Page 129 of Boston
He got out the premade chicken cordon bleus that Beth had made for them last month and put two of them on a tray, cut up a couple of potatoes, and slid everything in the oven. She told him that she bought them from the butcher and that anyone could get them. Boston had been eating them once a week since.
Now, he had forty-five minutes before dinner would be ready. That would give him an end time for his call with hisfather, and he sank onto the couch in the cabin and dialed his daddy back.
“Hey, son,” Daddy said, and a light started inside Boston’s chest.
“Hey, Daddy,” he said. “I didn’t answer because I was hiking up to the cabin. Remember?”
“Oh, I totally forgot you were doing that today. How was it?”
“It’s six miles,” Boston chuckled. “But I love it up here. It’s so quiet.”
“I’ll bet it is,” Daddy said. “I could use a little bit of that peace and quiet right now.”
“Oh, yeah?” Boston asked. “What have you got going on?”
“It’s the last week before school starts,” Daddy said. “We’ve just got shopping bags everywhere, and Lars keeps begging for pudding cups and Fruit by the Foot and all this other weird fangled stuff I’ve never heard of.”
Boston laughed. “That’s so not true, Daddy,” he said. “Beth and I begged you guys for those things too.”
“You did?” he asked. “I do not remember that.”
“Totally,” Boston said. “I kept trying to get you to get me that subscription to that video game. Remember, with the penguins? And you and Momma never would.”
“Well, a video game is different than fruit leather.”
“Fruit by the Foot isnotfruit leather, Daddy.” Boston laughed again.
“You sound good,” Daddy said. “I don’t know why, but I’ve been worried about you.”
That caused Boston to sober. “Yeah, well, I’ve been really busy,” he said.
“I thought some of that abated once we moved into August.” Daddy wore a question in his voice, and Boston could just see the tilt of his eyebrows. They sat at different heights on his head, and he and Beth had always teased their daddy about it.
“Yeah, things got a little easier as far as work goes,” he said.
“Ah, so this is not a work thing.”
Boston laid down on the couch, remembering when Cora had told him that he couldn’t sleep here. Itwashard, and he would have been miserable.
“Yeah, Cora and I broke up a few weeks ago,” he said.
“I told you,” Momma said, her voice coming through the line as she yelled. “He’s been avoiding all texts about her.”
“Oh, boy,” Boston said, his voice dry and filled with disgust. Still, he smiled at the ceiling. “When I’m on speaker with Momma, you have to warn me.”
“You’re not on speaker with Momma,” Daddy said. “I told you to let me talk to him alone.” The next thing Boston heard was the near-slamming of a door and then Daddy sighing. “I’m sorry. She just happened to come in right then.”
“It’s all right,” Boston said.
“I just know sometimes you’d rather just talk to me about stuff, because I don’t make as big a deal about it.”
“Well, that’s true, but you can tell her at least I’ve had a girlfriend now.”
“Boston,” Daddy said, plenty of chastisement in the word. “Your mother didn’t mean anything by that.”
Boston didn’t say anything, because he didn’t want to argue.
“Of course, neither one of us are happy that you broke up if you liked her.”
