Chapter 5: Sunday Dinner

My parents' dining room smelled like pot roast, the way it did every Sunday.

Colin came to the door with a sixty-dollar bouquet from the florist on State Street and a bottle of wine for Dad.

"Mrs. Prentice," he said. "I see where the girls get it."

Mom pressed the flowers to her chest.

"Hannah," she said, "he's lovely. Why didn't you bring someone sooner?"

"I did bring someone," I said. "Once. Delaney took him to prom."

Mom laughed, because she thought I was joking.

Dad shook Colin's hand and asked about football, and in ten minutes they had agreed about everything.

Colin was very good at this.

I sat next to him with my napkin in my lap and watched him do it.

Under the table his thumb kept moving on his phone.

"Where is your sister?" Mom asked at six-fifteen, looking at the clock.

"Late," I said. "She said she's bringing someone."

"Delaney's bringing someone?" Dad lifted his eyebrows. "That's new."

The front door opened at six-thirty.

My sister stood in the doorway in a tight black dress with her hair down, and every head at the table turned.

On her left wrist was my grandmother's silver bracelet.

Grandma had given it to me eleven months before she died, and she had said it was for me because I would keep it.

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