Window of Opportunity

Chapter 6

Previously:  They each looked at one another not sure how to interpret what was going to come. Alice being Alice though could not contain herself as Shane and Kit picked up plates and started spooning food onto them. “Oh Porter, please don’t tell me you and Jodi are getting married.”

You could have heard a pin drop at Alice’s question. Shane and Kit both stopped scooping up food and just stood there slacked jaw. I would have started laughing had I not been so taken aback. I was taken aback not only in how wrong Alice was but in how shocked those around me were. Had I been so blind to their disdain of Jodi? In all the thinking that I had done about how to begin my talk to them, this surely was not one of the scenarios that I had played out in my head but hell, it was as good a time as any to put that notion out of their minds. In any other time, I would have played with them about it and dragged it out but they certainly did not deserve that nor did I want to leave any room for misinterpretations.

“Ok,” I began, “that is certainly not what I was going to say. Please get some food and I promise you, I’ll tell you everything and answer any questions that you may have. Alice, try to contain yourself for just a couple more minutes. I know you can. Maybe if you get some food, your mouth will take a rest.” I was not angry and didn’t want her to think that so I walked over and pulled her into a hug. She rested her head on my shoulder and whispered in my ear that she would be my worst nightmare if I was just joking and I really was marrying Jodi. She pulled away yammering a hundred miles a minute making sure that she got a bit of everything on her plate. When all of us had enough food to at least start round one of eating, we sat at the table and they all looked at me. No one made any attempt to start eating and I could not pass it up any longer and had to break the tension.