Every Happy Family by Dede Crane Page A

expectation, her not knowing who and what is on the other end.
    â€œHi Mom. It’s me, Quinn.”
    â€œQuinn,” she says.
    â€œMom, sorry about this morning. I know I promised to help you move your office and I still will, but there’s been some weird mix-up and I’m actually, if you can believe it” – he huffs a laugh – “calling from jail.”
    A silence at the end of the line and he imagines her frowning. “Are you all right?” she says, and the concern in her voice makes his eyes prick.
    â€œI, I don’t know.” It’s his first honest thought all day and he feels the relief of it.
    â€œI called your cellphone.”
    â€œYeah, I think I left it in my coat and I –”
    â€œLauren’s roommate answered,” she says quietly.
    Lauren? Lauren. He starts to sit down though there is no seat, and the hand that’s hooked to the wall tugs him back up.
    He has the driver drop him at Lauren’s. His girlfriend’s place, he tells Todd.
    Oh god.
    â€œI told her that my son wasn’t capable of attacking anyone.” She chokes on a sob and Quinn, his stomach threatening to heave, hangs up the phone as the last piece of the puzzle floats up through the darkness.
    Rum slicks back his hair, vampire style. She answers the door, bleary-eyed, in the pink fuzzy robe he gave her for her birthday. Its lapels are soft in his fists and he kisses her forcefully, taking initiative. She starts to fend him off. Just like she wanted.

Siblings
    In the kitchen, Beau shakes salt over the bowl of popcorn.
    â€œWhat are you going to get me for Christmas?” Pema calls from the couch in the family room.
    â€œThat leather backpack you saw online.”
    â€œReally?”
    â€œNo. It was like two hundred dollars.”
    â€œYou and Quinn could go in together.”
    â€œYeah, right.”
    â€œWhat then?”
    â€œI don’t know. A gift certificate to the mall.”
    â€œThat’d be good.”
    His sister, who doesn’t do surprises, needs to be told what her gifts are ahead of time or she goes ballistic.
    â€œDid you put yeast on it?” asks Pema.
    â€œYes.”
    â€œTurn off the lights.”
    He turns off the kitchen light then comes and knocks back beside her on the couch. The DVD is paused on a fishy close-up of an eye.
    She runs a curious finger over a scab on the side of his knee, a gift from yesterday’s club game.
    â€œMetal cleat,” he says.
    â€œI want to pick it off.”
    â€œLeave it.” He jerks his knee away.
    â€œGet under,” she orders and throws the comforter over him. “This part coming up freaks me out.”
    â€œThen why are we watching it?”
    â€œI knew you’d like it. You like it, right?”
    â€œIt’s pretty twisted.” He loves it.
    â€œDiCaprio’s nuts. I don’t mean really nuts, you have to see for yourself who’s nuts. I’m saying too much. Forget everything I just said.” She takes a handful of popcorn and restarts the movie where it left off. “Lotsa butter,” she says happily.
    He takes a drink of the milk he mixed with vanilla protein powder. His goal is to gain ten between now and spring season, and he needs a minimum number of grams of protein each day to build muscle mass.
    Pema makes a face. “Milk doesn’t go with popcorn.”
    â€œShut up already.”
    She smacks his shoulder with the butt of her palm. He’s long since learned that she needs the last word and lets it go.
    In the dark, the flickering light of the TV paints them a frozen blue and their hands knock together in the popcorn bowl perched between them.
    â€œOh gawd, this part coming up.” Pema falls sideways against Beau and tugs up the front of his rugby jersey to hide behind.
    Her breast presses against his chest and some reptilian part of his brain stirs awake. He’d missed Pema so much when she was away last