Page 133 of The New Place

“Tell him I’m coming up to see him on Sunday, okay?” she asks. “In the morning. I’ll text him when I’m on my way.”

“I think he’s just back in the kitchen.”

“I am—oh, I am such a fucking wuss. I am actually okay not talking to him right now? Kind of glad he didn’t answer? But don’t tell him that, okay?”

“Okay,” Abbot agrees slowly.

“He’s a good guy? Right? You promise?”

“He is.”

“I’ll be up on Sunday,” she says.

Pat comes through the back door, not the kitchen, holding a wooden crate of wine bottles. “I think this is nice stuff,” he says, setting it on a table. “I looked it up and it’s not bad, at least. Not an ’02, but I think it’s worth a glass swirl and a thoughtful nod.”

“Claire’s coming to see you Sunday morning,” Abbot says.

Pat’s face splits in a wide grin. “She is? Awesome. She called?”

“Ned answered.” Abbot turns and yes, there’s Ned right behind him, hopefully navigating the conversation from any harm Charles can do to his parents. And behind him⁠—

“I suppose this is one way to go about things,” Beverly says with a laugh, and then she’s hugging him.

The smell of her perfume. How she rubs a circle on his back.

Did Ned truly have to invite her and Sandy both?

Yes, and Ned’s greeting them with hugs of his own, saying, “I’m so happy you could make it.”

“Wouldn’t miss this for anything,” Beverly says.

“I was told to jump right in the car,” Sandy confirms. “Oh, Chris, Susan. Charles! Everyone is here. What a treat.”

“I’m happy for you two.” Beverly keeps hold of Ned’s arm and reaches for Abbot’s.

He used to twist away from her gentle, familiar grasp. He wants to now, but he’s caught in this crowd and⁠—

Ned moves to take Abbot’s hand, neatly disentangling them both. “It was a pretty simple decision,” Ned says to her, and what would Abbot do without him? How did he manage for all those years of his life without this man?

Poorly, he knows. And barely, too.

“I’m glad of it,” Beverly says. “Ned, are these your parents?”

“Dan and Cheryl Coppola,” Abbot says, and he squeezes Ned’s hand. Too tight, maybe, but Ned returns the pressure.

Ned thought it was him Abbot wouldn’t talk to? That something was wrong with Ned that made Abbot not want to revisit his past?

No. No, not ever. But it’s difficult to stand here and watch this group of his father, Beverly and Sandy, Chris and Susan. And absent from it⁠—

No, he thinks. He knows he’s gripping Ned’s hand too hard, but Ned doesn’t pull away.

“Beverly’s a family friend,” Ned says, taking over the introduction so smoothly. “Beverly Jones, and her wife, Sandy. This is my father, Dan. Dad, this is Beverly.”

“So very nice to meet you both.” Dan takes her hand.

“Beverly is a new dean at Newbury,” Ned says. “And Sandy is in real estate.”

“Newbury! What a school, and our Ned teaching there,” Dan says. “Do you know Peggy? Where is she? Oh, over there, the one in the cape.”