They Left Me Out of the Family Pack Chat, So I Left Them Out of My Future novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: A Pie and a Number

Imogen walks into the lake house dinner uninvited, learns the in-laws were told she paid for the tent, and watches her father's heart story fall apart in front of a retired cardiologist. On the dock he says Roz will be humiliated if she walks out.

I walked into the lake house at six o'clock sharp with an apple pie in both hands.

Nobody had locked the door.

The dining room was full, and every face turned.

My father sat at the head of the table in his good flannel.

My mother was halfway out of her chair with a serving spoon.

Ewan, beside her, put his phone face down.

Roz sat across from them with a man in a pale blue sweater, and an older couple sat on his other side.

I knew who they were from the photos on Roz's phone.

Her fiancé. His mother. His father.

"Imogen," my mother said.

Her voice went up at the end.

"Hi, Mom. I got off early."

"Imo!" My father stood so fast his chair scraped.

He crossed the room in four big steps and pulled me into a hug that smelled like sawdust and aftershave.

"Look at this," he told the table. "I told you she'd make it. Didn't I say?"

He had not said.

I'd read what he said.

"I brought dessert," I said, and set the pie in front of Roz.

She looked up at me with her eyes wide and warm.

"You didn't have to do that! You should have texted, I'd have saved you a seat."

She had saved me one.

It was at the far end, by the kitchen door, next to the folding chair for the coats.

I sat in it.

My mother passed me a plate, and I took it.

His mother smiled at me across the table with her whole face.

"Imogen, we have been dying to meet you. Roz says you're the sweetest person alive."

"She exaggerates."

"And the tent!" She pressed a hand to her chest. "I told my husband, who does that? Paying for a tent that size for your cousin's wedding. Roz told us you insisted."

The table went very quiet.

I put my fork down.

"Did she?" I said.

Roz laughed, a little too bright.

"Imo hates when I talk about it. She says it's nothing."

I looked at my father.

He had gone pink above the beard.

"It's a wonderful gift," his father said. "Honestly, we assumed it was the family's."

"It is the family's," my dad said, and lifted his glass. "To family. To the girl who makes all of it possible."

He looked right at me when he said it.

Everyone drank.

I held my water glass and didn't lift it.

"Dad, how's the heart?" I said.

He coughed.

"Can't complain, kiddo."

"Mom said you had a follow-up Friday. I'd like to thank the doctor who did the procedure."

"It was just a stent."

His mother smiled at him kindly.

"Oh, those are day procedures," his father said, nodding. "I'm a retired cardiologist. In and out by lunch. Hardly a copay at all."

I turned my head slowly.

"Mine was thirty-eight thousand dollars," my father said.

He heard himself say it.

Everyone heard him.

"Of course," his father said politely. "A hospital in Cleveland? Was the stent drug-eluting?"

"It was complicated," my mother said quickly.

"I'm sure it was," I said.

Ewan wasn't looking at the pie or at Dad.

He was looking at me, and he looked sick.

I folded my napkin and set it on the table.

"I'm not sending the second four thousand, Mom."

She went white.

"Sweetheart, we can talk about that at home."

"I brought the pie so I could say it here. The thirty-eight thousand was a loan. I would like it back by the first of next month, all of it."

Roz put her hand on my arm.

"Immy. Let's go out on the porch."

"I'm fine."

"Please."

Her eyes were wet and sorry, and her fiancé was watching her with so much love that I almost felt bad.

"Excuse me," my father said, pushing back his chair. "A word, Imo. On the dock."

I followed him out.

The lake was the color of slate, and the wind came straight across the boards.

He shut the door behind us, and the warm hearty voice dropped out of him.

"What the hell was that?"

"A question about your heart."

"You embarrassed your cousin in front of her in-laws."

"You told her in-laws I was buying the tent."

"Because you are." He stepped close. "That tent has your name on the order. Pull out now and you make Roz look like a liar in front of a hundred and forty people."

"I never signed anything."

"Your mother's signature. Your name."

I stared at him.

The wind pulled at my braid.

"Then Roz should have asked," I said.

He didn't say anything to that.

Behind him, through the window, I could see Roz at the table.

She wasn't crying anymore.

She was watching us through the glass, perfectly calm, with her phone in her hand.

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