Page 104 of Reckless
“You say that like it surprises you.”
“Well I’m confused to be honest.”
“About what.”
“Whether to be angry at you or pretend last night didn’t happen.”
My heart stilled.I didn’t want her to regret.I swallowed and asked, “Which are you leaning toward.”
“Angry is safer but honestly your mother’s pastries are making that difficult.”
“They have that effect.”
“It feels deliberate.”
“It is.She has weaponized breakfast since before I was born.”
“That explains a lot about you.”
“What does that mean.”
“It means you treat every meal like a negotiation.”
“I treat every meal like fuel.”
There was nothing in the words themselves.
Everything was in that her voice sounded a little lower than usual.
Hope looked between us once, opened her mouth, caught Kelly’s eye, and chose life instead.She turned back to Avril and said something about pastries with the desperate energy of a woman redirecting a train.
Interesting.Kelly had handled her friends well.
My mother started instructing staff about fruit as if brunch required military precision.Charlie launched into some story about the bar and his own dancing.Jeff corrected three parts of it on principle.The room moved around us in normal family noise.
Kelly took a sip of tea and carefully did not look at me but I liked being near her.
I poured more tea without being asked and refilled her glass before she reached for the carafe.
Kelly looked at the tea.Then at me.
I should have left it there.Instead I said, low enough that only she could hear, “You didn’t sleep.”
Her gaze sharpened instantly.“You don’t know that.”
“It’s in your eyes.”
“Yeah, you’re right.”
She looked away again, but I caught the faint color climbing under her skin before she hid from me behind the tea glass.
God.
Breakfast stretched on.Plans for the afternoon.Someone asking about Adrien’s cap and gown.My mother deciding we all needed lunch at one whether anyone was hungry or not.
Kelly relaxed in increments.
She laughed more once the first fifteen minutes passed and no one interrogated her.She argued with Miley about something practical and useless involving real estate photos.She told my father a story about one of her students trying to sell her a rock on the playground and called it an early market instinct, which earned a genuine laugh from him and made my mother look smug.
