Chapter 4 #2
“I was seventeen at the time.” Jonah reached for his glass, looking amused despite himself. “Your father was usually standing in front of the door.”
“He adored you.” Kylie leaned back, smiling at Jonah. “He still asks whether you’ve fixed that window.”
“I fixed it before you went away.” Jonah looked at Summer. “It didn’t open. Her dad kept telling everyone he’d get to it when the weather improved.”
Summer had been saving money from a weekend job at seventeen. She tried to imagine Jonah waiting on her own parents’ doorstep, talking to her mother until she came downstairs. He would have been kind to her then, probably, though she doubted she’d have known what to do with him.
“So, January,” Kylie said, bringing her back. She had picked up her fork but not resumed eating. “That was when you started seeing each other?”
Summer nodded. Kylie hadn’t asked about the wedding yet. Summer waited, holding her fork above the plate.
“It must have been quite the surprise to find out you were pregnant not long after,” Kylie said, looking at Summer sympathetically. “You were so brave, both of you.” She looked at Jonah on the last words, then began cutting her chicken.
“We were happy,” he said. “We still are.”
Summer’s face warmed and Jonah quickly changed the topic to discuss Summer’s bakery success. She reached for the wine while Kylie asked about the bakery’s Halloween orders, then found herself giving an elaborate description of a cake she could have explained in a sentence.
“You should come in,” Summer said. “You can see the ravens everyone keeps trying to buy.” She told Kylie how she’d made them during the quiet afternoons after Christmas. Jonah reached for his phone.
“You made those?” Kylie put down her fork.
“Jonah sent me a picture. I thought they were bought.” She asked how Summer had hung them, then wanted to know whether she had painted the feet separately.
Summer took his phone and enlarged a photograph to show the wire around the feet.
Kylie bent over it, asking how she had made the claws.
Jonah helped himself to the last piece of chicken. Kylie leaned back and put her fork down. Summer went to fetch the apple cake. When she turned from the counter, Kylie was looking at Jonah’s left hand where it rested beside his plate.
“I still haven’t seen your ring properly,” she said. He held it out, and she caught his fingers, turning his hand toward the light. Summer stopped with the cake against her palms, looking for a clear place to set it down.
“You chose that?” Kylie asked him. Her thumb rested against the edge of the band, and there was nothing in her voice Summer could object to. Summer set the cake down harder than she intended.
“Summer found it.” Jonah withdrew his hand to move the roasting dish. “I liked the plain ones until I tried them on.” He looked from the ring to Summer. “This felt less like I’d borrowed my father’s.”
“It suits you,” Kylie said, then asked Summer about hers. Summer held out her hand across the table, and Kylie admired the narrow band without touching it. “That’s lovely. I like how fine it is.” Summer drew her hand back and reached for the cake knife.
She cut the cake while Jonah cleared the dinner plates.
Kylie asked for a small piece, then admitted she had been trying to be polite, and Summer cut it larger.
Jonah brought the ice cream from the freezer; they passed it around until Summer had to reach across and wipe a melting drop from the table with her napkin.
“Your mother asked about the portraits,” Kylie said as Jonah sat down again. “She wants them at the historical society before they start setting up for the masquerade ball. I told her Saturday would be easiest.”
Jonah swallowed his cake. “You mean those ugly huge ones? Mom wants those?”
“The ones in our attic. My mother’s donating.
” She turned toward Summer. “She’s had them for years.
Nobody knows who the people are, but they look sufficiently miserable for the Hawthorne Society to want them.
” Her attention returned to Jonah. “Your dad said we could use his truck. I’m not putting them in my mother’s car. ”
“Saturday’s the table,” Summer said. She spoke to Jonah because that was who knew what she meant. Kylie looked from one to the other, and Summer added, “It’s being delivered. We don’t have a time yet.”
“We can fit it around that.” Jonah reached for the ice cream. “How many are there?” He asked Kylie, and she began counting, including two she thought could travel together if they found a blanket.
Summer put down her fork. They had talked in the car about where to put the leaf and whether the old table could go in the back room. She had imagined him there to help her try it, then move it again when the first place was wrong.
“We’ll need to see what time they give us,” she said. Jonah looked at her then, still holding the ice cream, and something in his expression made her wish she hadn’t repeated herself.
“That’s what I meant.” He set it down between them. “I’ll call and ask tomorrow.” Across the table, Kylie began to apologize for bringing it up, but Summer said it was fine before she could finish.