Page 5 of The Hampton Beach Café 5
Frances blinked hard. Wait, what had her mom just inferred??
“Did you... milkshake him!?” Kennedy asked, her voice laced with awe.
“Well, I suppose you could call it that––piled up with whipped cream it was too!”
Watching in a shade of horror as her mother giggled at the memory, Frances tried to take in the reality of that anecdote.
“But you guys never got a divorce, right?” she asked.
Her mom shrugged. “I never signed anything.”
Frances wanted so badly to point out that it was illegal in most states, but the resigned expression on her mom’s face shut her up.
The doorbell rang, and all three women turned to look at it––Kennedy's face fell.
“What did you do?” Frances asked. This couldn't be good.
“I, uhm, thought we would be a little further along in the conversation than this by now… and he's early!”
She looked so deeply uncomfortable, Frances almost felt sorry for her––almost. The confusion on her mom's face, though, was more compelling.
“Mom, Kennedy and I found something out recently,” she said. “It was the reason we were never friends in high school––Kennedy always thought I knew about dad's... relationship with her mom.”
“Oh,” Linda said thoughtfully. “I can see how that would take a toll on a potential friendship.”
The doorbell rang again, and Kennedy stood while speaking.
“Yeah... well, as it turns out... we are actually half-sisters––paternally, that is.”
Linda looked from one to the other blankly. Frances half expected her to burst into tears or yell.
Neither thing occurred, and Frances realized that she needed to reevaluate every assumption she had ever made about her mom.
“Yes... that would make a certain level of sense,” she said calmly. “I always said that you two were more alike than you'd ever admit. Who exactly have you invited to my house, Kennedy?”
Kennedy swallowed hard.
“My little brother... my, uh, twenty-three-year-old brother.”
Kennedy turned on her heel and made a beeline for the front door, leaving Frances alone with her mom for the first time that visit.
“Are you alright?” she asked her mom quietly.
“I suppose so,” she replied. “Are you?”
It shouldn't be that hard to answer, or to lie. Yet she struggled to do either. Her failed attempts at a response resulted in a low, almost strangled sound that made her mom laugh.
“That sound's just what I was looking for,” she giggled.
Kennedy reentered the room, followed by a wide-eyed guy with an awkward painted smile on his face.
“Uh, Linda,” Kennedy said, an equally awkward smile on her own face. “This is William... He's...”
A loud and brittle sound echoed as Linda misjudged replacing her coffee mug on the saucer. Frances turned to face her mom, rising slightly in her seat and ready to leap to her defense.
“He's the reason... isn't he?”
William's smile didn't move as he spoke through his teeth. “Ken––what's going on?”
