Chapter 9: Family Dinner

Gannon read it over my shoulder.

"He's never invited me to dinner in my life," he said.

"He's inviting a camera."

"Are you going?"

"The show's sending them. If I don't go, it's a story."

"If you do go, it's a story."

He pushed the cooler door open and the warm bar air rolled in.

He looked back at me once, at my mouth, and then he went out to collect his crew.

I changed the keg alone. It took me three tries.

On Sunday I wore a green dress Marva said made me look like a lawsuit.

Hal's driveway had a white van in it with the show's logo on the side.

A promo crew of three was setting lights in the dining room.

A camerawoman, a sound guy, and a producer in a black fleece vest with an earpiece and very white sneakers.

"Tilda! The breakout star!" the producer said. "We want natural. Just be a family."

"We've been one for five weeks," I said.

"Perfect. Say that at dinner."

Hal came through the French doors with his arms out.

"There she is," he said, and hugged me for the camera.

My mother kissed the air near my cheek.

She didn't mention being barred.

She smiled at me and she hoped we'd be friends.

Gannon arrived last, in a dark blue shirt, carrying a bottle of wine he'd obviously bought at a gas station.

He gave it to his father without a word.

We sat. The camera rolled.

Hal and my mother were magnificent.

They held hands on top of the tablecloth. He fed her a bite of salmon off his fork. She laughed at everything he said.

They told the story of how they met in his waiting room.

"I looked up from an X-ray," Hal said, "and there was the most beautiful woman in the Valley."

My mother put her hand on her chest.

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