material that refused to cling, so it covered up a lot of what was beneath.
"You look lovely," she said, eyes warm as they moved over me. "And you brought a date!" she said, beaming over at Huck for a moment.
You know, until my step-father moved in beside her, all stiff on his braced legs, pushing a lot of his weight onto his ornate dark wood cane.
I swear my mother shrank as he moved beside her, making me hate the man more than I already did. "Jones, we appreciate you attempting to look like a normal human being," he said, nodding his approval at my brother. "Harmon," he greeted me, making no comment on my attempts to look presentable for them, to not embarrass them.
"Evan," I said, watching as his jaw tightened enough for a muscle to tick there. When they'd married I'd been forced to call him my father.
It wasn't until after The Incident that I reverted to calling him by his first name. It pissed him off. And that brought me a small bit of joy.
We shared tense, formal conversation as a "family" for fifteen minutes before my step-father led my mother away.
She glanced over her shoulder at me, mouthing that she loved me.
I mimed back to call me, getting a nod even though we both knew she probably wouldn't, almost never did, unless she was drunk and sad and needed someone to cry to.
"I need a drink," Jones said, jaw tight, reminding me a bit of his father, even though I knew that was about where the similarities started and stopped.
With that, he was gone, and Huck was standing there, his face a mask I couldn't see under.
"So, let me get this right," he said as he led me over toward a private corner of the garden under a towering maple. "Your step-father keeps your mom away from you. And your mother is trapped somehow."
"Essentially, yeah. I mean, she could leave. Of course she could. And I remind her of that every chance I can. I will try to again before we leave. But she just... she can't. I don't understand it, but she can't."
"And you come here and put up with your shitty family just to get the chance to tell her she can leave if she wants to."
"Pretty much."
"You're a good daughter, babe," he told me, making it feel like someone had squeezed my heart in my chest. "Hey," he said, eyes going wide, concerned, making me realize that the sting in my eyes was tears, and that they were threatening to spill over. "No, don't do that," he demanded, looking lost.
And the look of sheer terror on his face when a single tear managed to spill over and slide down my cheek actually made a hysterical laugh bubble up and burst out.
"You're acting fucking crazy right now," he declared as the laughs kept coming, as the tears kept streaming at the same time.
"Your... face... oh... God..." I gasped, leaning my forehead into his shoulder, trying to pull it together. "Okay. Whoosh," I said, straightening, reaching up to wipe the wetness off my cheeks. "Wow. I needed that. You looked ready to bolt," I told him, smiling. "Didn't you ever have to deal with your sister crying?"
"You'd have to meet Gus to understand, but she's not really much of a crier. A shit-starter, a pain in the ass, the reason I had trouble sleeping my entire life until she settled down and moved away, sure, but not a crier. And if she did cry, I'm guessing that was what she had Ayanna for."
"Well, your sister and I have that in common. The not crying thing. My therapist says it is unhealthy. She'll be happy I had a manic cry today," I said. "Come on, want to get some very expensive, very unsatisfying food to hold us over until we can get out of here and eat something greasy and disgusting?"
"Sounds like a plan," he agreed.
In the end, Huck had been a perfect date. And his effortless lying about his profession left me speechless and the various guests tried to figure out where they might have known him from, why the name didn't sound familiar. After all, he was in a designer suit, and on the arm of one of the grandchildren—step or not—of one of the wealthiest families on the East coast.
"Okay, I have to ask," I said as we got our fifth round of cucumber sandwiches. "Where did you get the suit?"