Page 104 of June

Thirty minutes later, they were showered and back in Enid’s room. Having dressed for the day, Enid grabbed Caroline’s bag for her, and they headed downstairs. Enid planned on making a break for it right out the front door to get Caroline into the car and away from her parents, but her mother had another idea.

“Oh, hi, honey,” her mom said, peeking out from the kitchen just as Enid’s hand had been about to grasp the doorknob that represented her freedom.

“Hi, Mom,” she said, giving up on that dream. She then turned to her mother, who was holding a spatula in one hand, and asked, “Why are you holding that?”

“I’m making pancakes. Your dad’s starting work late to have breakfast. I made enough for everyone.”

“We’re heading to campus,” Enid replied, nodding toward Caroline.

“Enid,” Caroline said, giving her a glare.

“Oh, sorry. Mom, this is Caroline. Caroline, this is my mom.”

“It’s really nice to meet you,” Caroline said and walked over to Enid’s mom, holding out her hand.

“It’s nice to meet you, too.” Enid’s mom shook it with the hand not holding the spatula. “I’ve got a giant stack of pancakes. Are you hungry?”

“I am, actually,” Caroline replied, turning to Enid with a wide, conspiratorial smile on her face.

“Um… What about getting you to campus? You have thatthing, remember?”

“I’m good on time,” Caroline replied. “And you don’t have your project thing for over an hour, right?”

Enid just gave her a playful glare back because Caroline would be paying for this later, and Enid would enjoy every minute of it. Giving in, she followed both of them into the kitchen, where she also found her father sitting at the round table with the Wall Street Journal covering his face.

“Morning, Dad,” she said.

The paper folded down instantly as if he had been expecting her to walk in and had been trying to hold the paper up to the last possible second to look cool instead of giving himself away.

“Morning, honey,” he replied and turned to Caroline. “Hello.”

“Hi,” Caroline said.

“Dad, this is Caroline. Caroline, this is my dad.”

“It’s nice to meet you,” Caroline said, walking over to the table and holding out her hand.

Enid’s dad shook it while he took Caroline in. Then, he set the paper aside next to his half-finished glass of orange juice and continued to stare at her. Was he trying to figure out if Caroline had just had sex with his daughter? Enid’s heart thundered at the thought, and she felt a blush creep up her cheeks.

“So, what did you two get up to last night?” he asked.

Yes, hewastrying to figure out if Caroline had just had sex with his daughter, and he’d decided to go right for that information.

“We had dinner and came back here to watch a movie. Super chill,” Enid said, pulling out a chair for Caroline.

“What did you watch?” Enid’s mom jumped in on the interrogation as she flipped a pancake.

“The Goonies,” Caroline replied. “I’ve never seen it before.”

“You’ve never seen the–” Enid’s father stopped himself and shook his head.

“I know. I said the same thing when she told me,” Enid said as she sat down between her father and Caroline.

“When did you watch it?” her mom asked.

“Last night. I just told you,” Enid replied.

“Oh,” her mom said, seemingly thinking about something. “Right.”

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