been holding in her hands. "You didn't have to bring anything."
"Mace said it's potluck, and with the holidays coming up, I thought yams might be appropriate."
My mom's face lights up. "Yams? Did you make them from scratch?"
"Well, yeah. It's??
My mom breaks out into laughter with her head thrown back. Lola smiles politely through the whole outburst.
"That's great. It's time we ate some homemade yams again." She flashes me a smile and walks back into the kitchen with the dish. I place my hand on the small of Lola's back to encourage her to walk into the room.
"What was that about?" She steps back like she's ready to run out the door.
I lean down and speak in her ear. "My mom screwed up some yams a while ago, and we haven't had them since."
"I didn't realize it was an issue. Why didn't you tell me?"
"I forgot until she started laughing. Now I remember the burnt marshmallows and the lumpy orange potatoes. It was bad." I stick out my tongue and she grimaces. "It's okay. It'll be fine. Let's go."
I give her a stronger push on the lower back, and she shuffles forward. Everyone is either watching TV or talking in the kitchen. They haven't sat down to dinner yet. We always start late. As we walk deeper into the room, Cutter and Cass look up from a movie on TV and give us a nod. My dad walks up and shares the Twist handshake, drawing out the hug part to say hello again and welcome me back to Sunday dinner. It's been at least a month since I showed up to one.
"How're you guys doing?" He's mostly looking at me, but it's nice he included Lola.
"We're good. Went climbing at Hopper's Ledge today."
He nods. "Clears the mind."
"Ah, yeah." We cleared a lot of things up there, but I'm not telling my dad, and it looks like Remy didn't rat me out either. "Remy here?"
"In the kitchen."
Lola's back stiffens, and I rub it to reassure her. Remy is the most decent of my brothers. She doesn't have to fear him. "I'm gonna introduce her to everyone else."
My dad nods and heads to the kitchen.
I introduce her to Blaine first. "This is Loralei."
His head twists and he does a double take. "The Loralei? Like glitter dildos Loralei?"
"You know about that?'
"Of course, it's legend. Nice to meet you, Loralei." He gives her a fist bump which she stiffly returns. I don't know what else Blaine knows about her, and I'm not sticking around to tell him.
I introduce her to Marshawn and Sequoia. If they know about the dildos, they are nice enough not to mention it. I have to keep rubbing her shoulders to get them down. "It's just my family. Don't stress."
She nods as Remy comes out of the kitchen carrying her dish. He stops when he sees her before finishing up and putting it on the table. He lifts the lid and sees the perfectly toasted marshmallows on top. "What the hell is that?"
"It's yams," I answer.
"I know what it is. Who brought it?"
Lola raises her hand and smiles. "Me."
Remy's gaze narrows in on her and he points. "You brought yams to our family dinner?" His tone implies she brought monkey brains.
"Shut up, Remy. It's just fucking sweet potatoes." I'm not allowing him to give her any more grief.
"We don't eat that shit at our house." The lid makes a cracking sound when he slams it back on the yams.
He is pissing me off, attacking her like this. "There's no manifesto on the door saying yams are forever banned. We just haven't had them. Tonight we do."
My mom comes out of the kitchen with another dish. "What's going on?"
"Remy's giving Lola a hard time for bringing yams."
He scowls at me for ratting him out to my mom, but I know she's on my side on this one. She's thrilled about the yams and she likes Loralei. "Not everyone likes them, but some people do. I'm sure they're better than the fiasco my yams were. Take a seat."
Sutton comes out and places some food on the table before taking a seat next to Remy. "Are those yams?"
I groan and take Lola's hand. "They are fucking yams! It's Thanksgiving in a week. Everyone chill."
Sutton and Remy share a look like they both think yams are a felony worthy of burning Lola at the stake.
The dishes start to move around as we all fork stuff onto our plates. Maisey plops down next to me and