“Just because,” I said, though there was more I wanted to say. I longed to tell her how I really felt, but I was too scared. I didn’t know how she felt about me, and I didn’t want to ruin anything by telling her too soon.
“Thank you,” she said and kissed me back lightly.
We sat down just as everyone came over to the table.
“Is this great-grandma Ethel’s pie?” Ally asked.
“Of course. I wouldn’t want any other one,” Anna said.
She cut a slice of pie for each of us, and Millie put a scoop of ice cream on each one. I went in to take a bite, not knowing what to expect since I had never tried a pie like this, and I was blown away by the flavors.
The crust was a perfect flaky pie crust, and the filling was tangy and sweet. The mixture of the two fruit fillings was surprisingly good. I decided it was my new favorite.
“Wow. This is great, Anna,” I said.
“Thank great-grandma Ethel,” she said with a laugh.
“My grandmother had been making pies one day in her kitchen. She made an apple pie and a cherry pie and had one more pie crust. She only had half the amount of each filling and on a whim decided just to mix them so she wouldn’t have to waste any ingredients. And thus, her famous apple-cherry pie was born,” Millie explained.
“I’m glad she almost ran out of ingredients,” Margie said. Half of her pie was on her face and we all started laughing. “Will you teach me how to bake?” Margie asked Anna after taking another bite of her pie.
“Of course, sweetheart. Maybe your daddy can drop you off here sometime, and we can have a girl’s day. We can bake and watch movies.”
“Yeah!” she said.
The conversation moved on to all the crazy things that great-grandma Ethel did in her later years. I found it so interesting how close their family was. Mine wasn’t very close. I had my mom and dad, but other than that, I didn’t really talk to my family much.
After we finished our desserts, Anna’s parents and Ally decided it was time to leave.
“It was so nice to finally meet you, Justin,” Millie said to me. “It’s too bad Anna hid you from us for so long.”
I looked at Anna. “Yeah, I guess she wanted to see how serious we were first. It was nice to meet you, Millie.”
She gave me a hug.
“Nice to meet you, Justin,” Tom said to me.
“Likewise,” I said and grabbed his hand for a handshake.
“See ya around, Justin,” Ally said.
“Bye, Ally,” I said.
Anna hugged her sister and her parents and then turned to me when they were gone.
“Thanks for doing this,” Anna said.
“You’re welcome. They seem really nice,” I said.
Anna smiled at me. “Do you guys want to watch a movie?”
“Yeah! I don’t want to go home yet!” Margie yelled.
Anna and I laughed.
“What movie would you guys like to watch?” I shrugged, and she got down with Margie. “Do you want to pick out the movie?”
Margie nodded her head with excitement and Anna led her over to her stack of DVDs.