Grandma discussed the art of grocery store coupons with Mom, while Justin and I took turns kicking and dodging each other’s feet. My stomach fluttered every time I caught his eye.
“I warned you,” I said, motioning to his barely touched stew.
He put a finger to his mouth and shook his head.
“That’s a nice car you have out there, Justin,” Grandma said. “Are you going to pay your parents back for it?”
He swallowed a chunk of potato. “It was a birthday gift.”
“How about some salt?” Mom asked, frowning at the stew.
“You’re past forty now,” Grandma said. “Menopause is right around the corner. Sodium is the last thing you need.”
Justin used that moment to wipe his mouth, but his eyes crinkled at the corners.
“Your candor is always appreciated, Mother.” She rolled her eyes and grabbed the salt from the cabinet.
Grandma nodded at Justin. “Who pays for your insurance?”
“I do.”
“How old are you—sixteen?”
“Seventeen.”
“Your rates must be sky high.” She then launched into a lecture about the auto industry and insurance rates. Grandma loved to educate people about money, even though she’d always been a homemaker.
Justin smiled and nodded like he was interested the entire time. It was pretty impressive. Usually I left the room after about two minutes.
“Nobody cares,” I said finally. Anything to stop her from squawking for a few seconds.
Grandma jabbed her finger at me. “You’ll care when you start paying for it.”
“She has a point,” Justin said to me, knocking his foot into mine.
“Let’s see. No license. Not exactly a pressing matter at the moment.”
“It will be soon,” he said.
“How’s she doing?” Mom asked, salting her stew for the fourth time.
“Really well. We drove around downtown yesterday. Maybe we’ll try the freeway this weekend.”
I nearly choked on a bite of bread. “Do you have a death wish?”
Mom chuckled. “Just don’t drive like Grandma and you’ll be fine.”
Justin crinkled his brow at me, and I laughed. “Grandma knows two speeds,” I said. “Zero and eighty.”
He raised his eyebrows at her, puckering his lips. “Nice.”
Grandma shook her head. “I’ve never gotten a ticket.” She snatched her bowl from the table and rinsed it in the sink.
Then Justin offered to do the dishes for some ungodly reason.
“Why are you being so nice to my grandma?” I asked, walking him to his car twenty minutes later. The cool wind painted my arms with goose bumps.
“I had about two bites of her stew—or whatever that was. I felt bad.”
“She would’ve made me do the dishes anyway. It’s not like you were saving her the trouble.”
He leaned against the driver’s door of his car. “Then you’re welcome.”
I glanced at the dim lights of Naomi’s house. Her father’s SUV wasn’t in the driveway. “I hope Naomi’s dad didn’t let her down this time.”
“Does he do that a lot?”
I told him about meeting her dad and what Naomi said afterward. “She really scared me last weekend.”
Justin shoved his hands in his pockets and nodded. “You’re a good friend. I wish I’d had someone like you back home.”
“I don’t know what to do.”
He gave me a soft smile. “Just keep being you.”
“That doesn’t help much.”
“Do you want me to talk to her?”
“What would you say?”
He shrugged. “I think I can relate to where her head is at right now. And it doesn’t seem like she has anyone to talk to about it. Look at the lyrics she wrote.”
“She has me.”
Justin shifted his weight. “Yeah, but you’re so…”
I folded my arms across my stomach. “Clueless?”
