The conversation turned back to the recital, and Hue tuned it out. What he couldn’t tune out was his sister’s words about Amanda. Was she right? Should he have just enjoyed their alone time and let Amanda set the pace of the relationship? What was the difference between them being together alone or with the entire town? It was maybe nice to not be the topic of gossip in the beginning.
“Hue? Are you listening?” his mom was asking him.
“What? Yes,” he said.
Jill was grinning at him. “Mom thinks you should pursue Mandy Nordskov.”
“She is such a nice girl. Well, she’s of course, a woman.” His mom started helping his sister with lunch.
“Yes, she is nice,” Hue confirmed.
“I am so glad she came back,” she said to Hue and then turned to Jill. “She’s divorced. She married right out of college, and that lasted for years. But now she is single, and so is Hue.”
“Mom.” Hue tried to get his mom to stop.
“I wonder why the marriage broke up?” his sister asked, looking at Hue.
“He cheated,” his mom gossiped. “And after everything she had gone through, too.”
“What? I hadn’t heard anything.” Jill winked at him as she prodded his mom for information.
“She kept having miscarriages. And the one time she carried long enough for them to say it was a baby, it was stillborn. That was years ago. They even had a funeral for it. Only family, so I didn’t go.” The words made Hue hurt for his Mandy.
“Do you remember when?” Jill pressed.
“No, I can’t remember. But around this time of the year, I think. I remember thinking it would make the holidays hard for her and her family way back when it happened. Losing someone close to the holidays is always hard.”
The conversation he had overheard at Thanksgiving between her sisters became fully formed. Not all of her pregnancies had ended early—one had lasted long enough to give her hope. But that, too, had been snatched from her. During the holidays. Causing her depression during those same holidays.
“That is so sad, and during the holidays. I hope she never gets dumped around the holidays. That would be the worst.” Jill shot him a look.
“What are you talking about, Jill?” his mom asked in confusion.
“Nothing, Mom. So, how are you feeling?” his sister asked.
“Good, great,” his mom stated, and Hue knew she was lying because he was there. A man, after all.
He wandered back to the living room to see if the game was on, but they were watching some older dance recital when he got there. More dancing. He longed to be sitting on his couch, watching the game with Amanda beside him. Sleeping.
Was she sleeping on her parents’ couch right now? Was she talking to her sisters in the kitchen? When was he going to stop thinking about her all the time?
His phone rang in his pocket. Maybe it was her. Pulling it out, he saw it was a Nordskov, but not the one he wanted to talk to, to see.
“Math,” he said, answering the phone as he went to the bedroom he had been assigned for the two days he was at Jill’s house.
“Hue, glad I got you. I need a favor.” No small talk, no nothing.
Remembering the last time Math had asked him to do a favor was the night he finally got into Amanda’s bed. And it had been as amazing as he had imagined. He would willingly do that favor over and over again.
“Sure.”
“If Mandy needs to go somewhere, could you jump her car?” The temps were dipping below zero tonight, but not so cold that her car shouldn’t start.
“Why wouldn’t her car start?” he asked in confusion.
“I don’t know. She’s just suddenly nervous that it will not start,” Math explained.
“And why can’t you do it?” Hue knew it made more sense that he did it—they lived in the same building—but Math was her brother, and Hue was nothing to her anymore.