Part 22 (2/2)
”Yes, please,” Holly answers.
”Regular or maple?”
”Maple? No thanks, regular sugar is good for me,” she says.
”Where'd you get the clothes?” I ask Ben. ”You said you didn't need any, so...”
”I didn't. But then Terri knocked on my door and gave them to me, so I thought, 'what the heck?'”
Holly and I pa.s.s a glance to one another, before I say to Ben, ”I'm sorry. I would've gotten them for you.”
”No, Rose,” he says, touching my elbow and pulling out a seat for me to sit, ”I really didn't need them...”
”Wait a minute.” Holly points a finger at Ben. ”You don't find it odd that Terri came into your bedroom last night?”
”Well.” Ben nods his head from side to side. ”Not really. She just...well, she brought in the clothes and sat on the bed, but I told her I was beat. She left right away.”
s.h.i.+t. She sat on the bed?
”Uh, Rose?” Holly's eyes are raised. ”How do you feel about that?”
”Holly,” I whisper, inconspicuously shaking my head.
”It was nothing, Rose, really,” Ben adds.
”It's okay,” I say, pretending to shrug it off as if I don't care that my sister went into Ben's room late last night.
”Sounds like she wanted it to be more than nothing,” Holly says sarcastically.
Ben's hand is suddenly on my knee. The left one. That's when it occurs to me that I forgot to sit on his left side.
”I don't like her, Rose,” he whispers.
I nod. ”Okay.”
His fingers move along my thigh, and in no way is he being fresh, but I'm finding it uncomfortable because it's my left leg.
What must he be thinking while he's touching it?
Is he curious?
Is he wondering what it looks like?
Is his stomach churning from the grossness of it?
”These biscuits are awesome, Mrs. Duncan.”
”Thank you, Holly.”
Holly gets up to pour more coffee.
”Rose,” Ben says quietly, his hand still grazing my leg. ”When you called last night, you asked about Johnny. We didn't get too far with the conversation.”
”Oh...I'm sorry.”
”No, no. I'm just wondering...would you like me to take you to visit him?”
”Really? He takes visitors?”
”Of course he does. I think he'd love to see you.”
”Really?”
”I have practice tomorrow morning, but I can pick you up at two.”
”Oh...um...okay.”
”Okay what?” Holly asks when she sits back down.
”We're just talking about a mutual friend.”
”You two have mutual friends...who aren't me?”
”Ha ha.”
”Someone we met in Orange,” Ben says.
After breakfast, we all shower and change, then help my mom in the kitchen with preparing dinner, while my sisters help my father with the animals.
”This is some spread, Mrs. Duncan,” Ben tells my mom while he peels potatoes.
”Doesn't your mother cook a big meal on Thanksgiving?” my mother asks.
”Oh, sure, it just doesn't look like this. We usually have a turkey, but it's her lasagna that usually takes center stage on the table,” he jokes.
”Lasagna? On Thanksgiving?”
”Mom, Ben's Italian.”
”Ah. That explains it, then. What about you, Holly? What's your Thanksgiving table look like?”
Holly laughs. ”Bare. We eat at the country club every Thanksgiving.”
<script>