Six Rooms at the Lake, But None for My Parents novel · Chapter 3 of 24

Chapter 3: Colin Treating

In the boathouse Jenna shows Colin the May itinerary; he apologizes smoothly, she keeps his November layoff secret and sets her terms for her parents, and he agrees too easily; back at the house, Gail has put her parents at a folding card table beyond the cooler.

I found Colin in the boathouse, stacking the life jackets Brooke's girls had dumped on the floor.

It was twenty past seven and the light on the water was going orange.

I held out the folded paper.

"Read the last line."

He read it and his thumb went to the corner of his nose.

"Mom wrote that," he said. "I never agreed to it."

"You called Nate on Tuesday and asked him to fit eighteen people into a house I paid for."

"That was Mom's idea too."

"It's May ninth on this page, Colin. Gail had a plan for my parents eight weeks before I knew there was a plan."

He put the life jackets down on the bench and turned to me with his open, sorry face.

It was the face that had gotten him out of every argument we'd ever had.

"Babe, you know how she is," he said. "She wanted one big family Fourth. She pushed and I couldn't say no. It's one weekend."

"My mother asked me twice in the car if her dress was too bright."

"I know."

"She bought it for this trip. She hung it up in a closet with Brooke's kids' jackets piled on the bench beside it."

"I know. I'm sorry. I really am."

He did sound sorry, and that was the trouble with him.

He always sounded sorry at the moment, and it never cost him anything the next day.

I leaned on the bench and looked at the dark water.

"There's something else," he said, quieter. "Please don't say anything to Mom about November. Not this weekend."

He had been laid off in November, and he had begged me not to tell his mother until he found a new job.

I had agreed. I had thought it was a small thing to give a man who looked that scared.

"I'm not going to say anything about November," I said. "But I'm not doing the rest of this weekend your mother's way either."

"Okay. Tell me what you want."

"My parents get the east room. They stay in it. Nobody moves a suitcase."

"Done."

"They get the first plate at every meal."

"Done."

"They get the best chair at the table, whichever it is, and nobody sits in it before them."

"Of course. Whatever you want, babe."

"And when your mother or Brooke says one word about any of it, you answer them. Not me."

He paused for just a moment.

"Whatever you want," he said again. "I promise."

He said it so easily that I should have heard it for what it was.

He stepped over and kissed my forehead, and he did not say a word about my parents.

He did not say he was sorry to them, or that he would tell them so.

I told myself he was tired, and that this was the best I would get out of him tonight.

Then I walked up the lawn toward the house, and I stopped halfway.

The long patio table had been set with a white cloth and a row of glasses, and Gail was fussing over a platter of grilled chicken.

Brooke's husband was lighting candles in jars.

Brooke was arranging the dishes for a photo, and the two girls were already in their chairs.

Colin's father sat at the head of the long table with a plate in front of him, as quiet as always.

At the far end of the patio, past the cooler and the trash can, someone had set up a folding card table.

It had two mismatched chairs and two paper plates.

My father stood beside it with his hands in his pockets, and my mother was already sitting down, her hands folded over her new blue dress.

She smiled at me and nodded that it was fine.

Gail did not look up from her platter.

"There you are, Jenna," she called. "Come sit by Colin. I put your folks where they can enjoy the sunset."

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