The Blessings of the Animals: A Novel - By Katrina Kittle Page 0,28
overlooking our farm, surrounded by my tribe of family and friends. “No one’s ever given me a worthy argument.”
“Gay people?” Davy said in mock horror. “Gay people? Eww!”
“We don’t know any gay people,” Big David deadpanned. “There aren’t any around here.”
When the laughter had died down, Bobby asked into the silence, “Why do gays want to get married?”
Something about his tone slapped my cheeks.
“I mean,” he went on, “nobody needs to be married. Not anymore. It’s obsolete.”
Olive smacked Bobby in the back of the head. “That’s a nice thing to say to your wife, you stupid son of a bitch.” But I’d pretended not to be offended. We were just talking politics, right? It hadn’t been a judgment on our own marriage. I’d been quick to rush in to defend, to show I wasn’t hurt, to make light of it.
Helen rubbed my shoulder, bringing me back to the crab rangoon they’d ordered that I couldn’t swallow. What the hell had I been thinking, letting these people drag me out in public? I felt peeled back, everything inside me visible for anyone to sift and poke through.
Gabriella chased her half-eaten rangoon around her plate with a fork and told us more. “Dad said he’s always hated that he doesn’t know what his calling is in life—his purpose.”
Whenever we’d had those conversations, I tried to be supportive and encouraging. I joked that “Your purpose is to love me.” That always made him smile. It often had led us to the bedroom.
“He’s a chef!” my brother said. “He owns a restaurant. What the hell is he talking about?”
“He really struggled with the restaurant.” I hated my knee-jerk reaction to defend him. “He worked so hard to get it, but then it didn’t make him happy the way he thought it would.”
Gabriella pushed that same bite of rangoon around her plate. My breath snagged in my chest for the confusion I saw in her eyes.
She scooted her chair back and stood. Without looking at us, she said, “He looked horrible. He looked like he’d been crying.”
Good. But I couldn’t mean it. The thought made me feel empty and bleak.
After Gabriella excused herself for the restroom, Davy said, “I never liked Bobby anyway,” his voice cold and dismissive.
“Yeah, me neither,” Big David said.
“Here, here,” Hank said, raising his glass and downing the last of his gin and tonic.
I couldn’t breathe.
Then Davy put down his glass and sighed. A real sigh, swollen with sorrow. “No, I really did like him.”
Helen rubbed the top of her wineglass and made it hum.
“Yeah,” Big David agreed. “I wish we didn’t.”
We lingered over dinner (I managed a couple spoonfuls of my seafood stew). I made Davy promise not to tell Nick yet at school and convinced them all not to spread the news until I told them. I still needed time to talk to Bobby, to figure out what I was going to do. As we stood to go, the late hour—how much time we’d filled—felt like an accomplishment.
We walked downstairs, Davy and Gabby talking about some AP History exam at school.
Gabriella said, “Oh, my God,” in such a chilling way I knew it wasn’t in reaction to the test. I was pulling on my coat and sensed everyone freeze. A beat behind, I snapped to attention.
As I followed his gaze, Big David said, “Of all the restaurants in Dayton . . .”
Bobby sat at a small table near the door.
He was with someone.
He lifted that someone’s hand to his mouth and kissed her knuckles.
He was smiling.
Chapter Nine
I’D NEVER BEFORE FELT THE BURNING IN MY BONES THAT I felt when I saw Bobby kissing another woman’s hand. Smiling two days after he’d left me. The burning threatened to eat through my skin into blisters.
He turned and saw us.
The someone turned and saw us.
It was Zayna Arnett.
I stared, my arms still stuck in my coat sleeves. Zayna Arnett? That ungrateful little bitch! It had been my idea for Zayna to waitress at Tanti Baci. Oh, I was an idiot. I’d never questioned why Zayna had shown up at Olive’s apartment Sunday morning. I just assumed she had a massage appointment. She knew then. Was she coming to tell Olive? Why? I flashed back to this morning at the clinic. She was sleeping with my husband and she’d come to work at the clinic? I imagined her telling Bobby, “She didn’t tell anybody. She just ran around like crazy, doing this weird breathing thing.” Had they laughed at me? My face blazed