Little Known Facts: A Novel by Christine Sneed Read Free Book Online

seven or eight weeks, maybe?”
    Will stiffens next to her but says nothing.
    “Are you guys serious?” Anna asks.
    Her father laughs. “I don’t know. Maybe. That might be nice.”
    Anna smiles. “ ‘That might be nice.’ That’s all you’ll say?”
    Renn nods. “For now, yes.”
    “She’s twenty-four, Dad,” says Will. “How could it possibly be serious? For her, if not for you?”
    The waiter, a blond man in a white shirt and black tie, has materialized behind Anna, interrupting the injured silence that follows Will’s question. Renn forces a smile and orders champagne cocktails for the table. Danielle is certain that Renn believes himself to be in love with Elise, and she feels an aggressive stab of jealousy. Anna looks at her from across the table, commiserating, it seems, over Will’s confrontational behavior. Her solicitousness embarrasses Danielle.
    When the waiter leaves, Danielle excuses herself and goes to the bathroom, unable to sit and listen to how Renn will respond to Will’s questions about Elise, a woman younger than Renn’s own daughter.
    In the bathroom, her face is noticeably drawn and ashen; her thick red hair, pinned up high, droops dispiritedly. After a minute, Anna appears in the doorway, her face a more welcome sight than Danielle expects. Without a word, Anna walks straight to her and hugs her for the second time that night.
    “I can tell you’re not happy with my brother right now,” she says quietly. “He knows it too. That’s why he’s screwing things up.”
    Before Danielle can stop herself, she is crying against Anna’s shoulder. Anna puts a hand to the back of Danielle’s head, gently holding it there. “Billy doesn’t know what he wants. I worry about him more than I’d like to. Thank God he doesn’t use drugs. I don’t know how he avoided it when so many of the kids we grew up with did. Do.”
    Danielle pulls away and wipes her cheeks, embarrassed by her tears. “He drinks too much sometimes.”
    “I know, but not all the time, right?”
    She shakes her head. “No, not that often. At least I don’t think so. We’re not together every night.”
    “He needs to start seeing his therapist again. I’ve been trying to get him to go.”
    “I think he’s thinking about it.”
    “Work on him, Danielle. He’s more likely to listen to you than anyone else.”
    “Before we got here, he asked me to move in with him.”
    “He did?” says Anna, her voice rising in surprise. “That’s a big deal. He’s never lived with a girlfriend before. Are you going to?”
    “No, I don’t think so.” She is sure now that it is a bad idea. Aside from his chronic and unfocused anger, he is seriously infatuated with someone else, the kind of woman Danielle has no hope of ever being able to compete with.
    “No? Did you tell him that?”
    Danielle shakes her head. “Not yet.”
    “I’m sorry about the thing with Elise. Billy’s a very sweet guy, but he can still be such a child. I know he loves you, though.”
    “I don’t know.” It is a relief to talk to Anna, but she isn’t used to confiding in someone so closely related to a boyfriend. She wonders if Anna will repeat any part of their conversation to Will.
    “He does. Don’t give up on him yet.”
    She forces a smile, feeling tears surge behind her eyes again. “I won’t.” But as soon as she says these words, she knows they aren’t true.
    Renn watches her and Anna approach the table, his smile very wide. “I can’t get over how pretty you two are,” he says as they sit down. The champagne is on the table, and he motions for everyone to pick up their glasses. “A toast to your youth and beauty. Yours too, Billy. May you all use them wisely.”
    They touch glasses, Danielle glancing at Will, who manages to smile. Her eyes feel raw, as if she has been rubbing them too hard, but with Renn within whispering distance, she can almost convince herself that things are all right for as long as they stay close to