“He did it for me,” she said, making it absolutely clear.
Chase looked over at his mother, who stared back at him.
“Well,” he began, while Jody crossed her fingers. “I don’t see why he shouldn’t come to supper, provided he can stand to be in the same room with the rest of us.”
She could hardly believe what she was hearing.
“He’s probably the only man in Kansas who’s crazy for the exact same reasons you are. It’s either a match made in heaven or in hell, but it sounds like a match to me,” Chase said. Annabelle stared a little open-mouthed at him. “Chicken,” he said next, suggesting the menu for their first supper together. “If the boy doesn’t like your fried chicken, Mom, then he’s not fit for this family. And if he does like it, then next time maybe I’ll grill some steaks if I’m in town.”
Chase walked out of the room, taking Jody’s gratitude with him.
But then he walked back in and said quietly, “If he doesn’t want me around, I will stay away.”
Jody thought it was the most thoughtful thing he’d ever said to her.
“We’ll all get used to each other,” she suggested.
“I expect he hates us.”
“He’s not like that, Uncle Chase.”
He squinted at her, as if gauging her capacity to decide such things.
“I’ll be the judge of that,” he said as he left the room again, but then he came back again, this time to say something else to his mother. “We need a new lawyer in the family, you know.”
It was nearly a joke. A grim and unfunny one, but almost a joke anyway.
Annabelle was looking as if she might cry, too, and she said to Jody, “I suppose you’ll end up moving to Topeka.”
“I’m just suggesting supper, Grandma, we’re not getting married!”
“Yet,” she said as she picked up her paring knife again.
“And I have a whole school year to get through, remember?”
“There are schools in Topeka,” Chase said, unhelpfully.
“Which is not that far away,” Jody said quickly.
She got up and went to her grandmother, wrapping her in a hug. The two women stood together like that until Chase left the room and the water for the potatoes began to boil.
About the Author
NANCY PICKARD is a four-time Edgar Award nominee, most recently for her Ballantine debut, The Virgin of Small Plains. Hailed by mainstream critics, the novel was also honored by the State Library of Kansas to be the “Kansas Reads” book for 2009. Pickard is the winner of the Anthony Award, Macavity Award, Agatha Award, Barry Award, and Shamus Award. Pickard has been a national board member of the Mystery Writers of America and president of Sisters in Crime. She lives in Merriam, Kansas.
