Page 93 of The Lies I've Told
“What? The memorial?”
Her eyes went to the back of the yard where I’d covered the granite in a large gray tarp.
“Of course,” I answered, knowing it was a complete lie.
The first one had taken me nine months, and that hadn’t been dedicated time. Because I’d chosen to work only with primitive tools and not saws or electric blades, everything had moved extra slow, but it was how I had been taught, both by Ben and my mentor. On the original memorial, I’d worked on it intermittently with many other projects sandwiched in between because I needed the steady income.
Now that I had the money from my gallery showing, I could afford to dedicate one hundred percent of my time to this one project, but even then, I couldn’t guarantee it would be done in a year. My gut churned.
Or at all.
Not when my—
“Hey,” Millie called out, interrupting my thoughts. “You have that faraway look in your eyes.”
I smiled warmly, tearing my gaze away from the granite pillar in the back of the yard and back to the beautiful woman in front of me.
“I believe I was promised never-ending liquor and food today,” I said, making her grin almost immediately.
“Yes, I believe you were.” She tugged on my hand and dragged me to the large card tables decked out in checkered tablecloths. “Right this way,” she said.
Every inch of the table was covered in food.
“Please tell me your sister didn’t cook all of this.”
“Not all, no,” she answered. “But a lot of it. Some was brought by guests because who shows up to a cookout without bringing a side dish?”
“No one?” I answered, unsure of the right answer since I’d never attended a cookout, nor had I ever heard of the wordcookoutbefore this morning.
“Exactly.”
We grabbed plates and began picking and choosing what went on them. I mostly just mimicked Millie because I didn’t recognize half of what was being offered. Three-quarters of it was some sort of casserole, and the rest was some sort of meat.
But it all smelled delicious, which was more than I could say for the majority of the food I had been raised on, so I was happy to try just about anything.
“Hey,” Millie whined as I scooped up a helping of fresh green salad and dropped it on her plate.
“You don’t have a single vegetable on your plate,” I protested.
She looked down. “Sure I do. See?” She was pointing to a casserole with a scattering of corn covered in cheese.
“That does not count.”
“I don’t like salad!”
“What will it take for a small one? Just a serving?” I asked, grabbing the tongs and snapping them shut like alligator teeth in front of her.
She simply rolled her eyes but gave in to my games. “You so owe me. The things I’m going to make you do to me tonight…” Letting out an exasperated sigh, she continued, “Fine, but know this salad is about to be covered in a considerable amount of ranch dressing.”
I tried not to laugh. “It’s a start.”
We made our way to a grouping of tables that had been set out for today’s event. Seated across from us were Dean, Cora, and Jake.
“Hey, guys!” Dean greeted us. “Happy Fourth!”
“Hey Dean, Cora!” Millie said, giving a double wave after she set down her heavy plate.
I noticed she specifically hadn’t said hi to her brother-in-law, and I wondered if there was something going on there that I didn’t know about. But, before I even had the chance to think it through, she was already shifting gears.
