Caught Between My Boyfriend and His Cousin novel · Chapter 3 of 24

Chapter 3: Sunday Dinner

At Odette's table Brandon lies about a break, Geoffrey moves Miranda to the seat beside him, and Odette orders Geoffrey to drive her to the lake house on the 14th.

I went to dinner because I wasn't going to let Brandon be the one to tell his grandmother anything.

Odette Rittenhouse opened her front door in a cardigan and a string of pearls and pulled me into a hug.

"There she is," she said. "Miranda, you're too thin. Come eat."

She was seventy-nine and five feet tall, and she had been kind to me at the first dinner when nobody else at that table was.

That made this harder.

"Mrs. Rittenhouse, can I talk to you before we sit down?"

"After the pot roast," she said. "Nobody makes good decisions hungry."

Brandon came up behind me and slid his hand into my back pocket.

I moved it out and stepped away.

"Don't," I said.

"She's playing hard to get, Grandma," Brandon said, and Odette laughed and patted his cheek.

The dining room was long, with a table big enough for twelve and only four chairs set.

Geoffrey was already there, standing at the window with a glass of water.

He wore a dark sweater now instead of the white shirt, and he looked like he had been told to behave.

"Professor," I said.

"Ms. Linden."

"Oh, stop it, both of you," Odette said. "You're at my table. It's Geoffrey and Miranda."

"Brandon," I said, "can I see the garage? I want some air."

I wanted to get him alone and say it plainly, away from his grandmother.

Brandon grinned, because he thought I'd come around.

The garage was cold and smelled like old oil.

In the middle of it, under a grey canvas tarp, sat the shape of a car.

Brandon pulled the cover back with a flourish.

It was a 1967 Mustang, deep green, with chrome that still shone.

"Grandpa's," he said. "Two years of him being gone and nobody's driven it."

He ran his palm along the hood the way you pet something you own.

"Soon," he said.

"Soon what?"

"Soon it's mine."

He smiled at me, and the smile was a little too wide.

"Brandon, I need you to listen. We are not on a break. We're finished. I want you to tell people."

"Mira."

"I want you to say it, to anyone, out loud."

He leaned on the fender and crossed his arms.

"Say it in front of Grandma, then," he said. "Go on. See what it does to her heart."

He knew exactly what he was doing.

Odette had a heart condition, and she had told me so herself, with a laugh, over the first pie I ever ate in her house.

"You're a coward," I said.

"I'm a guy who loves you."

I walked back inside without answering him.

At dinner, Odette sat at the head of the table and passed the potatoes.

"So," she said. "Tell me how my two favorite young people are."

Brandon put his arm over the back of my chair.

"We're great, Grandma. We hit a little rough patch, that's all. Mira and I are on a break."

"We're not," I said.

The table went quiet.

"We aren't on a break," I said, and my voice came out smaller than I wanted it to.

Brandon smiled at me and shook his head, slow and sad.

"She's upset," he said. "She'll feel differently."

Odette set down the gravy boat and looked from him to me.

"Miranda, dear?"

I opened my mouth, and her hand drifted to her chest without her seeming to notice.

I closed it again.

Geoffrey put his glass down.

"Miranda's sitting by me," he said.

He stood and pulled out the chair at his right.

"There's a draft in that one," he said, and he looked at Brandon's arm, and Brandon took it down.

I moved over.

The dinner went on, and nobody said anything about a break again.

Odette told a story about Geoffrey at nine years old, building a bank out of a shoebox and charging the neighbors interest, and I laughed more than I meant to.

Under the table, something touched my knee.

It was Geoffrey's knee, warm through his trousers, resting against mine.

I didn't move.

He didn't move.

I ate a forkful of pot roast I couldn't taste.

Across the table, he passed me the salt without looking at me.

His fingers did not touch mine.

His knee stayed exactly where it was.

I thought, that's not what the rule was.

I thought, he hasn't broken it either, not exactly.

"Now, then," Odette said, folding her napkin. "The family dinner at the lake house is the fourteenth, and I won't hear that anyone's busy."

"We'll be there, Grandma," Brandon said. "Me and Mira."

"I know you will," she said. "Geoffrey, you'll drive Miranda up. You have the bigger car, and I want her out of the back of Brandon's truck."

I saw Brandon's smile go very still.

"Of course, Grandma," Geoffrey said. "I'll bring her myself."

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