fresh-cut grass and the fragrance of the blooming chrysanthemums along the porch.
“So then, there I was, in my prom dress, Harper with me, trying to change the tire on the old Bronco...”Stein’s sister Boo talked with her hands, glancing across the table at her friend Harper.
Laughter.
Emberly sat in the midst of it, flanked on one side by Stein.His older brother, Jack, sat next to him.He’d given her a strange look back in the kitchen when she shook his hand.Jack’s girlfriend, Harper, sat beside him, a cute blonde with a pixie cut, wearing a pair of wide-leg pants and a cropped tee, a sort of curious intensity about her when she met Emberly.Now, she was finishing Boo’s story.
Across from Harper sat Conrad, Stein’s hockey-star brother, and his girlfriend, Penny, her long dark hair cascading down her back, bearing a tan and wearing a diamond necklace with her casual pink sundress.
And next to them, Boo.Of course Emberly recognized the bride from the wedding she’d crashed eight months ago.Boo sat next to her country-superstar husband, Oaken, as she segued into a story about some recent rescue by their Air One team.
Their father sat at one end, a big guy, so that’s probably where the Kingston boys had gotten their height and impressive shoulders.Salt-and-pepper hair, a smile on his face, the king at the gate, listening.
Mama Em carried a pitcher of lemonade to the table.She set it down and Con got up to push in his mother’s chair at the other end.
The entire thing felt...provincial.And sweet.And what was she doing here?
Stein glanced over at her as Boo finished her story, smiled.
Oh yes.Girlfriend.
She could do this.
Today, Emberly was her disguise.
“We’re so glad you could make it for dinner, Emberly,” Stein’s dad—Grover, she remembered from the introduction—said.“Stein is usually pretty tight-lipped about his, um, girlfriends.”
“I knew about her,” Jack said, raising his hand.He glanced at Stein with a smile and a wink.
Who knew what that meant?
“Well, he’s never brought home a girl before, so this is a celebration,” said Mama Em, who reached out and patted Emberly’s hand.
What?The gesture left an unfamiliar warmth.
“And just in time to catch Boo and Oaken.”She cast a look at her daughter and the sandy-haired singer at the end.
