Page 73 of The Devil She Knows
“Don’t just stand there,” Mom cried, already stepping out onto the front porch with her arms held out in front of her. “C’mere!”
She met Sam at the top of the porch steps, arms wrapping around her middle and rocking her from side to side. Sam closed her eyes and tucked her face against Mom’s shoulder. She smelled like homemade honey butter and lavender, like the inside of the cedar chest where she stored her sweaters to keep the moths from eating holes in them. Sam squeezed her tight.
“Who is it—Sammie?”
Sam lifted her head and smiled at Dad, who stood in the doorway looking gobsmacked. “Hi, Daddy.”
“I thought I was seeing things.” He stepped onto the porch barefooted and leaned down, mustache scuffing Sam’s skin when he brushed a kiss against her forehead. “It has been a month of Sundays since we saw you, baby girl.”
Mom cleared her throat pointedly, brows lifted high, her eyes fixed over Sam’s shoulder.
Daphne smiled up at them from the bottom of the stairs. Sam couldn’t remember handing her the carrier, but she must have because Daphne was holding it now, holding it out like you might carry a cake. “Hello.”
Mom smiled politely back, Daddy, too.
Her hands started to sweat, and she fought the urge toscoff at herself. Not twelve hours ago she had stood before a three-headed dog, a literal Hell beast, and the prospect of introducing Daphne to her folks was what made her nervous? To be fair, she’d been sweating then, too, but for good reason.Thiswas just silliness.
“Momma, Daddy, this is Daphne.” She wiped her palms off on her thighs. “Daphne, this is my momma and my daddy, Renée and Noah.”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you both.” Daphne beamed, her ability to look like butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth never ceasing to amaze Sam. “Samantha’s told me only good things about you.”
“A pleasure to meet you, too, Daphne.” Mom stepped inside the house and held open the door. “Come on in.”
Daphne passed the cat carrier back to Sam, who set it down just inside beside the novelty umbrella stand shaped like a giant rain boot.
“You have a lovely home, Mrs. Cooper,” she said, looking Mom in the eye.
It was something everyone said upon entering someone’s home, but Daphne sounded like she meant it.
“Renée’s just fine,” Mom said, but she sounded pleased as punch, always a fan of good manners. “If you can believe it, I’ve been married to this one”—she nudged Dad with her elbow—“going on thirty-six years, but to this day when I hear somebody sayMrs. Cooper, I start looking over my shoulder for his momma.” She leaned in close, voice dropping to a stage whisper. “She was hell on heels, let me tell you. Not to speak ill of the dead, mind, but that woman was a handful and a half.”
Dad shook his head, a look of wry amusement on his face.
“Hell on heels, huh?” Daphne slipped her shoes off at the door. “You don’t say.”
Daddy cracked the lids on two bottles of Abita Amber and passed one of them to Sam.
“I thought Momma said you weren’t supposed to be drinking beer on this new diet the doctor’s got you on. Heart health, right?”
“Beer’s a carb, innit?” Dad asked, settling back in his recliner. “I log it as my SmartCarb and call it a day.” He pointed his bottle at her. “As should you, missy. Mind your beeswax.”
“All right, all right,” she said through laughter. “Not my circus, not my monkeys. Got it.”
She didn’t even know what the hell a SmartCarb was, and quite frankly, she didn’t want to.
“Speaking of circus animals,” Daddy said, kicking his feet up on his footrest. “Are we going to talk about the elephant in the room, or am I supposed to go on pretending like it’s not there?”
Sam paused with her bottle halfway to her lips. “Elephant?”
He huffed. “The pink one.”
Her lips twitched and she fought not to laugh. “Daddy, I hate to tell you, but if you’re seeing pink elephants, maybe yououghtto cool it on the beer.”
Dad sucked his teeth and shook his head. “That’s not Hannah in the kitchen making corn pone with your momma, Sam.”
“Quite astute of you,” she said, scraping at the soggy label of her beer, peeling back the corner with her thumbnail.
“Sammie.”
