The Same Place (The Lamb and the Lion #2) - Gregory Ashe Page 0,112
mentioned the deck he was rebuilding. Robert was a whiz at decks, it turned out. Amos offered an opinion on tariffs with China, and that got Robert going for almost a full five minutes. International trade? Just ask Robert. The pecking order emerged pretty clearly. Amos interrupted Corom when Corom tried to talk about electric cars. Corom interrupted Seth when Seth talked about an episode of Ancient Aliens. Jem watched it all from where he was swimming under the Xanax and tried to figure out why people who were born into families didn’t kill themselves just to avoid this shit.
“Are you ok?” Tean asked quietly. He still had Ricky on his shoulder, and the little boy had fallen asleep.
Jem smiled and nodded. “Your dad is explaining how Chinese pork tariffs are ruining the world.”
“Oh gosh.”
The backyard was better kept up than the front, although the lawn was mostly weeds. A single, scrubby pine offered some shade, and window boxes with vincas gave splashes of color. The kids Tean had evicted from the house were running wild out here, and Scipio was in the middle of all of it, racing alongside the children when they ran, occasionally pausing, his whole body locking up with intense focus when one of the boys offered to throw him a ball.
On the other side of the group of adults, one of the in-laws was whispering into Sara’s ear. Lou? Hugh? He was long-faced, extremely white, with straw-colored hair that lay flat over his forehead. Sara shook her head; red blotched her complexion. Then the man grabbed her arm and whispered again. She sighed, shook him off, and came around the group. Robert and Timothy were bellowing about a construction job that apparently both men had been fired from. Nobody acknowledged Sara, but everyone tracked her with guilty glances as she moved around the outside of the group until she was standing next to Tean. She gave him a quick kiss on the cheek and said, “You don’t have to hold Ricky. I’ll take him.”
Tean’s smile was sad as he passed the sleeping boy to his sister. Ricky stirred as he got comfortable against his mom.
“Sara,” Hugh/Lou stage-whispered from across the group.
Sara gave an apologetic shake of her head and moved back to stand next to her husband.
“What was that?” Jem asked.
“Nothing.”
“Bullshit.”
“Excuse me,” a mousy in-law said. She’d told Jem her name, but it was completely gone, so now he was thinking of her as Tanya from An American Tail. “We really don’t use that kind of language. Especially around the children.”
“Right,” Jem said, his face heating. “Sorry.”
“It’s ok,” Tean said. “I’m sure they hear worse at school and on TV.”
“Well,” said another in-law, this one with a platinum bouffant like she had just stepped out of a 70s beauty pageant, “Corom and I don’t even have a TV anymore. We really feel like it’s brought a better spirit into our home.”
“We only use VidAngel,” offered another in-law, this one with a kind of slack-eyed expression like she’d been kicked in the head by some barnyard animal. “I read the full description of the bad parts, and then we decide as a family what’s appropriate and what isn’t. Seth and I really believe in teaching our children correct principles so they can decide for themselves.”
“What the fu—” Jem caught himself. “What’s VidAngel?”
“Don’t get me started,” Tean said.
“If you read the description of the bad parts,” Jem said, “isn’t that the same as watching them?”
Slack-eye stared at him. “Um, no.” She didn’t add obviously, but it hung in the air anyway.
The group’s rhythm had been broken, and now they were looking at each other, restless. Two of the little girls ran up—Jem thought they were Izzy and Emma—and they each grabbed one of Tean’s hands.
“Uncle Tean, come play with us.”
“Come make Scipio do a trick.”
“I’m not sure—” Tean said with a glance at Hugh/Lou.
“Don’t bother Uncle Tean,” Hugh/Lou said. “If you want to play with him, you can do it here.”
“But Scipio is in the front yard!”
“Then bring the dang dog back here. You don’t need to go anywhere with Uncle Tean.”
Jem kept himself from looking at Tean’s face, but it was hard; his own cheeks were hot, and he found himself staring at his sneakers.
“So,” said a heavyset brother-in-law with sideburns to the middle of his cheeks, “you guys are boyfriends.” He looked incredibly pleased with himself and mildly surprised at his own daring. Probably thrilled he hadn’t been struck down by a lightning bolt.