Chapter 4: The Card Table

I sat down next to Colin and did not touch my food.

At the far end of the patio my mother was cutting a wing for my father, who was not eating either.

Gail had served the long table first, and she was still carving the second platter.

"Everybody has a plate?" she called. "Good. A toast."

She stood and held up her wine glass, and Brooke raised her phone beside it.

"To my son Colin," Gail said. "He takes care of every one of us. Even the ones who can't take care of themselves."

She tipped her glass toward the card table without looking at it.

Everyone around me laughed softly and drank.

I looked at Colin.

I had asked him for one thing in the boathouse, less than an hour ago.

He stared at the tablecloth and turned his fork over.

"Colin," I said.

"Mom's just being Mom," he said under his breath. "Let it go."

That was his whole answer, and it was not an answer for my parents.

I put my napkin on the table and stood up.

I walked down the patio past the cooler, and I picked up my mother's plate and my father's.

"Mom, Dad, come with me."

"Jenna, honey, it's fine," my mother whispered. "We have the sunset."

"I know you do," I said. "Come on."

Colin's father sat at the head of the long table.

His chair was the best on the patio, wide and cushioned, facing straight down to the water.

Keep reading free with an account. Start Six Rooms at the Lake, But None for My Parents from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.