The Bookish Life of Nina Hill - Abbi Waxman Page 0,51
I know you’re not supposed to end a sentence with a preposition, but I think it’s acceptable between friends.”
“Or relatives?”
“Or relatives. I will even allow split infinitives.”
He laughed. “To actually permit the laws of grammar to literally be suspended?”
She winced. “Ouch, that’s enough. It hurts more than I thought it would.”
Peter’s tone changed. “I’m sorry about Lydia. After you left the meeting, Sarky basically told her she can’t force you to take a paternity test, and that as far as the law was concerned, she didn’t have a leg to stand on. She didn’t have anyone on her side except her mom and Grandma Alice, so in the end she stormed out.” He sighed. “Your existence was a bit of a shock, but I thought Archie was the one who was going to get upset.”
“He seemed somewhat irritated when we met, but a cheese sandwich made it all better.”
“It usually does. Anyway, Archie is pretty distracted right now, what with the baby.”
“He has a baby?”
“Not yet. You didn’t notice how pregnant Becca was? I guess she didn’t stand up. Their little boy is two, and the new one is due any minute. I don’t think he’s thinking all that much about his father.”
But Peter was wrong.
When Nina came out of work at the end of the day, Archie Reynolds was standing in the street waiting for her. Even after only meeting him twice, it was a pleasure to see his face. Her brother. Her older brother. Better late than never, she supposed.
He half smiled at her. “Hi, sis.”
She went to shake his hand and then realized that was dumb and hugged him. This was a benefit of family she’d never thought of: more hugging. Once her nanny Louise had moved away, there wasn’t really anyone around she could just, you know, hug on to. Her friends hugged her when they said hello or good-bye, but it wasn’t like she could scooch up next to Polly in the store and lean on her for twenty minutes. She stepped away from Archie and realized she was related to someone she wouldn’t have picked out of a lineup two weeks earlier. Presumably, she would get used to it. Most commonplace things started out strange: Electric light! Running water! Watching ALL the episodes one after the other!
In turn, Archie looked at her closely, seeing elements of his father’s face in hers, wondering if it would ever not seem strange that he’d actually been in this bookstore many times without noticing those same similarities. He must have seen Nina before; there had been a stretch in his son’s early life when they’d come to Knight’s once or twice a month, after the weekend farmers’ market. He may have talked to her, certainly smiled at her, purchased books from her, without ever even thinking about her for more than a moment or two. How many people do we encounter every day who might be related to us, or simply people who might have become the best friends we ever had, or our second spouses, or the agents of our destruction, if we only spent more than seconds with them? He realized he was staring.
“It’s weird, right?” Nina had been staring at him, too. “This whole thing is really a bit upsetting.”
Archie nodded. “It is. I wanted to talk to you. Are you rushing off somewhere?”
She had been on her way to yoga class, but any excuse not to feel inflexible and clumsy was welcome. And to be fair, she was only going so when she got to book club later on she could say she’d been to yoga and feel OK eating as many cookies or cupcakes as she wanted. She shook her head. “No, not at all. Do you want to get coffee?” She pointed across the street. “We could go back to our usual spot.”
“Excellent.” Archie turned to cross the street. He pulled open the door of the café and said, “By the way, our whole family should be bowing our heads in shame for letting Lydia bully you like that yesterday.” He held the door for her. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s OK,” said Nina. “Is Lydia always like that?”
“Aggressive and ridiculous?” He laughed. “Yeah, pretty much. She’s not mellowing with age, that’s for sure.”
They sat down at the same table.
Vanessa wasn’t working that day, but Nina waved at Andi, another waitress she liked a lot. Andi grinned at her and brought over a menu.
“You don’t need this, obviously, as you probably know it better than