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“Grandma!” Austin ran full speed and hugged Mom around her knees. “Auntie Margo! Uncle Nico! Wanna see my lizard?”
He reached into his pockets and a bunch of rocks and toys fell out and bounced on the wood floor. He didn’t notice and held up a rubber lizard by the tail. “Mommy hates lizards, but I think they’re cool. I want a real lizard. In a t-t-ter’im.”
“Terrarium,” Jack pronounced clearly.
“Yeah, a glass cage,” Austin said, holding his arms out as far as they could go to show a big enclosure.
Nico got down on the floor and motioned to Austin. “Help me pick up these cool rocks so no one steps on them.”
Austin dropped to help gather the rocks, telling Nico where he found each one.
Jack walked over to the refrigerator and grabbed a beer. “Where’s Whitney?” Mom asked.
“It’s her bunco night.”
I didn’t say anything, but exchanged a brief glance with my mom. She knew I didn’t like Whitney. It was so damn typical that she would bail on family dinner. Even Sundays, which were almost mandatory, Whitney showed up maybe half the time. It bothered Jack, but he never talked to me about it because he knew I didn’t like his wife.
I wish I did, because I loved my brother and I loved my nephew. I wanted someone who was perfect for him.
Whitney wasn’t that person.
But I kept my mouth closed. Mostly. Jack would do everything to make his marriage work because that was the man he was. I just wish I could say the same about Whitney.
Tess walked in from the garage with a stack of books, plopped them on the table. “Sorry, traffic was a mess.”
She squatted and accepted Austin leaping into her arms for a hug.
Tess was in her last year of law school at ASU and lived with Mom and Dad to save money. Like Mom, she first graduated from the University of Arizona with a dual degree in criminal justice and history. She had recently gone through a bad breakup—she’d been engaged to a guy we all kind of liked (okay, I didn’t, but I also tend to be more judgmental than the rest of my family) after dating him for two years. Then, as they started talking about a wedding date and sat down with our priest, he broke it off and said he didn’t think she was “the one” for him.
It tore her apart. Tess was eighteen months older than me and out of all of us, she’s the one who most wanted a traditional family. Husband, lots of kids, house in the same neighborhood she grew up in. She had recently started to date again, but was being super cautious so we hadn’t met anyone yet.
“Cooper, honey, can you get the casserole from the oven? Margo, the salad in the fridge...oh, darn, I need to heat up the beans.”
“I got it, Mom,” Jack said and retrieved them from the fridge to pop in the microwave.
Five minutes later, we were sitting around the table. Sundays were our regular family dinner, though half the time we went to my grandparents’ or Aunt Rita’s. But it wasn’t uncommon to get a text from Mom a couple times a month with an open-ended, “Dad and I would love to see you! I’ll have plenty for dinner.” Like we all got this morning.
Now, we were waiting for Lulu’s announcement. After dinner, I hoped to have time to pick Jack’s brain about the Cactus Stop shooting, but he wouldn’t stay late since it was a thirty-minute drive to his house in Litchfield Park.
We chatted and ate and Lu was surprisingly quiet. Something was up with her. Tess and I exchanged looks. A boy? Could be. Lu was studious, but she’d been dating Steven Prince since she was allowed to date at sixteen (and probably earlier than that). Mom and Dad liked him, knew his family well. He had accepted an athletic scholarship to Baylor, so I wouldn’t be surprised if Lu announced she was going there. It was a good school.
Mom said, “Okay, Luisa, you’ve been quiet all night, and you’re the one who called this family dinner.” She folded her napkin and placed it next to her empty plate. “You have our undivided attention.”
All of us, even fidgeting, chatty Austin, turned to Lu. My sister was gorgeous in every sense of the word. Dark wavy hair that she often straightened into a shiny waterfall, huge round brown eyes, pale brown skin that never hosted a pimple. She was athletic and strong and disciplined, and we all suspected she was our parents’ secret favorite. But somehow, none of us were bothered by that.
I loved Lu but had always felt a bit disconnected from her. She was eleven when I left for Fort Hood, which included an eighteen-month deployment at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar in the middle of my six-year enlistment. She grew from a bratty, sensitive, smart (and smart-ass) younger sister into an intelligent teenager with her own interests and life, much of which I knew little about.
Lu put her hands in her lap and I sensed she was nervous. Why?
What if she’s pregnant?
I don’t know why that was the first thought to pop into my head, but she was definitely not acting herself.
“I enlisted in the Marines today,” Lu said.
Silence around the table. I glanced at everyone, and realized that not only did no one expect such a declaration, but no one knew it was even a possibility. I hadn’t even considered it...
Then I remembered a conversation I had with Lu a few months ago. We’d been cleaning up after family dinner, just she and I, and she asked questions about my time in the Army. What I liked the most, what I disliked. I gave her some flip answers, but when she pressed, I had said, “I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life after high school. I didn’t want to sit in a classroom for four more years. I really didn’t know who I was. I know that sounds weird—I’ve never lacked for confidence or friends or things to do. But I didn’t want to go through the motions anymore. I thought separating from the family and being completely on my own—but with the structure and training the military provided—would help me...well, I guess, be the best me.” I laughed, because that sounded silly.
