Stars Over Alaska (Wild River #4) - Jennifer Snow Page 0,40
than protecting friends. It was one of the first lessons taught at the academy. Don’t get too close. Don’t jeopardize the client’s safety.
Twenty minutes later, they all gathered in the dining room to eat. The family members took their usual places around the table and Selena sat between Kaia and Levi.
“The food looks amazing, Eddie,” her mother said. She picked up the bowl of seasoned cauliflower risotto and scooped some onto her plate, then passed the bowl to Leslie, but Leslie’s attention was elsewhere.
Something was different about the dining room.
Her father’s oil painting of the Chugach Mountains was no longer hanging above the old antique dish cabinet along the far wall. Now there was a thick mahogany wood–framed mirror instead.
“Hey, sis, wake up,” Katherine said on the other side of her, nudging her elbow.
Leslie took the bowl from her mother and passed it along without taking any. Suddenly, she wasn’t hungry. “Um...is that new?” she asked her mother, nodding toward the mirror.
Across from her, she caught her grandma’s worried expression and Eddie’s Oh no, here we go look. She ignored them.
“Well, not new,” her mother’s tone was chilly. “It’s been hanging there for about a year and a half.” She cut into her slice of turkey and didn’t meet Leslie’s gaze.
“Mirrors definitely make a room look bigger,” Selena said.
Leslie continued to stare at her mother. “What happened to Dad’s oil painting?” The painting had hung on that wall since they’d framed it for him as a Father’s Day present when she was eight. For twenty years, it had been there and all of a sudden, her mother decided to replace it with a mirror?
“I stored it in his garage,” she said, daring Leslie to argue with the decision. Her steely gaze was like bait to Leslie.
“Why?”
“Leslie, just eat,” Katherine muttered next to her.
“The food really is delicious,” Montana said, obviously hoping to turn the conversation around.
Enthusiastic nods and appreciative noises sounded around the table, but Leslie and her mother were locked in a battle of wills.
“I thought it was time for a change and I liked the mirror,” her mother said.
“But the painting was special. It had meant something to Dad. It meant something to all of us...or I guess maybe not.” She stopped. Everyone was quiet now and staring at their plates. She’d done it again. Made things uncomfortable for everyone.
Levi was the only one still looking at her and his sympathetic yet uncomfortable expression made her desperate for an escape. Why was he even here? She’d made her position on where they stood quite clear the night before... Why was she even there? She never should have let Selena bully her into this.
She stood and her chair scraped noisily against the hardwood floor as she pushed it in. “I’m going to get some air,” she said, leaving the dining room.
She headed toward the front door, but her mother’s voice in the hallway behind her made her stop.
“Where are you going? We are trying to have a nice family meal and we have guests. We’d like you to come back and join us,” she said tightly.
Leslie turned around. “Who are you kidding, Mom? This is just awkward.”
Her mother placed her hands on her hips. “Because you’re making it awkward by storming off like a child over a silly redecorating choice.”
“It’s not just a... Never mind. It’s your house. Do what you want.”
Her mother walked toward her. “That’s right. It is my house. One you’ve barely been inside in years, so forgive me if I didn’t think it was necessary to consult you about the decision to hang the mirror.”
“Don’t you think maybe Katherine and Eddie might be upset about you taking down Dad’s painting too?”
Her mother threw up her hands. “They don’t live here either.”
“Fine.” She turned toward the door again. There would be no getting through to her mom. She wouldn’t understand. Fighting was useless. Trying to get her mother to see her side in anything, ever, had always been futile.
“Leslie, please come back and eat.”
“I don’t think it’s a good idea.” All she’d be thinking about, stewing over, was the missing painting. How could her mother take it down? Didn’t it mean anything to her? Couldn’t she consider their feelings? Her feelings? She and her father had been close. There was so little of him left. Over the years, she was slowly forgetting the sound of his laugh or the way he looked. Her mother had to know how much this would upset her.