Page 37 of Things We Hide from the Light
“Waylay, why don’t you go see how Grandpa is doing with the chicken?” Naomi suggested.
“You’re just sending me away so you can talk about gross grown-up stuff.”
“Yep,” Stef said. “Now get out of here so we can get to the gross stuff.”
Knox put his hand on the top of Waylay’s head and steered her toward the back door. “Come on, kid. Neither one of us needs to hear this.” Together they trooped out onto the deck and closed the door.
“Back to the thrusting,” Amanda insisted. She hopped onto a bar stool and did a little shimmy.
“I pulled over, being a Good Samaritan and all,” Stef continued.
“Is that what they call it these days?” Nash said dryly.
“I offered my assistance, but the rosy-cheeked Lina assured me they didn’t need any help with their dry humping.”
“We weren’t dry humping!” I insisted.
“Bet you could be arrested for that,” Liza J mused with more than just a hint of pride.
I threw a carrot from the veggie tray at Stef and it bounced off his forehead. “Ow!”
“We were fully clothed and pulling a dog—this dog—out of the storm drain, idiot.” I held Piper up to the crowdLion King–style.
“Speaking of, who’s gonna foster her until the rescue finds her a home?” Nash asked.
“I never thought a dog rescue story would disappoint me,” Amanda announced after a beat of silence.
“Let’s get back to Stef being a chickenshit,” I suggested.
A piece of cauliflower bounced off my cheek and landed on the floor.
Lou opened the door, and the flood of dogs rushed in. Liza J’s pit bull, Kitty, plopped her butt at my feet and stared up at the pumpkin-sweatered dog in my arms. Waylon gobbled up the floor cauliflower, while Beeper tap-danced at Lou’s feet.
“Chicken’s ready,” he announced. “What did I miss?”
“Nothing,” Nash and I said together.
EIGHT
GREEN BEANS AND LIES
Nash
Dinner was as chaotic as a Morgan family gathering usually got. But what I’d once found enjoyable was now plain exhausting.
Conversations flew back and forth across the large table over the country music playing in the background. It went too quickly for me to keep up with let alone participate in, even if I had the energy, which I didn’t. I’d spent all day at the station and being shadowed by a U.S. marshal who seemed to take great joy in pissing me the fuck off.
I was bone tired. But I’d come here for one reason, and that was to get answers from Lina “Insurance Is So Boring” Solavita. She’d lied to me and my family, and I was going to find out why.
I’d brought Piper along for company. The dog looked as weary as I felt. She was passed out in a tiny ball against Kitty on a dog bed in the corner. The rest of the canine crew had been too rambunctious to join the party and were banished outside.
Food was passed and drinks were topped off, sometimes without even being asked. I stuck to my one and only beer andforced myself to eat just enough not to draw anyone’s attention. We Morgans were plain bad at talking about feelings, which meant I’d get a free pass from my brother and grandmother. But Naomi and her parents were the kind to spot a problem and talk it to death while doing their damnedest to solve it.
When I’d been discharged from the hospital, it had been to a clean apartment, fresh laundry, and a refrigerator stocked with meals. The Witts had made it clear that they’d adopted not just Knox and Waylay but me as well.
After a lifetime with the comfort of Morgan family dysfunction, it was more than a little disconcerting.
Half the table erupted in laughter at something I’d missed. The suddenness of it startled me. Piper too apparently. She let out a worried yip. Unfazed, Kitty put her big head on Piper’s body and within seconds both were fast asleep again.
