Read Online The Best Thing for You by Annabel Lyon - Free Book Online Page A

have drowned him before his eyes opened.” He goes to the foot of the stairs. “What the fuck is your problem?” he yells up into the din.
    In the kitchen, I check the food: pots of curry and rice, dishes of nuts and condiments. “Should Ty eat with us?” I ask when Liam comes back.
    “Okay, yes,” Liam says, like he’s been expecting this. “Yes, because I am not just going to let him turn into this thing he wants to turn into. If we let him eat in his room we’re sending these terrible messages, that it’s okay to be anti-social, that he’s not welcome, maybe even that we’re afraid of him, of letting these people meet him. If he starts to think we’re afraid of him all hell is going to break loose.”
    “He had one bad week.”
    “He’s not the one that got arrested.”
    A pot on the stove spits and seethes. I turn the burner down. “Are we being too hard on him?”
    “You mean me.”
    “I do, actually, yes.”
    We’re looking at each other, squaring off for round one, when the doorbell rings. Liam clears his throat. “Settle down,” I tell him.
    “Doctor,” May says, when I open the door. Grinning, she hands me flowers. Her husband has a brush cut and round glasses behind which his eyes are tiny as raisins. He’s grinning too. He hands Liam a bottle of wine, looks at the ceiling, and says, “Wow.” He means the noise.
    “You have kids?” Liam says.
    “Is that what that is?”
    I say, “He’s had a bad week.”
    “Jupiter, my husband,” May says, and we do introductions.
    “Jupiter,” Liam says, shaking his hand.
    “Pretty good,” he says to May, cocking his head at Liam.
    “Really good,” May says.
    “My name,” he explains. “You didn’t react at all.”
    “Kate warned me.”
    Jupiter laughs. “There was a vogue for it in the late sixties, okay? I know a tax accountant named Pluto. I used to go by Jay but in law school my mentor told me I should use it so people would remember me.”
    “Wow, you had a mentor,” I say, moving us into the kitchen.
    “We all got assigned one,” Jupiter says.
    “Law school.” Liam’s pouring wine, keeping his voice even. “What kind of law?”
    “Civil lit.” We listen to the seepage from Ty’s music, an icy, thrashing crush, like a speeded-up record. “What do they call this stuff?”
    I say, “Jungle.”
    Liam says, “Schubert.”
    “I’m looking forward to meeting your son,” May says.
    Liam hands her a glass of wine. “You’re a brave woman.” We all raise our glasses. “Crime,” Liam says.
    Jupiter and May touch glasses. “Crime!”
    “Settle down,” I say.
    We lay places in the kitchen, where it’s warmer and friendlier than the dining room. The dining room is also where Ty had his interview with Officer Stevens. “Is it true, what you told Calvin about being in a punk band?” May asks.
    “Who’s Calvin?” Liam wants to know.
    “Kid at work. Yeah, it’s true.” I stop, uncomfortable.
    “Always the quiet ones,” Jupiter offers.
    “The first time I saw her,” Liam says, setting a fork down, “at this party, she had a Mohawk hairstyle and war paint. Like, redand black slash marks here.” He touches my cheekbone with his thumb. “And this ripped-up dress, and safety pins through her fingertips, the soft part, the pads.”
    “Painless.” I shake my head. “Can we talk about something else?”
    “Kate, no,” May says, looking concerned.
    “She was with these two other guys dressed similarly. I later learned this was her band.”
    “We had this idea of sending up traditional Native American costume,” I say apologetically. “I don’t know what we were thinking. It was very rude.”
    “I ask around, I find out she sings, she plays guitar, she’s honours pre-med. I fall in love.”
    “Love,” I say. “You stalked me.”
    “It worked.” Liam rolls the stem of his wineglass between finger and thumb. “Smokin’ good wine, Jupiter, by the way.”
    Jupiter bows.
    “Stalked me,” I say.
    “I