Came Back Haunted (Experiment in Terror #10) - Karina Halle Page 0,112
cookies,” my father says. “They’re not half-bad.”
“Ada?” Dex says in surprise. “She didn’t poison them, did she? I mean, she knew I would be here, and she knows how I feel about cookies.”
“Dex, you say that about every pastry,” I point out.
“What can I say, I’m a man who knows what he likes.” He grins at me. “The sweet stuff.”
Don’t get weird, I warn him in my head, before he can add some sort smart ass comment about the filling or something.
We file into the kitchen where my father pours us red wine and gestures to the cookies cooling on the rack. He then checks the salmon in the oven, our traditional Christmas Eve meal. It smells divine.
I’m about to ask him where Ada is when she appears in the doorway.
I have to do a double-take.
She looks surprisingly good. I only say that because my father seems worse and she was looking awfully tired and skinny last time. She’s still skinny, and she still seems a bit tired, but she’s gone lighter on the makeup and she’s cut her hair to just above shoulder length, sleek, straight, and shiny, the color more wheat than bleach.
“Well, if it isn’t Santa’s little helper,” she says, and then I realize she’s talking to Fat Rabbit, who is desperately trying to climb up her. She picks him up, using him as a shield against hugs, and walks into the kitchen.
“When did you cut your hair?” I ask, feeling both awkward and left out of the loop. “And you had it colored. It looks really good.”
She gives me a half-smile. “Thanks. DeeBee from down the street, she took me out. She said she wanted a girls’ day or whatever. She took me to this super old lady salon and I was so convinced that I was going to walk out of there like Blanche from the Golden Girls, but actually the stylist did a really good job.” She bats at the ends of her hair. “Still shorter than I would have liked, but oh well.”
She looks from me to Dex and back to me again. “You guys look…tired.”
“We all look tired,” my father says, closing the oven door and putting the oven mitts away. “I’m sure we’re all tired.” He exchanges a quick glance with Dex.
I want to start talking now, let it all out, but I know it’s best to wait until dinner. It’s just that things are awkward between all of us now, and I hate that, and even though Ada has some wine and hangs out with us in the kitchen, we’re making small talk. Like, I don’t do small talk with my sister, ever.
Eventually though, the wine warms us over, the dog calms down, and dinner is served. We all sit around the table, a playlist of Christmas classics playing softly in the background, and after my father says grace, we start to eat.
I decide to let everyone get a few good bites in (the salmon, as always, is really good) before I start my spiel.
I look at Dex and he gives me a nod of support. I take in a large gulp of the cabernet sauvignon and then take my knife, tapping it against the glass, like I’m making a speech at a wedding.
Ada and my father, who are sitting across from us, look to me in surprise.
“I have something I want to talk about,” I say, and from the way they both tense up, I think they know what’s coming.
“Is this like the Festivus airing of grievances?” Ada asks warily.
I smirk at her Seinfeld reference, because she’s actually kind of right.
“It might seem that way, but just stay with me,” I tell her. I take in a deep breath. “Ada, I know things are really hard for you right now. I know that you love Jay and I know Jacob sent him away.”
Ada’s eyes go round, mainly because my father probably doesn’t know about any of this. And from the look on my father’s face, I know that’s true.
“Jacob sent Jay away?” he asks. “I thought he just moved?”
“Dad,” I tell him. “I’m going to say some things that are going to seem insane, but you have to just accept it as truth, okay? It’s going to go against everything you were taught at church, it’s going to go against every logical wall in your brain, but for your sake and our sake, you have to accept it.”