'Isn't that interesting,' she said. 'Three brothers raising a child.'
'Actually they are my mother's brothers,' I said. 'My father and them were friends and when my mother died, they moved in to help out.'
'Do you remember your mother?'
'No, ma'am.'
'Three men and a boy and no women,' she said.
She drank the rest of the wine in her glass.
'Oh, there's women,' I said. 'My father and my uncles all have a bunch of girlfriends, but none of them has got married.'
Mrs. Haden gave herself some more wine.
'A house full of boys,' she said.
'I guess so.'
'Probably living on peanut butter sandwiches and cold beans from the can,' Mrs. Haden said.
'We take turns cooking,' I said.
'You too?'
'Yes, ma'am.'
'Do you suppose they'd like to come here with you next time for a home-cooked meal?' Mrs. Haden said.
'I guess so,' I said.
'Well, that's what I'm going to do,' she said. 'I'm going to invite them for a home-cooked meal.'
I looked at Jeannie. She smiled blankly. I nodded.
'That would be nice,' I said.
Chapter 32
Susan and I left the bench and walked up to the little bridge over the swan boat lake. We stood leaning our forearms on the railing and watched the boats and the people and the ducks, green and quiet in the middle of the city.
'It sounds like Jeannie's mother might have wanted to promote you as her daughter's boyfriend,' Susan said.
'I think that was one thing she wanted,' I said.
'And the other?'
'I was a way to three eligible bachelors,' I said.
'Two for one,' Susan said. 'A boyfriend for her daughter and one for her. She seems in retrospect a woman who needed a man, who thought all women needed a man.'
'She stayed a long time with one of the worst men in the world,' I said.
'To some, a bad man is better than no man,' Susan said. 'I stayed a long time with the wrong husband.'
'I think you've changed since then,' I said.
'Yes, I think so,' Susan said. 'Did your father and your uncles go for dinner?'
