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Marina hadn't expected to run into Arvin again so soon, but the whole town had kind of run rapid after hearing about the arrival of the new preacher. Marina hadn't even had a chance to hear the explanation for the need for a new one yet, but her momma did give her a pretty penny and left her in charge of finding a dish to bring for the next sermon. Which Marina had responded to with a scoff. She hardly went to church as it was, now she needs to bring food to be sharing?
It would make sense then that Arvin would open the door for his grandma then, the older woman nervous herself about what she would make and bring on a platter to be lined up on a table with a couple of dozen others.
Marina knew all she needed to about Arvin, just like he did about her. He and Lenora were only related by marriage, the matriarch adopting her a bit before she took in Arvin. It didn't matter, seeing as Arvin treated Lenora as if she were his sister anyways. Marina didn't understand why so many people thought it was weird. You didn't have to be blood to be family.
Whatever happened to Arvin's parents, Marina decided, had obviously shaped him into the young man he had become. She knew a thing or two about that, her own mother being a pain in the young girls' arse after her father up and left the three. It only got worse when her brother Leo went missing. She didn't like to point fingers, but if she did, it would land back on her mom each time.
"What you got planned after school, Arvin?" a man in the food shop asked Arvin, Marina heard as she stood by the window browsing at the pastries. She knew sweets wasn't what she came for, but she couldn't help herself. One day, she'd be able to bake the best cakes in the state, she swore.
"Cliff Baker says he can get me on the crew laying blacktop on the Greenbrier stretch off Route 60," Arvin replied in that heavy accent of his.
"Yeah," the man nodded.
"I'm probably just gonna do that. You?"
"Oh, my old man's holding me here," he said but didn't sound like he was complaining. If that were Marina he had asked, you would have been able to tell how annoyed she was. "Better than getting shipped off to Vietnam I expect."
"Yeah, I suppose so," Arvin agreed.
Meanwhile, Emma Russell was at the counter, contemplating her options. "Everyone says they like the way I do them, but I—"
"Well, just get him a big steak then," Arvin cut her off with a smile. They both chuckled.
"You know I can't afford anything like that," she insisted.
"Grandma, quit worrying about it," he said. "He's just a preacher. Anyway, everyone says ain't no one doesn't like you, you know that. Hey—" he spoke up, catching Marina a little off guard as she was standing closest to him. When she raised her gaze, she saw that he was looking directly at her. "What do you think of my grandma's chicken livers, hm?" he raised his eyebrows.
