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I was very interested.
CHAPTER36
MEGYN
Trouble started again the next afternoon, just as Carter and I were sitting down to eat the excellent lunch Antonio prepared for us. All last night and this morning, we’d been tensing up every time a vehicle went by, only relaxing again when it passed the house without slowing down. I didn’t want to say aloud what I was hoping, even though I saw the same hope on Carter’s face whenever I looked at him.
But that afternoon, without looking at him, studying my omelet, I felt as though I couldn’t hold back anymore. I said, “Maybe they won’t come back.”
“Maybe,” Carter agreed. He picked up his fork and cut into his omelet, right into the thickest part, causing cheese and roasted onions and peppers and sausage crumbles to spill out.
I wrinkled my nose in mock disgust of his action and sliced off the very edge of my own omelet, which was the same as his except with bacon instead of sausage. Bowls of sour cream, ketchup, salsa, anything a person could think to top an omelet with, sat on the table between us, surrounding the salt and pepper dispensers. They weren’t shakers, but the grinder sort of dispenser. Antonio would have nothing else in the house. It was just another little difference between the life I used to lead and the one I had with Carter. Whole peppercorns and salt chunks, instead of cheap powdered pepper and granulated salt crystals. The difference was so small and yet so big.
And so much tastier.
The distant roar of an engine stopped me with my fork halfway to my mouth. I looked at Carter and he looked at me. We waited.
The car approached, slowed, and stopped.
I put my fork down, not hungry anymore.
Carter put his hand over mine. “It doesn’t mean—”
Before he could finish, we heard voices and we both recognized them right away as Crystal’s shrill demands and Dad’s dull responses to said commands.
Carter pushed back from his chair. “Turn the oven on low, Megyn. Put our plates in there.”
“Is there any point?” I asked, but I got up to do as he said anyway.
“I don’t know,” Carter said. “But I’m hopeful they’ll be gone sooner rather than later.”
But will we feel up to eating after they’re gone?
Carter patted my back and went off into the living room. I turned the oven on and set the heat to very low, then set our plates inside on the top rack to keep our food warm. My stomach twisted. I wasn’t as hopeful as Carter was about all of this. I didn’t think we’d be coming back to our meals anytime soon. The omelets would sit in there and shrink and harden, like an improperly washed wool sweater.
The front door opened and someone marched inside. Crystal, undoubtedly.
“Please, come in,” Carter said tiredly.
I swallowed hard and shut the oven door.
“Where’s Megyn?” Crystal demanded. “I thought I heard something. Is she hiding?”
I clenched my hands into fists, digging my nails against my palms. Steeling myself for the worst, I stepped out of the kitchen. “I’m here.”
Crystal darted over, her hand raised like she meant to slap me.
Carter hissed under his breath and moved, striding over the carpet.
I didn’t think. I acted. I reached and patted Crystal’s hand with my own, stealing a high-five.
The other woman jerked to a halt and looked at her hand, then mine, and then up at me, as baffled as a puppy wondering why it couldn’t potty on the floor in the house. Crystal blinked and lowered her hand, shaking her head. “You’re crazy. You know that, don’t you? Crazy and ungrateful.”
“That’d be your opinion,” I said.
Crystal stared at me. “Aren’t you going to ask why? Don’t you care?”
“What you think?” I thought about it. “Not really.”