Chapter 12: Norfolk, Virginia - May 2014
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"Where do people think you go on weekends?" Teylor asked from his spot lounging on the couch, hands wrapped around a coffee cup.
Caro continued reading the newspaper at the kitchen table. The first time the Sunday paper arrived at his door Teylor assumed it was a promotional, immediately tossing the thing into the recycling, something that Caro had not appreciated when she subsequently fished the rather wrinkled paper out of the box. That was how Teylor learned about her Sunday morning ritual of spreading the paper across the table and reading from cover to cover while drinking her coffee. Although he still found the whole thing odd - the internet was far more up-to-date - he had grown used to the domesticity of the morning routine, Caro drinking her coffee and reading while he caught up with whatever game was on television. "What do you mean?"
"Your family, your friends," Teylor explained. "You're here at least once a month, and with Green gone you don't have an excuse to come to Norfolk, so what do people think you are doing?"
Caroline flipped another page of the Sunday newspaper, her brow furrowing, but whether her irritation was directed at him or something she was reading was unclear. Teylor watched while she pulled off the reading glasses that she hated wearing, rubbing at the bridge of her nose, before tossing him the comics.
"I tell them that I'm going out of town." Her tone was dismissive, her disinterest in continuing the conversation obvious.
"Nobody asks where you're going?" Teylor asked, pressing the point.
Caro shrugged. "Not really any of their business. My mom knows where I am in case there's an emergency."
That was news to Teylor. "Your mom knows about me?"
"Obviously." Caroline gave him a sideways glance, picking at one of her fingernails. "Why? Doesn't your mom know about me?"
Caught off guard, Teylor fumbled for an answer that was truthful, but wouldn't either piss off or terrify Caro. One that definitely wasn't if she knew about you she would be planning a wedding and a baptism. "Well, no. But my brother does."
Caro snorted, her amusement plain. "You mean the priest? That's certainly meaningful. Are you asking forgiveness for our sins of lust?"
"Mas and I don't entirely see eye to eye on that point." Teylor rolled his eyes, rising to refill his coffee cup. "Your mom knows and hasn't told Danny?"
"Of course not," Caro scoffed, pressing the reading glasses further up on her nose. "Mom doesn't get involved in our 'childhood spats'." Teylor didn't need Caro to make the air quotes with her fingers to realize that this was a quote from the Green matriarch. "Her parenting strategy is to let us figure it out ourselves. She claims it's to teach us how to work with other people, but I think she just got sick of being in the middle."
That certainly explained a lot about the Green siblings' rather dysfunctional relationship. "Huh."
"So what do you say if someone asks you to make plans?" Caro asked, returning to the prior topic.
"I tell them my girlfriend's coming into town." Teylor poured the last of his coffee into his mug, meeting her eyes, waiting for the backpedaling. The reminder that they weren't ready for that. But instead of the instant withdrawal that Teylor expected, Caro simply appeared confused.
"Your girlfriend?" she asked hesitantly.
"Well, I'm not sleeping with anybody else," Teylor mumbled, pulling out the chair across the table from her. "Title of default, I guess."
Caro reached past him to steal his coffee cup, replacing it with her mostly empty one. "I'm not sleeping with anybody else either."
Teylor accepted the peace offering, draining her mug and standing to make another pot of coffee. "So that good, huh?"
Caro rolled her eyes, turning back towards her newspaper. "Don't get too cocky. I'm still perfectly capable of taking care of myself."