because of me. You don’t even treat me the same way you treat Emma.”
That made him breathe out in a harsh gust, almost a laugh. “You’re nothing like Emma. I try my best to figure out what you need, but it’s hard. It’s never been obvious with you, but that doesn’t mean I don’t try. That’s all we can do, really—try to do the right thing.”
I was about to tell him that the right thing was to go with what worked and not put me in charge of a bunch of little kids when Emma came in. She shuffled across the kitchen and opened the refrigerator. I stopped talking and my dad kept his back to both of us.
Emma rummaged through the vegetable drawer for a while, then looked at us. “You didn’t have to be so rude to Janice,” she said, and at first, I thought she meant me.
My dad set down the knife and turned to face her. “You know we have rules about unexpected guests.”
We do have rules. We have a lot of rules. Roswell can come over, but only because my dad trusts him. A random acquaintance might be tipped off by our lack of canned food and metal kitchen utensils.
My dad raked his hands through his hair. “Both of you, please. This family is an extremely visible part of the community and we need to be conscientious about the image we’re projecting.”
Emma closed the refrigerator, hard. “What image? We weren’t embarrassing you. She was over so we could go through the seed experiment.”
“Well, this isn’t really the ideal place for a study session. Could you meet at the library, maybe?”
She put her hands on her hips. “Unfortunately, they have a policy about setting up germination trays at the library.”
“Well, what about that nice little bookstore downtown? Or a coffee shop?”
“Dad!”
They glared at each other, but neither of them said anything.
They were the loud ones in the family, always shouting or laughing. I thought how strange it was that they were also the ones who’d perfected the art of a wordless argument. They could communicate just by the various ways they breathed in or out.
My dad made a huffing noise and Emma rolled her eyes and looked away.
She was standing against the refrigerator, staring at the floor. Suddenly, she leapt forward and hugged him around the waist like she was apologizing. They stood with their arms around each other and I knew that there’d never been any question about whether he’d hug her back.
She pressed her face against his shirt and said, “You better put that knife back when you’re done. Mom hates it when the kitchen gets disarranged.”
