As Vickie heaped a large spoonful of mashed potatoes onto her plate, Robin thought this was what family was supposed to be, and when Derek asked what Robin did for a living, for the first time since she had been demoted, she laughed. And proclaimed that she was a bona fide expert on bubble wrap.
Sitting across from her, Jake quietly watched her, feeling awfully proud as she extolled the virtues of well-made bubble wrap. It seemed funny now that he had worried she would find his family and their ways a little barbaric for her refined tastes, or that Mom would manage to chase her off before dinner was even served. Robin was a champ; if she was appalled by the free-for-all, he couldn’t see it, and furthermore, she actually seemed to enjoy the back-and-forth banter with Derek about the size of bubbles in bubble wrap.
In truth, as he looked at Robin, gorgeous Robin, he could admit that he had seen a change in her over the last several weeks. She had gone from the sort of highbrow woman who had a habit of looking through people like him to one who now looked directly at him, into him. One who could let him look back without squirming.
That afternoon, Elissa and Nicholas and even Cole hunted for the Easter eggs Robin had brought as the adults prepared for the traditional game of horseshoes, played every Easter without respect for age, gender, or ability. They formed teams of two, Derek and Jake ganging up on Vickie and Robin. Robin was as hapless at horseshoes as she was at bowling, but Vickie, bless her, laughed louder than anyone when Robin threw a horseshoe and broke the hummingbird feeder Vickie had given Mom. When the game was finished—Derek and Jake winning an unapologetic twenty-one to four, and with four ringers to his credit—Jake took a seat on the back porch with Mom to watch Robin and Cole play against Zaney and little Nicholas.
When Wanda got up to go in and make a pot of coffee, Mom lit up a smoke and inhaled deeply. “She’s real nice, Jacob,” she said as she watched Zaney do one of his famous shot-put-horseshoe tosses that scattered Cole and Robin to opposite ends of the yard. “And real pretty. I can see why you’re crazy about her.”
“Mom, don’t start,” he warned her. “Don’t make a big deal out of this.”
She exhaled, looked at him from the corner of her eye. “You think I don’t know you? You think that your mother can’t take one look at you and know you’re gaga about that woman?”
Man, he hated when she did that. “You’re imagining things,” he said dismissively.
“The hell I am,” she said with an air of motherly superiority. “And you’d be a fool not to be crazy about her. I just hope you’re not so foolish that you get hurt.”
“Hurt? What are you talking about?”
Mom paused to tap the ash from her smoke, then inhaled deeply again. “Just what I said. I hope you don’t get hurt, Jacob. She’s real pretty and she’s real nice, but it’s real obvious she don’t belong down here. She might as well be from the other side of the world. One day, you might just wake up and find her gone back to that side of the world. That’s all I’m saying.”
God, but Mom had a way of bluntly stating the truth that grated on him. Like he hadn’t thought of that every day they had been together. Like that didn’t haunt his growing and deep attachment to Robin. Nonetheless, he snorted at her suggestion. “You watch too many movies, Mom. I’m having a good time right now, nothing more, so there’s no need for you to worry about me.”
She laughed. “How dumb do I look, Jacob?” she asked, and still laughing, ground out her cigarette before going inside to help Wanda.
Chapter Twenty-three
They left the Easter gathering with Robin promising an exuberant Vickie that she would come again. Cole followed them out, wearing his new space shoes, and carrying the remaining painted eggs, trailing Robin. He waited until Jake took the bag from him and went around the other side to put it in the truck before speaking to Robin in a near whisper. “There’s a dance at the school next week,” he said, looking at his feet.
“Oh yeah? Are you going to ask Tara?” Robin asked.
Cole shrugged, scuffed the toe of his shoe on the curb. “I don’t know. Maybe.”
“I think you should. I bet Tara would be thrilled if you called her.”
Cole seemed to think about that, then shrugged again. “She’d think it was really sweet if Dustin asked her. Not me.”
Robin buffed Cole on the shoulder and made him look up. He had beautiful brown eyes and long dark lashes, just like his uncle. “Don’t be so sure about that. I’m a girl, and I’d want you to call.”
He flushed, grinned sheepishly, and looked at the ground again as Jake came around from the back of the truck.