“He gets all that seriousness from his father,” Millie said.
I glanced at Frank and wondered if he was secretly a sociopath, too. Were Millie and Shannon just his camouflage? Did this run in families? Shannon seemed to believe he’d been born this way, so where had it come from? Certainly not from Millie unless she was the world’s best actress.
And yet I was sure if Frank were a predator, Shannon would have easily been able to spot it. And Frank would have just as easily spotted the traits in his son. No, Frank would be as horrified as his wife to learn what his son was.
“Did Shannon tell you he served our country in the military?” Frank asked, beaming and animated for the first time of the evening.
I wasn’t sure what Shannon wanted me to say, but this must be a safe enough topic. I was sure his parents had no idea what exactly he’d been doing in the military, but they seemed so proud of him and their vague notion of their son the soldier fighting to protect our freedoms. Over the fireplace mantel was a large framed photo of Shannon in his formal dress uniform.
Even though I knew it was foolish to feel anything for someone like Shannon, I couldn’t help it. Seeing him like that, my heart leaped up into my throat. There was something about a man in uniform.
Shannon appeared in the doorway then. “Mom, I put your flowers on the table in the foyer.”
“Thank you, dear. Dinner’s ready if everyone would like to come into the dining room,” Millie said.
She’d made a roast in a creamy gravy and mashed potatoes and green beans and a salad. And she’d pushed something called sweet tea on me with extreme insistence.
“Those beans are from Millie’s garden out back,” Frank said as he took his seat at the head of the table. “She canned a whole mess of them. Shannon, you and Elodie need to take a few jars back with you.”
“Oh yes, you really have to,” Millie said. Then she turned to me. “Have you ever had green beans from the garden, Elodie?”
I felt frozen, my blood turning cold in my veins all of a sudden. I’d been about to automatically say ’No, Ma’am, I haven’t’, when it occurred to me that perhaps I had. I just didn’t remember if I had. It was moments like this I’d been dreading: everything rolling along just fine until some small innocuous thing reminded me of how different I was. Everyone at the table watched expectantly, waiting for my answer.
“No, Ma’am, I haven’t,” I went ahead and said. It may or may not be true, but from my perspective it was true enough for the moment.
“So,” Millie said, “How did you two meet?”
I was happy to let Shannon field this one.
“At an amusement park.”
I nearly choked on my green beans, which were as wonderful as advertised. She’d added some kind of oil to them and sugar, which made the flavors pop.
“Oh?” Millie said. “An operational one, or one of the ones you and your friends like to explore?”
“It was operational. We were both there alone on a special lovebirds discount day and we pretended to be a couple to get the discount. Then we spent the day together in the park. By the time they started shooting off fireworks that night, I was smitten.”
Millie sighed. “I love that story.”
I loved it, too. Too bad it wasn’t true. But somehow I doubted, I killed the man she was with in an abandoned amusement park castle, disposed of the body, and basically kidnapped her, and now she can never leave me, would be as charming.
The rest of dinner was as delicious as it looked. Shannon’s mom was quite the cook, which was hard to believe, given how fit she was. But I had a feeling she’d made this dinner special for Shannon and that these were some of his favorite foods.
I was grateful I didn’t have to talk much about myself. Millie and Frank asked the polite questions about what I did for a living and where I’d gone to school. I took Shannon’s advice and stuck to script, deviating only in the places that might give me away, though I was sure I looked nothing like the photos of me that had made the news network rounds months ago. And how many people would remember anyway? At best, I would look vaguely familiar. They’d be sure they’d seen me somewhere, but couldn’t quite remember where.
I still found it hard to believe Shannon had recognized me and Trevor immediately in the castle. But Shannon had probably been trained to notice details in a way most hadn’t. And then there was the endless perceptiveness that had been required in his childhood just to survive it with his mask of normality intact.
After dinner, Millie brought out coffee and a chocolate silk pie. I wasn’t sure I had room for it, but she insisted.
“So, how serious is it?” Millie asked, aiming her question directly at Shannon.
She was certainly a nice woman, but I was sure Shannon could have brought in a bag lady off the street and Millie would have been equally excited that her nice boy had finally found someone.