Page 75 of So in Love
Mom looked at him as if he’d gone crazy.“I got you your own sourdoughbowl, silly.”
Of course she had.She always took such good care of him and his brothers.“Fantastic.”
“You want a glass of wine?”Dad asked.
“Nah, I’m good.”He held up the envelope.“I brought the stuff my college friend found about the Stowes.”
“Can’t wait to see it,” Dad said.
Mom waved an oven mitt at him.“After dinner—which is ready.Can you please put the salad on the table?”
Mom turned toward the oven, and Jamie rushed to intercept her, dropping the envelope on the corner of the counter.
“Let me get that.”He took the mitts and put them on.
“Jamie, you can’t just leave important documents on the kitchen counter.They might get ruined.”She let out an exasperated breath as she picked up the envelope and moved it to the living room.“Have I taught you nothing?”
Jamie resisted the urge to roll his eyes as he bent to take the stew from the oven.“You’ve taught me plenty, Mom.Like how to keep my mouth shut.”
Dad chuckled.“He’s got you there, dear.”
Jamie’s back was to them, but he could practically feel the perturbed glare Mom sent him.He put the stew on the stovetop and turned off the oven.“I remembered to turn off the oven.”He took off the mitts and turned toward his folks.
Mom was smiling.“I’ll take what I can get.”She blew him a kiss, then picked up her soup ladle to dish up the stew.“Here, take these to the table, please,” she said to Jamie.
He helped deliver the stew, and they all sat down.Jamie asked how work was going for both of them.Dad said they had a troupe of Chinese dancers coming tomorrow, and Mom said she was inundated with students selling her Girl Scout cookies in the office.
“Luckily, we have a big freezer in the garage—I bought enough to last all year, I’m afraid.”She gave Dad an apologetic look, but he only smiled.
“Fine by me, so long as you got plenty of Thin Mints.”
Mom turned to Jamie.“I heard something a bit disturbing at Bunco last night.It’s about your friend Crystal.”
Jamie noted she referred to Crystal as his friend and not his girlfriend, which she wasn’t.Not technically, anyway.But usually that wouldn’t stop Mom from calling her that, especially since she knew they were spending time together.Which told him something was wrong.
He braced himself.“What’s that?”
“Apparently, she’s writing a screenplay about our family secrets.”
Tension sparked through his frame.“Are they secrets?”
Mom frowned at him.“Of course they are.Did you know about it before last month?”
Jamie gritted his teeth.“No, but that doesn’t mean they’re secrets.”Except it seemed the family had gone to great lengths to hide what had happened.
“I’m not sure I want our family history publicized like that.Can you imagine what people will think of us?”
“They won’t think anything.The movie isn’t aboutus.”
Mom’s hand paused in midair, a spoonful of stew halfway to her mouth, and her eyes widened.“Oh, so it’s already a movie?”
Jamie summoned all the patience he could.“No.It’s not.”
Visibly relaxing, Mom took the bite of stew and a moment later said, “Well, that’s a relief.I’d appreciate if you would talk to Crystal about this—tell her how much it would hurt our family.”
Jamie looked over at Dad, who was frowning into his stew.He turned his head back toward Mom.“I’m not going to do that.This is history, and we don’t own it.”
“You don’t care that everyone will know we’re descended from white supremacists?”
