“Even better.”
“She’s . . . a little older than Leah.”
“Like Isaac’s age?”
There’s a knock from the front of the house. I lean back to look out the storm door. Vivi’s standing there, waving and holding what appears to be a bottle of wine. She’s almost an hour early. Shit. She wasn’t supposed to know how much effort went into dinner. It was supposed to appear effortless. Like a feast at Hogwarts. Wait, no! I don’t want to be Dobby in this equation. Jesus. “No. Like the age of that girl right there. Because that is her.”
Silas glances at me, waggling his eyebrows as he moves to open the door. “You’re going to explain this to me later.”
Vivi’s wearing the same thing as she was earlier, short shorts and a loose sweater that is a useless shield for the bathing suit top beneath. She introduces herself to Silas and says something about not realizing I had a brother. Then she laughs when Silas tells her there are six of us total. I probably should have warned her this morning. Maybe she scares easy. If she does, she won’t last through the salad course.
“Hey, Jonah,” Vivi says brightly. She sets the bottle down on the counter. “I’ve never been early to anything in my life, but I thought I’d come over and hang out for a while before dinner, just because I kind of needed to get out of my house. And I brought some sparkling grape juice because I thought it would be fun, but that was before I knew that you have five siblings. So I guess everyone can have about as much as a shot glass can hold.”
She laughs again, that trilling sound. Silas stares between us, looking for the missing link in this story. Before I can respond, Leah turns the corner, almost crashing into Vivi’s bare legs.
“Vivi!” Leah cries. “You’re here! Hi! Do you want to see my coloring books?”
Without missing a beat, Vivi nods in amazement. “Of course! How did you know? That is precisely why I came over early.”
She winks at me as Leah tugs her by the arm, and my face is probably turning the color of the tomatoes. When they’re out of the room, I return to my pitting. I can feel my brother’s stare boring into me.
“Jonah, don’t lie to me. How did you get that girl to come over to our house?”
“What? I don’t know. What does that even mean?”
“Did you adopt her? Or hire her in some way?”
I make sure none of the littles are looking before giving Silas the finger with both hands.
“Chill.” He hits the back of my shoulder. “I’m just impressed you invited a cute girl over.”
“I didn’t. Leah did.”
“I get it now,” he says, pointing at the island. “Why you busted out the black cherry cobbler. Nice.”
“Shut up.” God, I’m a loser.
I used to be good at talking to girls. Or at least not bad. With three sisters, I know girls aren’t that mysterious. They’re just people. I used to talk my friend Zach through this like, Dude, just ask her questions like you would anybody. What’s she interested in? What does she care about? It’s not that hard. So I think I’m just rusty.
Leah and Vivi settle onto one of the benches at our huge farmhouse table. There are single chairs at each end, one for my mom and one for my dad. I always found the benches annoying during family dinners. You can’t shift around without making two of your siblings move with you. But now, I’d do anything to have a table filled with eight people. One of us always sits in my dad’s chair and another in my mom’s. It’s awkward, and it feels wrong. But it’s better than staring at two empty chairs.
Armed with a whole stack of coloring books, Leah explains every picture.
“See,” she tells Vivi. “This is where she goes out in the snow and wears the green dress.”
I try to keep focused on the dessert, but I can’t help eavesdropping on Vivi. She’s asking Leah about all of us, about how old we are and what we like to do. Vivi’s a snake charmer, making words rise out of Leah’s mouth. My sister chatters on—three bigs, three littles, but thankfully no mention of our parents.
“Smells great, Jonah!” Vivi calls when the pizza is hot enough to melt the cheese.
“Thanks.” Back to my cobbler. Because my talking-to-her track record is at crash-and-burn, screaming-as-we-plummet status.
Vivi squares her shoulders back toward Leah. “Okay, I think I’ve got them all. Naomi, Silas, Rutherford, Bekah, Isaac, and Leah.”
Leah dissolves into giggles. “No! Not Rutherford. Jonah.”
“Oh, right.” Vivi smacks her forehead. “Duh, Viv. Okay, tell them to me one more time.”
Taking a big breath, Leah recites all our names. “Naomi, Silas, Jonah, Bekah, Isaac, and me.”
“Naomi, Silas, Jonah, Bekah, Isaac,” Vivi repeats, “and me.”
The giggling starts all over again. “No, me . . . Leah!”
“My name’s not Leah!” Vivi says. “It’s Vivi!”
Leah’s a goner, sideways on the bench with laughter. I feel myself smiling.