Page 40 of True Blue

“It was perfect,” Dawn tosses over her shoulder. “You just believe butter is a food group.”

“If it weren’t bread and butter, I’d be a size 2,” Ellie tells me, reaching out to take my hand and pulling me to sit next to her.

Men’s laughter sounds from the living room, Teddy’s among them, and it mixes with the women’s voices from the kitchen.

“Should I offer to help?” I ask Ellie, pointing to the kitchen.

Teddy and I brought a couple of gluten-free sides that I can have, but I still feel awkward not helping out in the kitchen. Even putting together a charcuterie board or something.

Ellie raises an eyebrow. “You want to be in there where she has easy access to knives?”

I deflate.

“Why does she not like me, Ellie?” I ask. “Did I do something wrong?”

“No, Indie girl,” Ellie sighs, brushing my hair back in a soothing motion. “You’re perfect for Teddy. That’s the point.”

“I thought mothers would be happy that their sons found someone who makes them happy.”

“Normal mothers, yes,” Ellie nods, her mouth twisting. “Dawn was… well, everyone always said she was my mini when she was growing up. Her sisters idolized her. I raised my girls to be independent thinkers, but… I might have pushed them too hard.”

I frown, unable to picture the Stepford-like woman in the kitchen as the free spirit that is Ellie.

And it makes me feel sad.

“When Dawn turned seventeen, she started to rebel,” Ellie’s face is a mix of heartbreak and disappointment. “I wanted to catch her smoking pot and reading Atwood, not throwing away her jeans and reading Hildebrand. I thought when she went away to college, and was exposed to more theory, more diverse people, things would change.”

“They didn’t,” I state, gesturing vaguely around.

“No, she started dating Teddy’s father. Came home and said she was dropping out and marrying Judd Williams.”

“She never finished college?”

Ellie huffs. “Judd was inheriting his father’s electrician business. He would make money, and she would stay home to take care of the kids.”

“Oh,” I frown, glancing at the family photo hanging on the wall. Teddy is a young teenager in it, smiling at the camera with his mother’s hand on his shoulder. Stephanie and Danielle are smiling tightly in the picture, sitting in front of Judd, and all three look like he’d rather be anywhere but there.

“It was horrible to hear,” Ellie’s voice is angrier than I’ve ever heard. “When we were newlyweds, I couldn’t even open a bank account without Ted’s permission. Thank Christ my husband was who he was. I marched in Chicago for women’s rights, and I felt like my daughter was spitting in my face⁠—”

Ellie’s breathing becomes a little labored, and when I fuss over her, she waves me off.

“I’m fine, Indie girl. I’m just tired.”

“Do you want to go up and rest?”

“No, I need to tell you this,” Ellie says, sounding desperate in a way that unnerves me. “This is my own personal failure. I pushed too hard, and all it did was make her pull away and fall right into Judd’s arms. Her wedding felt more like Dawn Ambrose’s funeral⁠—”

“Dawn, bring us a couple of beers!” Teddy’s father’s voice barks from the living room.

“Yes, dear!” Dawn dutifully replies, and I see her hurry to the living room, arm laden with bottles of ice-cold beer. “Can I get you anything else?”

“No—get out of the way, you’re blocking the game!”

“Of course,” Dawn says serenely, and I watch as she returns to the kitchen.

Before she disappears around the corner, she makes brief eye contact with me. I wince at the smile she wears, wide enough to crack her face from the force behind her keeping it there.

It’s a normal interaction, based on what I’ve seen over the past year, and it still makes me feel sad. And slightly annoyed that Teddy doesn’t speak up in defense of her.