Page 17 of Second Start: Family
The only movement was from Bobby, who was pulling his paper napkin toward the edge of the table to grab the fork on top of it.
Easter before last. The last family celebration before their mother’s death? Hall and his three older children seemed momentarily frozen by the memory.
“Often the guest of honor is asked to say grace,” Kenzie said. “I would be happy to say grace if you would like. Molly? Lizzie?”
Lizzie looked at Molly, who nodded.
“Oh, Lord, we thank you for your bounty. The bounty of the land, the bounty of the sky, and the bounty of the ocean. Amen.”
“Amens” hopscotched around the table, with neither Dan nor Bobby contributing.
Lizzie followed her “amen” up immediately. “But we don’t have anything from the ocean. The chicken’s from the sky, and the rest’s from the ground, but nothing’s from the ocean.”
“That’s very observant, Lizzie,” Kenzie said with a smile.
“Have you seen the ocean?” Molly asked.
“I have.”
That started questions from the girls that kept conversation going while they all ate. Kenzie tried to fill their curiosity about what an ocean looked and sounded and smelled and felt like.
Hall had joined Dan and Bobby in the silence of the Quick males, but she felt his attention. Especially when she bit into a frosty piece of chicken with audible results. She swallowed.
If she slighted the meal in any way it would hurt these girls who had tried so hard. And kept working hard now at being good hostesses.
They cleared the table, then returned with a bowl that threatened to slosh red over its sides as Lizzie carried it.
Dan immediately said, “I’m not eatin’ that. I’m having ice cream.”
“But you gotta have the dessert we made. We made Jell-O special, because Miss Kenzie likes strawberries, and the ice cream’s just vanilla.”
“This isn’t Jell-O, it’s red juice. You didn’t get it cold enough.”
“We used cold water.”
“You gotta leave it in the fridge for hours, stupid.”
“Dan.”
Hall’s growl earned a scowl from his son. It was hot and hard enough that Kenzie felt it heating her cheeks as its path passed her.
But the girls’ crestfallen faces showed they’d already recognized the truth of what Dan said.
“You could have both.” Kenzie slid in her suggestion, focusing on the girls on either side of her. “You could have ice cream and spoon some, uh, Jell-O over it as a sauce. And if you put what’s left in the refrigerator, later you’ll have regular Jell-O, too.”
Both of them brightened.
“Okay.”
Hall helped the girls dish up the hard ice cream, clearly trying to aid their efforts as much as he tactfully could.
Kenzie watched the girls happily chattering with occasional responses from their father.
But at the table, silence reigned.
She felt Dan’s curious look, but didn’t return it.
Instead, she faced Bobby. “Do you like stories?”
