Page 78 of The Huckleberry Bookshop

Athena’s parents were so warm and welcoming that he could see why she was such an amazing woman. She had their warmth and smarts, their humor and sense of fun.

And yet right now Athena wasn’t having fun. He’d been working behind the scenes to make things right in her life again, and while he was beyond deserving forgiveness, there was still a flicker of hope burning inside him. Or maybe it was stupidity. Either way, it spurred him onward in his quest to continue fixing all the things he’d mishandled.

“You may have heard that your daughter and I got off on the wrong foot,” he said tentatively, breaking a momentary lapse in the chatter.

Athena, who was finishing up the eggs, turned from the stove, blinking at him. She looked hurt, almost as if she was going to cry. Or maybe scream.

“I did hear something,” Mrs. Gavras admitted.

“What happened?” Meddy asked, giving Athena a cautious glance, as though aware she was treading where a younger sister might not be welcome.

“It wasn’t her fault.”

Athena had turned back to the stove and hunched her shoulders, like she wanted to block out his words.

“She said something that reminded me of my sister. Evonne.” Mullens focused on slicing the rind away from the sweet center of a honeydew melon, not on the way it hurt saying his sister’s name out loud. It was like breaking through the thin ice on top of a puddle, the frigid water below zipping straight to his nerve endings, making them zing.

“You hated her?” Meddy asked, her voice rising with surprise.

“Meddy!” Athena snapped, her eyes wide with alarm as she peeked at Mullens.

“No. We were really close, actually. But she passed away when I was thirteen.”

He inhaled, then exhaled. As the team’s therapist had promised, it was getting easier to talk about. He’d told a lot of people about Evonne recently, working on becoming the kind of man who could open up and be an equal to a woman like Athena.

It still hurt, but he no longer felt the impulse to lash out or shut down.

“Oh, hon.” Darianna’s eyes filled with sorrow, as though she’d known the girl herself.

“So we got off on the wrong foot because I reminded you of Evonne?” Athena said, moving to his side. She placed her hand over his, gently encouraging him to release the knife handle he’d been squeezing. “Why? What did I do?”

She watched him, her head tipped to one side, and he wondered where they’d be right now if he’d taken care of his grief much sooner. But maybe it wasn’t too late, and with some serious effort he could get them there.

“If I could take back that moment,” he murmured, “I would.”

“Grief is a funny thing,” Mrs. Gavras said. “It comes at the most inconvenient times.”

“What did I do?” Athena repeated, her expression stricken, as though she was ready to blame herself for the battle they’d been engaged in since day one.

Over the lump in his throat, he managed to say, “Broccoli and pancakes.”

Broccoli and pancakes? Was Chad joking? How on earth had all this conflict between them come from two unassuming foods?

“I used to tell my sister a joke about broccoli,” Chad said, as they put the last dishes on the table and took their seats. Athena’s mom sat at one end, her father at the other, Meddy across from her. Chad was at Athena’s right, having hustled in to take the chair closest to her mom, then lifting his dog from Darianna’s lap to set him on the floor. Both Darianna and Stitches had given him a sad look.

Meddy groaned. “Not that stupid joke Athena tells?”

He nodded slowly.

“What’s the difference between broccoli and boogers?” Athena confirmed.

“Kids won’t eat broccoli!” her dad crowed, scooping fruit salad onto his plate.

Chad smiled weakly.

Athena’s heart sank. One moment of goofing around and she’d been inadvertently insensitive, sinking their potential relationship before it was even out of the harbor.

“New-player orientation,” she whispered. She’d assumed her immaturity had turned him off. She hadn’t even considered the joke had been a trigger of some sort. But why would she? Who had a trigger involving booger jokes?

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