Page 78 of More Than Words
I stood there for a second and watched her go.
And for the second time in less than a week, I found myself frozen in place, realizing a little too late that I’d made the wrong call.
ChapterTwenty
Ethan
The table was set, the food was hot, and the energy was off.
Really off.
Normally, family dinners were loud and chaotic in the very best way, with too many voices all talking over one another.Grayson giving Preston crap about something, probably about forgetting the napkins or buns or some other equally basic item he’d been assigned but still managed to forget.Brody pretending he was the head of the family because he was the oldest, and the rest of us letting him think it.
But tonight?
Everyone was polite.
Too polite.
Quinn sat next to Reid, next to the empty seat across from me.
Delaney’s seat.
I tried not to look at it, or acknowledge that her absence was the reason everyone was acting so weird.
“This is good.”Preston handed the platter of roast beef to Avery.“Better than usual.”
Brody frowned, but resisted the urge to fire back some sort of comment about how the only thing Preston could cook was breakfast cereal.
“No, it’s not,” Quinn blurted, and I shot her a look.“Sorry, Uncle Brody,” she added quickly.“But roast beef isn’t my favorite.”
“I know.”Brody nodded graciously.“It’s okay.I was going to make burgers, but I wanted to…”
He let the thought trail away, and I swallowed hard, picking at my mashed potatoes.He’d wanted to make somethingspecialbecause Delaney was supposed to be there and it would have been her first Lyonses’ family dinner.But I had to go fuck it all up.
“More gravy?”
“No one wants more gravy, Dad!”Quinn dropped her fork on her plate with a loud clatter.
“Quinn.”I shot her a warning glance.
She gritted her teeth and picked up her water glass.
Things had only gone from bad to worse between us since we’d run into Delaney in the plaza the day before, but I did not need it coming to a head at the dinner table in front of everyone.
Thankfully, she went back to picking at her dinner, but as soon as I thought I was in the clear, Avery set down her wine glass and said, “Where’s Delaney tonight, Ethan?”
I flinched and set my fork down slowly.“She had things to do at the shop.”
I didn’t miss the way Quinn looked up and glared at me.Neither did Reid, by the way his eyebrows shot up.
“That’s weird,” Avery continued.“She said she was really looking forward to coming.”
“She changed her mind.”
That did it.
Once more, Quinn dropped her fork onto her plate.The clatter bounced off every wall in the room.
