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“Pleasure to meet you.” Marty sizes Jeremy up. “I bet you struggle to find a car with enough headroom, don’t you?”
I jump in. “Mom, Marty, it’s barely nine. What are you doing here?”
Mom pulls an innocent face. “We’re here for brunch.”
“What? We’re not having brunch here. We do brunch on the second Sunday of every month, and it’s always at your place.”
Mom walks past me into the kitchen and puts her pan on the counter. “No, no, no. Don’t you remember? We’re having the kitchen remodeled this month, and Walden and Shelly have a thing next week, so we decided to have brunch here, this weekend.”
“And you didn’t think to tell me?”
“We had a whole conversation about it at brunch last time.”
I rack my memory for a conversation about having family brunch at my house and come up dry. “I don’t doubt you had a conversation about it, Mom, but you didn’t have it with me.”
Mom puts her pan down on the kitchen counter and peels back the aluminum foil to reveal an admittedly tasty-looking coffee cake. “Of course I di—Oh, maybe that was Shelly? Anyway!” She gives me a bright smile. “We’re here now. Walden and Joey are on their way with Janine and the kids. Mind if I make coffee?”
Great. My mom can’t keep her own daughter straight from her far more obnoxious daughter-in-law. I rub the bridge of my nose.
Behind me somewhere, Marty is extolling the virtues of a Toyota Highlander to a bemused Jeremy — “Practical, but it’s still got some of that rugged sex appeal, am I right?”
Mom starts opening cupboard doors. “Maybe I should start on some pancakes too. It doesn’t look like you’re all that prepared for us. Oh, what a cute dog!” She isn’t the least fazed by Jackie, who has hopped off the couch where he spent the night and is looking curiously at her. “Why don’t you go get dressed, sweetheart?”
I turn to Jeremy. “Um, I bet Jackie needs to be let out, doesn’t he?”
“Oh, right.” Jeremy snaps to attention. “Please excuse me, sir. I better go let my dog out.”
“You’re coming back though, right?” Mom asks.
I try not to cringe at the eagerness in her voice, like her daughter’s last hope might be slipping out of reach.
“Sure,” Jeremy says over his shoulder as he heads toward the back door. “C’mon, boy!”
I watch him and Jackie go, feeling a little wistful. Brunch with my family will be a non-stop barrage of inappropriate questions and wrong assumptions. He won’t be back if he knows what’s good for him.
As soon as Jeremy is safely out of the house, I dash upstairs, have a super-fast shower, get dressed, and swipe on some makeup.
I pause for a moment at the top of the stairs. It’s so quiet downstairs that I’m almost worried.
But I’m only halfway down the stairs before the living room explodes into chaos.
Jeremy, who apparently doesn’t know what’s good for him, walks in through the back door with Jackie at the same time that Walden, Shelly, and the three nephews walk in through the front door.
The kids spot Jackie and shriek with delight. Jackie, equally excited, starts barking and jumping up and down as high as his three legs will let him as the boys run circles around him, trying to pet him. Shelly asks loudly and repeatedly when I got a dog. Joey and Janine arrive and start greeting everyone. Jeremy and Walden spot each other and make their way through the melee to shake hands.
And then Jeremy looks across the room and catches my eye. Giving Walden one of those thumps on the shoulder that manly men give each other, he pushes his way through the throng to me, the only other sane person in the room, and we meet at the bottom of the stairs.
“Gonna go out on a limb here and say that pancake batter in your hair the day I moved in had something to do with your family,” he says in a low voice.
“You had your chance,” I reply. “I can’t believe you came back.”
His eyes sparkle with amusement. “Are you kidding? I wouldn’t miss this for the world. You look gorgeous, by the way.”
For a moment, all the barking and squealing and chatter melt away and it’s just me and Jeremy, staring into each other’s eyes.
“Hey, there you are, sis!” Walden dodges Trent, who is doing an airplane impression, and walks over to give me a hug. “Mom said you forgot all about us.”
“I never knew—” I start but Shelly appears out of nowhere.
