Page 33 of Suits and Spark Plugs

The three of them followed me into the kitchen and sat at our little four-seat corner table. I’d dug out Mom’s place mats and nicer plates and cups. The table hadn’t looked this good in a long time.

“Tell us about yourself,” Mom said to Blaine after offering a prayer over our meal. She started passing the food around.

“I work and live in Springfield, I run a marketing firm with my father, and I’m an only child,” he said in a perfectly polished tone.

“Sounds like this one is a provider,” Sadie stated around a mouthful of food while wiggling her eyebrow at me.

“A provider?” he asked.

I shook my head, but Sadie persisted. “Yeah, you know, if Liv decides to marry you, she’ll be well taken care of.”

I tried to laugh, but it sounded strangled. “Sadie, stop teasing the poor guy. He just met you.” She wasn’t teasing, for the record.

“All I know is that I’m never going to marry someone who doesn’t provide for me, or someone who’s never around. I’m glad Liv found someone who isn’t like that.” Sadie took a swig of her drink.

It was kind of a sweetly cruel statement, but before I could decide how I felt about it, I saw Mom’s face drain of color and knew how she’d taken it. My heart sank, even as I pasted on a smile.

“Marriage?” I meant it to come out with a light laugh, but it sounded strangled. “We’re still getting to know each other. That’s never even...”

Blaine’s hand came to rest on my shoulder, causing my mouth to clamp shut as heat warmed my face. “We’ve never discussed marriage, but if it happened, I can provide for Olivia. And, I don’t enjoy traveling, so I’d never be too far away.” Blaine’s eyes had become watchful, as though he realized he was in a minefield but didn’t know which direction the explosion would come from. His smile, amazingly, remained polite.

I was momentarily distracted by the news that he didn’t like to travel. It didn’t seem to gel with the idea of him I had built in my head, or the idea of my own future. I wanted to travel someday, and he always presented himself as someone world-wise.

Sadie nodded and Mom remained mute.

Blaine cleared his throat and turned to me. “This lasagna is delicious, babe. I didn’t know you cooked so well.”

“She usually doesn’t.” Sadie shrugged.

Mom reappeared in the conversation at last. “Liv is so busy with work and school, but she does her best to help around here and keep us all in order.” She patted me on the hand. “She’s a wonderful cook.”

“I wish someone had taught me how to cook.” Sadie shrugged again. I was poisoning her next meal.

“I’m sorry about that, honey. I was able to be home more when Liv was your age,” Mom replied.

“Yeah, before Daddy took off,” Sadie mumbled.

Nope, poison was too good for her. The guillotine was sounding promising. “Dad didn’t take off,” I replied with stiff lips, the lie tasting terrible. I turned to Blaine. “He works in the North Dakota oil fields. We wish we saw him more.”

Blaine nodded. “I’ll bet his winters are awfully cold. He probably misses this warm house and his beautiful girls.”

I pretty near cried over how nice his comment had been. He’d just outclassed my family by a thousand percent. I reached for his hand resting on the table and squeezed it. His expression warmed and relaxed.

“How did you and Liv meet?” Mom asked.

“I was in town meeting a client and they suggested the diner for a bite to eat before my drive back. As luck would have it, Olivia was working that night. I talked her into giving me her number.”

“That’s a nice story.” Mom smiled. “How long have you been dating now?”

“Three months,” I replied distractedly, wondering for the first time why he insisted on continuing to call me Olivia when no one else did. I liked my name and had no problem with it, but it felt foreign to hear it somehow, like he was an acquaintance rather than someone in my circle. I’d have to mention it to him. Maybe he’d just assumed Liv was only a nickname.

“Well, I’m glad we can at last put a face to the name,” Mom offered.

“I’m sure it took Liv so long to bring you around because she didn’t want us to scare you off,” Sadie cracked.

And so the next hour went—Blaine trying his hardest to be kind, Sadie trying her hardest to be the worst, and Mom trying her hardest to smooth it all over. For my part, I was trying my hardest to not commit murder and to chew my food slowly.

At last I was walking Blaine to the door. I grabbed a blanket off the back of the couch on my way out and draped it across my shoulders for warmth against the snowy night.

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