Page 37 of Our Unexpected Beginning
“You’re deflecting. How about we do another question, we didn’t do one today.”
“I still can’t believe you found a ‘one-hundred questions to know you better’ quiz.”
Graham opened his phone and pulled up the checklist of questions they’d been rattling off to each other.
When he left town their sexual chemistry hadn’t fizzled but when it came to opening up their conversation stilted. There were nights as if she didn’t know how to be herself. Graham decided to take the inquisition pressure off both of them and find an outside source. They’d quickly discovered some questions didn’t or couldn’t apply to them and Julia suggested they each had five veto questions. Graham countered that they had to replace it and both parties answered.
They had learned trivial things such as colors, food choices, and a must-see trip of a lifetime. Neither had learned another language, they both had one sibling.
It shouldn’t have surprised him when Julia didn’t make fun of him for his swinging taste in music that ranged from the twangy country music his grandmother raised him on, to rap, and rock he preferred over any other style of music.
“Hello!” Graham heard an unfamiliar woman’s voice from the hallway followed by movement in the kitchen.
A slender woman about Julia’s height with slicked-back bleached white hair and green eyes peered into the living room and caught sight of Graham.
He smiled and waved politely, noticing Julia tense next to him.
“Hello?” She narrowed her eyes on Graham. “Can I help you?”
He straightened his spine and stood up. “Hi, I’m Julia’s.”
“Mom? Oh, Mom, hey! We didn’t hear you come in.”
“There you are, here I was thinking you were sneaking in and out of town without so much as a phone call.”
Julia greeted the older woman in an awkward hug and Graham couldn’t help but note that they looked nothing alike. Based on photos alone he would have guessed that Elaine was Julia’s mother and not the woman standing in the front entryway.
“I didn’t come for fun, Mom. I would have come to see you if I had the time. I’m glad you’re here for dinner.”
“It doesn’t smell like salad.” Graham barely heard the words, but the missing light in Julia’s eyes told him all he needed to know.
“Is that my beautiful baby sister?!” Elaine’s voice broke from the other room diverting the women into the kitchen.
Graham followed three steps behind surveying his surroundings. Seeing the women mill around the kitchen was like watching an artful dance.
Julia ping-ponged between the women, doing her subtle best to steer to one woman rather than the other without it being obvious.
“Did you get my text messages?” Ms. Sinclair sat on a stool at the kitchen island, facing Julia with raised brows.
“I did. Thank you.”
“By the looks of your hair, you didn’t do anything about them. I don’t know why I bother.”
“You know,” Julia laughed nervously, moving over to the bench by the kitchen window. “As nice as that was, I don’t have time for anything else right now.” Julia had expressed to him how she was overjoyed thatSewing by Sinclairwas gaining word of mouth and she was booking six months out or more.
“Considering you can leave town for a week without a second notice to play dress up in a dusty attic...I assumed you were ready to grow up.”
“Cas, that’s not fair.”
“Why does what I do equate worth to you? I love what I do, I bring smiles to people’s faces and create memories.”
“Arts and crafts isn’t a living.”
Graham opened his mouth in support, but a glance at Julia caused him to abort that idea altogether.
“Graham, oh great! Can you help me bring this to the table, please?” Hoping to break the inquisition in the kitchen, Elaine clapped her hands together and Graham hurried to help.
Elaine walked over to her sister and linked arms with her. “Be nice,” she whispered, ushering the two ahead of Julia and Graham.
