Read Online Love All: A Novel by Callie Wright - Free Book Online Page B

the table where we sat—and everyone who came to dinner, which was mostly Carl and sometimes Sam, sat in the seat across from Mom.
    “Why don’t you switch with me?” said Mom. “I’ll go next to Teddy.”
    “I’m fine, Anne.”
    Mom put up her palms as though she’d run into an invisible wall. If it weren’t for my father, we would’ve spread like roaches to eat alone in our favorite holes. Mom preferred the kitchen island, stooped over a legal brief. Teddy and I liked to split the purple couch, careful not to touch. Who knew what Poppy liked—he seemed miserable at our dinner table and given the chance probably would have scurried off to the TV in his room.
    “So,” Dad began, “any second thoughts about the tennis team?”
    “No,” I lied.
    Teddy launched into a detailed description of his knuckleball, offering his sock for a demonstration, but Mom said no.
    Suddenly Poppy cleared his throat and said, “I had no lunch today.”
    “You did, Poppy. PB&J, remember?” But he wasn’t talking to me.
    Mom apologized for not leaving him a sandwich and said she’d go to the grocery store tomorrow, but Poppy only shrugged.
    “I don’t want to put you out,” he said.
    “You’re not putting me out, Dad. I’ll get some of those soups Mom buys and whatever else you like.”
    “I don’t know how to fix all that,” said Poppy.
    Mom took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, and I wondered if she was wishing Nonz were here as much as I was. The last time Nonz and Poppy had come over for dinner, he hadn’t had any problem sitting near us and when he’d needed something from the kitchen he’d walked right in and found it.
    “Dad,” said Mom gently. “Hugh and I both work.”
    Poppy pushed his plate away.
    “Now you’re not eating,” Mom observed. “You just said you were hungry.”
    “Never mind,” said Poppy. “I’ll be fine without.”
    “Jesus, Dad—”
    “Anne,” my father warned, and Mom shifted her gaze to him.
    “What, Hugh?”
    “Nothing,” he said. “Let’s try to be calm.”
    God, did he never learn?
    “‘Let’s?’” Mom repeated. “This isn’t preschool, Hugh. My father is an adult and if he can dish it out he can very well take it.”
    Dad wiped his mouth and made a show of putting his napkin in his lap, carefully smoothing it so that he didn’t have to actually look at my mother when he said, “No, you’re right. You’re absolutely right. I just thought it’s his first day—”
    Mom threw up her hands, frustrated. “Why is this my fault?”
    I glanced at Teddy, who was picking a cuticle on his thumb.
    “Anne,” said Dad.
    “I’m exhausted!”
    Her blue eyes, normally clear, were bloodshot, small pouches bagging under the lower lids. Suddenly Mom covered her face with her napkin, sour cream brushing into her hair; I’d never seen her cry and quickly looked away.
    Dad jumped up from his chair while I scooted mine back. “Come on,” he said, helping Mom up. She was only a few inches shorter than he was but just then she looked like a child.
    When they were gone, Teddy tossed his napkin on the table and in five long strides he was at the back stairs, climbing them two at a time.
    Minutes passed. Poppy and I didn’t speak. Outside, it was nearly dark.
    Poppy picked up his quesadilla and bit. His teeth chomped through the thin tortillas, wood knocking wood. My parents still hadn’t come back to the table and neither had Teddy, who flung himself out the front door soon after leaving me with Poppy.
    “Why don’t you and Mom get along?” I asked.
    Knock knock knock.
    “Poppy?”
    “Huh?”
    “Why don’t—”
    “We get along fine.”
    I cleared the table—though technically it was Teddy’s turn—using my knife to scrape my mother and brother’s food onto my father’s plate, then stacking them all on mine. I reached for Poppy’s plate but he said he wasn’t finished.
    I carried the dishes to the kitchen, where it was so dark I had to feel for the