Page 89 of Three Not-So-Little Words
He laughs. “I think I’ll be alright.”
“Okay. I guess we’re going to dinner. Now, enough about my family. Let’s get back to the dirty stuff.”
thirty-two
The White Whale
Drew
"Here's the deal," Ronnie says, using her hands for emphasis. "We go in, we eat, we leave. Then, we come home and bang. If we're lucky, we'll be pants-free by 8:30"
"Sounds good to me," I tell her.
She's apologized for the Lawson family dinner about five times, but I keep assuring her that I don't mind. I'm asking herto deal with a lot since I have a kid. A meal with her family won't kill me
She directs me to her parents' house, and before we get out of the truck, she leans over to kiss me.
When she pulls back to look at me with her big brown eyes, she says, "Thank you for doing this. I owe you one.”
“You're welcome. And you don't owe me anything."
As we walk to the front door, she holds my hand linking her fingers with mine.
She may think I'm dreading this, but it's exactly the opposite. Ronnie isn't always the easiest to get close to, and relationships scare her. So, any step we can take in getting closer, I'll enjoy every minute of.
When we enter through the front door, we walk into an empty living room.
"Shit," She groans, looking at the clock. "I'm about to catch hell for being late "
We walk into the dining room where everyone is seated around a giant table. It looks like they are just starting to pass around platters of food. Everyone turns to look at us.
"Hey, guys," she greets.
Her mom rolls her eyes. "Really, Veronica? You couldn't be on time?"
Ronnie goes to open her mouth, but I speak instead. "I'm really sorry. It's my fault. I had to get my son to his grandma’s.”
That seems to please her mom. "Oh, okay. I guess that's a pretty good reason. Come on in and have a seat."
Everyone goes back to their business, and Ronnie leans close to me. "Oh, I'm so blowing you for that later.”
"Remind me to do it more often," I mutter.
We take a seat in the two empty chairs, and Ronnie takes a moment to introduce everyone. I already know Jack and Dylan. And Leah has come into the shop a few times to see Dylan, so Irecognize her. I try to remember names, but there's a lot of them. Hopefully, I'll get to know them all eventually.
After we have full plates, we dig in, and Liz, who I think is the oldest sibling, directs her attention to me.
"So, Drew, how did you pin down this one?" She uses her fork to gesture to Ronnie. "She's kind of like the white whale.”
Ronnie says, " Hey, did you just call me fat?"
“No, I didn’t call you anything. Iimpliedthat you’re a commitment-phobe.”
Ronnie shrugs. “Oh, okay.”
Liz looks at me again. “So, how’d you bag her?”
I smile. “I don’t know that Ibaggedher. I’m crazy about her, and she tolerates me.”
